AMERICAN FOOTBALL Saints and Jaguars advance to NFL divisional round of play-offs
The New Orleans Saints defeated the Carolina Panthers for the third time this season to reach the second round of the NFL play-offs on Sunday while the Jacksonville Jaguars edged out the Buffalo Bills to advance as well.
Drew Brees threw for 376 yards and two touchdowns to lead New Orleans to a 31-26 triumph after withstanding a late surge from Carolina.
“This win is special,” New Orleans defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “They came back late in the fourth quarter, made this a game. We had to finish out the game. We put it on our defence and we responded the way we were supposed to. We wanted it more. We had to fight today to play next week.”
New Orleans will visit Minnesota Vikings next Sunday in the National Football Conference divisional round. Atlanta Falcons play top seed Philadelphia Eagles next Saturday in the other NFC game.
The Minnesota clash comes one day before Brees turns 39 years old after the veteran quarterback reminded everyone he is still capable of big passing days if opposing defences sell out to stop the Pro Bowl running back tandem of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara.
Brees completed 23 passes to eight different receivers. Only two of his completions went to Ingram or Kamara, who accounted for just 68 yards from scrimmage combined.
“We trust our system. We trust each other and what we proved is we can beat you in a lot of different ways,” Brees said. “There’s no better feeling than knowing you just won, not only won but won a play-off game as a team and now you’re on to the next one.
“What we’ve shown offensively is we have a lot of ways to be effective. The ball was spread around quite a bit and guys were making plays when they had the chances.”
Carolina tight end Greg Olsen lamented his side’s inability to score points when they had good field position.
“We just struggled in the first half in the red zone and it turned out to be points that we kept chasing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles threw for 87 yards and a touchdown and ran for a career-high 88 yards to lead his side to a 10-3 win over Buffalo in a defensively dominated American Football Conference wildcard game.
The Jaguars managed only 230 yards, 33 less than the Bills, in their first play-off game since 2007. They now visit the Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday in the AFC divisional round.
The Tennessee Titans visit New England Patriots in next Saturday’s other AFC game.
Jacksonville routed Pittsburgh 30-9 in early October on Pittsburgh’s home field.
“We’ve done it before so we know we can do it,” defensive end Calais Campbell said. “We just have to hunker down and get it done.”
Teammate Aaron Colvin, the Jaguars cornerback, echoed his teammates opinion.
“The game [against Pittsburgh] was a great illustration on if we play the way we’re capable of playing, then we can beat anybody like that,” he said.
“We know they’re going to be motivated. Ben [Roethlisberger, the Steelers quarterback] said it earlier that he wanted to see us again, so we know we’re going to get their best shot.”