The New Orleans Saints showed up in impressive fashion on Monday night, giving the Philadelphia Eagles fits in route to a 28-13 victory. The night consisted of a balanced and efficient attack from the Saints offense, along with a “bend, but don’t break” defensive performance. The Eagles had a few big plays, most of which they could not cash in on. With the win, New Orleans improved to 3-5 on the season, while Philadelphia dropped to the same record of 3-5.
Thanks to the big Monday night victory, the Saints are shockingly only 1.5 games back of the final wild card spot. Obviously it’s still very early to start getting particular with the way the standings currently sit, but it’s also way too early to give up on this team’s chances to find their way to the post season. With both teams sitting at 3-5 and hanging on to playoff hopes, the win for the Saints was huge to pick up a potential tiebreaker based on head to head record. It’s especially important to pick one of those up, since they lost the head to head tiebreaker with Green Bay, the current NFC #5 seed.
On to the game. New Orleans opened up the scoring with a huge play, which came from the defensive side of the ball. That’s right; the Saints had a big play touchdown on DEFENSE! Bryce Brown took a carry 40 yards to get Philadelphia down to the New Orleans 5 yard line. Two plays later, Patrick Robinson took a deflected Michael Vick pass 99 yard down the right sideline, tying the longest interception return for a touchdown in Saints history.
New Orleans scored two more touchdowns in the first half, extending their lead to 21-3 at the break. Chris Ivory electrified the Saints crowd with good run after good run. He accounted for one of the Saints first half touchdowns, rumbling 22 yards around the right corner for the score. Ivory finished with 10 carries for 48 yards and the touchdown in his season debut.
In the second half, New Orleans was marching down the field once more, looking to seemingly put the nail in the coffin early on. Drew Brees was stripped of the ball in the pocket, leading to a recovery by Philadelphia and preventing an early bed time for the Eagles. Two plays later, big play DeSean Jackson did what he does best, burning defenders for a 77 yard touchdown catch to get the Eagles back within 11. On the ensuing kickoff, Travaris Cadet fumbled on his return, giving the Eagles great field position to shorten the lead to one score. The Saints defense held strong, only giving up a 37 Alex Henery field goal, which would be the Eagles final points of the night.
The Saints got their last score of the night late in the third quarter, as Drew Brees hit Jimmy Graham for an easy 6 yard touchdown. The Saints then led 28-13, wrapping up their third victory of the season.
The “bend, but don’t break” term was the inadvertent defensive style that helped the Saints win a Superbowl XLIV. Their play all night largely replicated their 2009 style. The Eagles got within the Saints 10 yard line three times on Monday night, but only came away with 6 points. It’s obvious that they’ll give up lots of yardage game in and game out, but the key to a potential New Orleans playoff run will be to mirror their Week 9 performance, at worst.
Game Notes:
-Drew Brees extended his streak of consecutive games with a passing touchdown to 51 games, with a late second quarter touchdown pass to Marques Colston.
-After giving up 101 yards rushing to LeSean McCoy in the first half, the Saints defense only allowed him to gain 18 yards in the second half.
-Saints running backs had 24 carries for 141 yards.
-The New Orleans defense recorded 7 sacks on Michael Vick. Brodrick Bunkley and Martez Wilson each recorded one sack, while Will Smith had two of his own. Cam Jordan had his best game of his young career, sacking Vick three times and recording a total of five quarter back hits.
-The Saints win extended their league leading longest active streak of wins on Monday Night Football to eight.
-The Saints also extended another winning streak, pushing their streak of consecutive November wins to twelve.
Stats
Drew Brees – 21-27 / 239 yards / 2 TDs
Chris Ivory – 10 carries / 48 yards / 1 TD
Mark Ingram – 7 carries / 44 yards
Pierre Thomas – 6 carries / 44 yards
Jimmy Graham – 8 receptions / 72 yards / 1 TD
Marques Colston – 4 receptions / 46 yards / 1 TD
Week 10
New Orleans will host Atlanta (8-0) in the Superdome on Sunday, November 11, at 12:00 Noon.
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