Brees delivers in Saints’ victory
NEW ORLEANS — The Saints made the most of their return to the NFL playoffs Sunday as quarterback Drew Brees celebrated with a turnback-the-clock performance. Brees’ prolific-once-more passing carried New Orleans to a 31-26 triumph over the Carolina Panthers in an NFC wild-card game.
The Saints beat the Panthers for the third time this season, knocking Carolina quarterback Cam Newton from the game temporarily on a fourth-quarter hit and then holding on late.
The Panthers essentially dared Brees to beat them, taking a defensive approach that focused on stopping the New Orleans running game. And that’s precisely what Brees did, throwing for 376 yards and two touchdowns, including an 80-yarder to Ted Ginn Jr. to open the scoring in the first quarter.
“If a team’s going to do that, then obviously I feel like with the matchups we have outside, there should be opportunities,” Brees said. “You still have to have a level of patience and take advantage of them when they do come around. I think what we’ve shown offensively is we have a lot of ways to be effective, a lot of weapons to spread the ball around.”
The balance of the Saints’ offense that was on display during the regular season gave way to Brees being the centerpiece in a pass-first approach Sunday. The Saints had only 41 rushing yards. But they sprinted to a lead while their defense limited the Panthers to field goals instead of touchdowns until the fourth quarter.
Newton threw for 349 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 37 yards. But the Panthers simply could not get into the end zone to finish drives until Newton threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Olsen with just less than 13 minutes remaining. That pulled the Panthers to 24-19.
But on Carolina’s next drive, Newton was hit in the helmet by Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata on a sack. Newton got up and tried to reach the Panthers’ sideline but fell to his knees on the way there. He was taken from the game and was replaced by backup Derek Anderson.
The Saints upped their lead to 31-19 on a touchdown run by tailback Alvin Kamara. Newton returned to the game and threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to running back Christian McCaffrey. Brees threw a fourth-down interception on a gamble by the Saints. But the Panthers’ last-gasp drive stalled after reaching New Orleans territory, in part because of an intentional grounding penalty on Newton. At the Saints’ 34, Newton was sacked on fourth down with five seconds left.