Seminar preaches injury safety
September 17, 2013
Hill’s big day sparks LSU rushing attack
September 17, 2013
The Saints were sloppy in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But two-straight fortuitous field goal kicks in the final 66 seconds of the game allowed the Black and Gold to ride out of Tampa with a second-straight victory.
Down 14-13 and with the Buccaneers in possession of the football with just more than a minute to play, the Saints’ defense watched Tampa Bay kicker Rian Lindell shank a 47-yard try that would have forced the Saints to score a game-winning touchdown on their final possession of the game.
But now just needing a field goal to win, Drew Brees took advantage of prime field position and overcame a subpar offensive outing with a heroic final drive. The quarterback pushed the Saints’ down the field 44 yards in just four plays to set up kicker Garrett Hartley with a game-winning 27-yard try with just six seconds on the clock.
Hartley calmly pushed the kick through the middle of the uprights to secure a thrilling 16-14 road win, which makes New Orleans 2-0 on the season with both victories coming against NFC South opponents.
“We were fortunate to get another win,” Saints’ coach Sean Payton said. “I was proud of the fact that we didn’t quit. But there are a lot of things that we’ve got to clean up.”
“It’s definitely a confidence builder,” rookie safety Kenny Vaccaro added. “This one today was a team win. It is a great momentum builder for next week.”
The win is nice, but the Saints’ players know they didn’t play their best game against Tampa Bay.
Start with the turnovers – the Achilles heel that almost cost New Orleans the game against their divisional rival.
The Saints lost the turnover battle in Sunday’s game, giving up the ball three times to Tampa Bay.
Brees was epic in the final drive of the game to secure the win, but he was subpar by his lofty standards for the first 59 minutes of the game.
The New Orleans All-Pro was responsible for all three of the Saints’ giveaways in the win, tossing two interceptions and also losing a fumble.
One of Brees’ interceptions was doubly costly, as Tampa Bay defender Mason Foster jumped a route, hauled in the quarterback’s pass and took the football 85 yards for a Buccaneers’ touchdown.
When successfully making plays down the field, tight end Jimmy Graham was Brees’ main man on Sunday, catching 10 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown.
Graham said he believes the team is struggling at times because of the offense’s search for its identity.
“We’re slowly figuring it out,” Graham said. “We’re slowly finding the identity of this team and we have a lot of work to do. We know we have a lot of work to do. We know that we can get so much better and we’re going to take this film and look at it and assess how we can get better.”
When the Saints did avoid turnovers and advanced the football, they struggled in the red zone.
New Orleans’ opening drive of the game ended with just a field goal after a red zone sack ended the team’s hopes at a touchdown.
The Saints’ next trip to the red zone didn’t produce any points at all as the Saints ran the football three-straight times from the 1-yard-line and couldn’t find the end zone, which turned the ball over on downs to Tampa Bay before halftime.
In the first drive of the second half, New Orleans also pushed into the red zone again, but had to settle for another field goal try.
“I take blame for that,” Payton said following the game when asked about his team’s red zone woes. “Look, I’ll be a lot better in that situation (in the future) – I need to be.”
But even without finding perfection, New Orleans found the win column for the second-straight week thanks to its suddenly stingy defense.
Just 12 months removed from fielding the worst statistical defense in NFL history, New Orleans’ defenders are suddenly stout. Sunday’s win marked the second-straight game that the Saints’ opponents were held to fewer than 20 points.
That solid production already ties the 2012-13 season, which saw the Black and Gold limit opponents to fewer than 20 points just twice in 16 games.
Knowing that Brees and the offense will likely get things running smoothly, the defensive output has New Orleans’ players anxious for the future.
“Both sides are going to feed off of each other,” Vaccaro said. “If the offense struggles, the defense steps up. If the defense struggles, the offense steps up. That’s how it works around here. This was a great team win.”
The Saints will return to action on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
The first kick will be at noon on FOX.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees fires a pass during a preseason game with the Kansas City Chiefs. Brees and the Saints endured the turnover bug in Sunday’s win against Tampa Bay. But winning in spite of mistakes is something that the team is excited about as the season progresses forward.
