Saints build a 24-point lead and barely keep it in a 34-27 win over the Giants
Down 10-0 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 18, New Orleans ran off 34 unanswered points behind Tyler Shough and a season-best running game, then needed one last stop near its own goal line to close out a 34-27 win and end a three-game losing streak.
NEW ORLEANS: The Saints finally won a game they spent the fourth quarter trying to give back. New Orleans beat the New York Giants 34-27 on Sunday, Oct. 18, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, recovering from an early 10-0 hole, leading by 24 points in the fourth quarter, and surviving a final Giants drive that reached the Saints 14-yard line.
The win ended a three-game losing streak and moved the Saints to 2-4, according to the team recap. The Giants fell to 3-2-1, according to the Giants recap of the game.
Ten points in the last two minutes of the half
New York scored first on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Tyrone Tracy Jr. late in the first quarter, and a 34-yard field goal from Dominic Zvada made it 10-0 in the second quarter, according to the Reuters game report. The Saints had managed one missed field goal, from 55 yards, before their afternoon turned on two plays in the final two minutes of the half.
Daniel Carlson put New Orleans on the board with a 58-yard field goal, and on the kickoff that followed, Isaiah Stalbird knocked the ball loose from returner Charlie Jones and rookie tight end Oscar Delp recovered for the Saints at the New York 28, according to the Reuters report and the Saints recap. Given a short field, Tyler Shough finished the drive on fourth-and-goal with a 2-yard scoring pass to Bryce Lance in the last second of the half, according to the Giants recap. The Saints recap notes it was the first NFL touchdown for Lance, and it sent the teams to halftime tied 10-10.
Six straight scores, 34 unanswered points
New Orleans scored every time it had the ball across six straight possessions in the run that decided the game, three of them touchdown drives in a row spanning halftime. The first touchdown drive after the break took less than three minutes of the third quarter: Shough found Alvin Kamara on a short throw, and Kamara turned it into a 31-yard touchdown and a 17-10 lead, according to the Giants recap.
That catch also carried a milestone. The play pushed Kamara past 5,000 receiving yards for his career, and the Saints recap says he is just the sixth player in league history with 5,000 yards both running and receiving. Saints Wire, which lists the same milestone, names the other five as Christian McCaffrey, Marshall Faulk, Tiki Barber, Marcus Allen and Lenny Moore.
Shough ran the next score in himself on a 1-yard sneak, Carlson added a 51-yard field goal late in the third quarter, and after Julian Blackmon intercepted Winston, Shough hit Chris Olave for an 18-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter and a 34-10 lead, according to the Saints recap and the Reuters report.
The raw numbers were modest through the air and strong on the ground. Shough hit 16 of his 30 throws for 144 yards and the three touchdown passes, and he ran five times for 32 yards, according to the Saints recap. The team piled up a season-best 175 rushing yards, according to the Saints recap and Saints Wire. Kendre Miller led the backs with 70 yards on 20 carries, according to Saints Wire, with C.J. Donaldson adding 39 yards and Kamara 34. Olave led the receivers with four catches for 43 yards, and the Saints recap says his touchdown was his second of the season.
A defense that bent almost to breaking
The Saints defense supplied the margin. New Orleans recorded five sacks and four takeaways, according to the Saints recap, which credits Carl Granderson and Chase Young with 1.5 sacks each, Pete Werner with one and Colby Wooden with one. Martin Emerson Jr. intercepted both Giants quarterbacks, Blackmon added the pick that set up the Olave touchdown, and Werner led the team with 11 tackles, according to the Saints recap.
The takeaways mattered because the Saints needed every one of them late. Winston finished 14 of 26 for 152 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, according to the Giants recap, and he gave way to J.J. McCarthy with 11:25 left and the Giants down 24. After an interception on his first series, McCarthy drove New York to a 5-yard Tracy touchdown run and a two-point conversion, a 24-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely, and a 41-yard Zvada field goal that cut the lead to 34-27 with 2:04 left, according to the Giants recap and the Reuters report. McCarthy went 11 of 21 for 243 yards after taking over with 11:25 left in the game, according to the Giants recap.
New York got the ball back once more and reached the Saints 14, where a fourth-and-1 throw from McCarthy to Likely in the end zone fell incomplete, according to the Giants recap. Shough took a knee, and the game was over.
The win came at a cost on the offensive line. Right guard Cesar Ruiz left late in the first half with a knee injury, according to the Associated Press report, and Saints Wire reported that rookie Jeremiah Wright replaced him and held up through a second half in which the Saints ran for 109 yards. Cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry also departed with an illness, according to the AP report, which is part of how Emerson came to play so many snaps.
There is no home game waiting as a reward. Both of the Saints wins this season have come on the road, according to Saints Wire, and the next one would be the furthest from home of all: the team left the New York area for Paris, where it plays the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Stade de France, according to the Saints recap.
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