Saints rally from 17 down to edge Chargers in overtime thriller

  • October 12, 2020
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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The Los Angeles Chargers are a competitive team.

Like the New Orleans Saints, the Chargers are a banged-up team, with a lot of key injuries to key players.

Both teams were even in that regard.

Monday night in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome saw the visiting team took total control of the game against a listless home team for virtually an entire half as the Chargers took a 20-3 lead.

Some on social media were calling for the Saints to bench Drew Brees, who had a very bad half, as did his offensive teammates.

Brees then engineered a drive and the Saints awakened.

Then, in the second half, Brees looked the part of the all-time great we have come to know, making excellent decisions and passing in much more accurate fashion.

Still, the New Orleans Saints needed help, make that a lot of help from a team that does not know how to win.

In 2019, the Chargers had nine losses by one score or less.

In 2020, the Chargers now have four already, including Monday night.

The New Orleans Saints have a tremendous kicking game with Wil Lutz and Thomas Morstead.

The Los Angeles Chargers may want to rethink their kicker after what happened Monday night.

Michael Badgley missed an extra point early. He missed a field goal late.

The Chargers missed a golden opportunity to upset the Black and Gold.

Here are my Quick Takes from the 30-27 overtime win for the Saints over the Chargers:

**Prior to the game, the Saints released defensive lineman Margus Hunt and signed cornerback Ken Crawley to the active roster. Tackle James Hurst was counted on the active roster as the exemption for him ended. The Saints also promoted wide receiver Austin Carr and tight end Garrett Griffin to the active roster for the game.

**Inactives for the Saints included Ethan Greenidge, Justin Hardee, Deonte Harris, Janoris Jenkins, Malcolm Roach, Michael Thomas and Adam Trautman.

**It was the 25th appearance on Monday Night Football for Brees.

**New Orleans got a stop to start the game but the Saints, after making a first down, had a negative play and then Alvin Kamara dropped a third down pass where it looked like he may have a big play in front of him and the Saints had to punt.

**Andrus Peat returned to the lineup at left guard while Nick Easton started at right guard, rather than Cesar Ruiz.

**Los Angeles took a 6-0 lead with 6:26 to play in the first quarter, driving 80 yards in nine plays. The Saints got burned big-time not once, but twice, on blitzes.

**First Justin Johnson burst through a gaping hole to run 36 yards on a draw play to the New Orleans 20-yard line.

**Then, on third-and-seven from the New Orleans 17-yard line, the Saints sent an all-out blitz. Justin Herbert rolled right under heavy pursuit and threw a strike to Keenan Allen, who beat Marcus Williams on a 17-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was missed.

**Trey Hendrickson came up with his fourth sack of the season and forced a punt and the Saints got the ball in great shape at the Los Angeles 48-yard line.

**Only able to get one first down, the Saints were held to a 48-yard field goal by Wil Lutz to cut the deficit to 6-3 as the first quarter ended.

**The Saints had just 45 yards of offense in the first quarter.

**Cam Jordan and Hendrickson combined for another sack to force a punt but Dwayne Washington, on fourth-and-14, committed an inexcusable roughing the kicker, a 15-yard penalty, to bail out Los Angeles.

**Of course, the Chargers took full advantage.

**First, Herbert connected with a wide-open Jalen Guyton for 44 yards.

**Then, Herbert hit Mike Williams with a 4-yard touchdown pass to make it 13-3 with 11:01 to play in the half as the secondary continued to fail and fail big as Williams beat Marshon Lattimore.

**Marquez Callaway had a 33-yard punt return negated by a holding penalty against J.T. Gray. The penalty cost New Orleans 34 yards.

**Brees than made a huge mistake, making a very poor read and throwing an interception—right to Nasir Adderley, who returned it 39 yards to the New Orleans 1-yard line.

**Though Sheldon Rankins got a big sack of 10 yards on Herbert, it did not matter. On third-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Herbert hit Hunter Henry with a 3-yard touchdown pass to give the Chargers a commanding 20-3 lead with 4:25 to play in the half.

**Easton suffered a concussion and was replaced by Ruiz in the second quarter.

**After the Saints got a stop, Callaway put the Saints in business with another good punt return at the New Orleans 49-yard line.

**After throwing incomplete on first down, Brees then connected on five straight passes, including 14 yard completions to Kamara and Callaway.

**Then, Brees went to Emmanuel Sanders three straight times, for six, 11 and six yards, the final of which appeared to be a touchdown but upon review, Sanders was ruled just short of the goal line.

**The Saints were forced to use their final timeout with 19 seconds left.

**On the next play, Brees tried to throw it to Taysom Hill but he was thrown to the ground by the face mask and no call was made.

**Then, Brees went with old reliable, leaping high and stretching the ball across the goal line on a quarterback sneak for a score to give the Saints a needed score before halftime, trailing 20-10 with 14 seconds remaining.

**The drive covered 51 yards in eight plays, taking 1:45 off the clock.

**New Orleans finished the first half with just 127 yards of offense and averaged just 3.7 points per play.

**The Chargers lost their best weapon as Allen went down injured and did not return.

**New Orleans did nothing with the first possession of the second half but the defense held.

**Callaway returned a punt nicely, 17 yards to the New Orleans 46-yard line. Again, a holding penalty on Gray killed the return, costing the Saints 21 yards.

