Saints beat Browns 23-22 in overtime for their first home win of the season
Cleveland won the overtime coin toss and deferred, and New Orleans scored on the first possession of the extra period and then stopped a two-point conversion with a minute left. Tyler Shough threw for 265 yards and Audric Estime ran for 72 yards and a touchdown.
NEW ORLEANS: The New Orleans Saints beat the Cleveland Browns 23-22 in overtime on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome, their first home victory of the 2026 season and, according to the team, their first overtime win since a 26-23 victory at Chicago on Nov. 1, 2020.
Regulation ended at 16-16. Cleveland won the overtime coin toss and deferred, so New Orleans took the ball first, and Tyler Shough drove the Saints 74 yards in 11 plays. On third and 4, Shough found tight end Juwan Johnson for a 15-yard touchdown with 4:17 left in the extra period, and Charlie Smyth added the extra point for a 23-16 lead.
Cleveland answered. Shedeur Sanders, starting in place of the injured Deshaun Watson, moved the Browns down the field and hit Harold Fannin Jr. for a 39-yard touchdown with a minute left in overtime. The Browns went for two points and the win instead of kicking to tie, and Sanders, under pressure, threw incomplete. The Saints had the stop, and the game.
The finish capped a fourth quarter that turned three times in the last six minutes. Smyth, who made field goals of 30, 27 and 48 yards, put New Orleans ahead 9-6 with his longest kick of the day. On the next play from scrimmage, Sanders threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to KC Concepcion that gave Cleveland a 13-9 lead with 5:21 left in regulation.
Shough responded with a 55-yard drive in the closing minutes, finished by a 2-yard touchdown run from Audric Estime that put the Saints up 16-13. Cleveland had enough time to answer with a field goal of its own, a 51-yard kick by Andre Szmyt in the closing seconds, his third make of the game, to send it to overtime tied.
Shough, Estime and a run game that finally moved
Shough completed 21 of 35 passes for 265 yards and one touchdown without an interception, for a 93.2 passer rating. He also ran 10 times for 51 yards, and he did it while being sacked five times. Chris Olave led the receivers with seven catches for 98 yards, and the team notes that Olave now has 347 career receptions, passing Lance Moore for seventh on the club list.
Estime, claimed off waivers from Cleveland on Nov. 3, carried 15 times for 72 yards and the late go-ahead touchdown against his former team. Alvin Kamara had six carries for 32 yards and three catches for 17 yards, and 28 of his rushing yards came on the overtime drive. As a team, New Orleans ran 32 times for 160 yards and outgained the Browns 396 to 355.
The win came despite the Saints losing the turnover battle. Rookie receiver Jordyn Tyson, making his debut, caught his first pass in the second quarter and had the ball knocked loose at the Cleveland 1-yard line, one of two New Orleans fumbles lost on the day. Cleveland did not turn the ball over. Tyson finished with four catches for 30 yards. Left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. was back after an ankle sprain had sidelined him for five games, and center Erik McCoy left the game late in the fourth quarter with a biceps injury.
Five sacks and a goal-line stand on the other side
The Saints defense held Cleveland to 95 rushing yards on 34 carries and turned the Browns away at the goal line in the second quarter, and the team allowed only 3 points on two Cleveland trips into the red zone. New Orleans sacked Sanders five times. Carl Granderson had two of them. The team notes that his run of four straight games with multiple sacks is a first for a Saint, and that nobody in the league had managed the same streak since Robert Mathis in 2013. Chase Young, Kaden Elliss and Khristian Boyd had the other sacks, and Elliss shared the team lead with Pete Werner at 11 tackles.
Sanders still produced the bigger passing line in defeat: 19 of 31 for 297 yards and two touchdowns, plus 28 rushing yards on 10 carries. Barion Brown gave the Saints their longest play of the season, a 52-yard catch, and finished with 198 all-purpose yards once his punt and kickoff returns were counted. Cleveland was penalized 10 times for 58 yards, against four penalties for 25 yards for New Orleans.
The result, in the Saints first game after their bye week, moved New Orleans to 3-5 overall and 1-3 at home. Cleveland fell to 5-4. It was the Saints second overtime game of the season; they lost the opener to Detroit 31-30 in overtime. New Orleans stays home next week and hosts the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Nov. 15, with kickoff at noon Central on FOX.
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