**The Saints drove 40 yards in seven plays, taking 3:20 off the clock. Lutz booted a 53-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 20-13 with 4:52 to play in the third quarter.

**Prior to kicking the field goal, the Saints lined up to go for it on fourth-and-four from the Charger 35-yard line. Then, they wasted a timeout trying to get Los Angeles to jump. Of course, the Chargers did not and New Orleans burned a timeout. Either go for it or kick the field goal. Don’t waste a timeout.

**The Saints finally got even with 11:21 to play in the game as Brees finally hit a deep shot, connecting on a 41-yard touchdown pass to Jared Cook to tie the game at 20. The drive covered 89 yards in 10 plays, taking 5:02 off the clock. The Saints overcame a holding call and a sack on the drive. It was the first target for Cook in the game.

**Malcolm Jenkins then dropped a sure interception that would have been huge.

**The Chargers then took the lead, driving 78 yards in four plays, taking 2:02 off the clock. On third-and-10, the Saints chose not to go after Herbert, rushing three. Patrick Robinson inexplicably blew a coverage and Mike Williams ran all alone down the field and Herbert lofted him a 64-yard touchdown pass to make it 27-20 with 3:40 to play in the game.

**Robinson just let Williams run by him and did not pursue him. It was so, so easy for the Chargers.

**New Orleans then got the drive it needed, going 73 yards in eight plays, taking 2:48 off the clock. Brees engineered the drive but gave way to Taysom Hill on third-and-four at the Los Angeles 9-yard line. Hill ran right and raced into the end zone and Lutz kicked the extra point to tie it with 52 seconds left.

**Key to the tying drive was a juggling sideline grab by Kamara.

**As we know, that was way too much time for the porous New Orleans secondary to try to defend. They did not.

**Herbert threw one up for Williams. Somehow, the Saints played what appeared to bump and run coverage and Williams went up over Lattimore and caught it. P.J. Williams was closing and could not get there in time. The completion covered 29 yards to the New Orleans 32-yard line.

**Then, Michael Badgley, who missed an extra point earlier, hit the right upright with a 50-yard field goal attempt. It missed by inches, forcing overtime.

**New Orleans won the toss and had a good drive going as Brees completed all five pass attempts and got the Saints to the Los Angeles 21-yard line. On second-and-9, Sean Payton opted to pull Brees and put Taysom Hill in. He stumbled on a 3-yard run.

**On third and six, Brees was flushed out of the pocket and threw incomplete.

**Lutz was forced to come on and he kicked a 36-yard field goal to make it 30-27 New Orleans.

**The Chargers then had their chance and made one first down. Then, on fourth-and-6, Herbert hit Williams over the middle near the first down marker. Lattimore grabbed him and Demario Davis hit Williams as well. Lattimore pulled Williams down one yard short of the first down to secure the win.

The Saints have now won two of their last three games when trailing by 10 or more points at the half.

Herbert became the first rookie ever to throw three touchdown passes in the first half of a Monday Night Football game and the first rookie to throw four touchdown passes in a game. Despite being under duress all night, Herbert completed 20-of-34 for 264 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He has an outstanding future.

Brees the oldest player to have 32 or more completions in a game in NFL history. After a bad first half, he was very good the rest of the way, completing 33-of-47 passes for 325 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Saints won a game they probably should have lost. To be a winner in the NFL, you must be good. Sometimes, you have to be lucky. The Saints were not very good overall but they were lucky, make that very lucky, on this night.

They will take it.

Now comes the much-needed bye to get everyone healthy and to figure out how to give up an enormous number of chunk plays in the secondary. The Saints cannot continue to do so and expect to contend for the NFC title, much less to win the NFC South.

Brees now has 37 wins when trailing in the fourth quarter, the same number as Tom Brady. Peyton Manning is the all-time leader with 43 of those.

Brees was previously 1-48 in games trailing by 17 points. The only victory was at Miami on Oct. 25, 2009, when the Saints overcame the Dolphins 46-35.

It was the second largest comeback win for Brees in his career.

Emmanuel Sanders was terrific, catching 12 passes for 122 yards. A total of 22 players have now had 100+ yard receiving games with Brees. Those 22 players have combined to achieve that feat 121 times.

By the way, with Brees and Taysom Hill each running for a score, it marked the first time in the 54-year history of the franchise that two quarterbacks have rushed for touchdowns in a game.

The Chargers have seen enough of Brees, whom they cast away after 2005. They simply cannot beat Brees, who is 4-0 against his former team.

Breathe a sigh of relief. The Saints won. They are tied for first with Tampa Bay and Carolina in the NFC South. That is all that really matters, at this point, though this team will have lots to clean up and lots of improving to do.

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Ken Trahan

CEO/Owner

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Born and raised in the New Orleans area, CCSE CEO Ken Trahan has been a sports media fixture in the community for nearly four decades. Ken started NewOrleans.com/Sports with Bill Hammack and Don Jones in 2008. In 2011, the site became SportsNOLA.com. On August 1, 2017, Ken helped launch CrescentCitySports.com. Having accumulated national awards/recognition (National Sports Media Association, National Football…

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