Willie Francis
November 7, 2013
Gertrude Frances Norris
November 13, 2013
The New Orleans Saints continue to save their best for primetime.
With their 49-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday, the Saints have now gone a combined 18-3 in games played on Sunday nights and Monday nights dating back to Sean Payton’s first year as head coach in 2006. They’ve now won 12 straight night games in the Mercedes Benz Superdome.
Their latest primetime affair was never in doubt.
A week after being shut down in the second half by the New York Jets, the Saints erupted for 21 second-quarter points to jump out to a 28-10 halftime lead and never looked back. The offense had a record-setting night, feasting on an embattled and beat-up Dallas defense that allowed 625 total yards and an NFL record 40 first downs.
The 625 yards were the most by an offense in Saints franchise history as well as the most allowed by a Cowboys defense in franchise history. It was the most yards tallied in any NFL game since the 1982 season.
Quarterback Drew Brees threw four touchdown passes to four different players and had 392 passing yards with just seven incompletions on 34-of-41 attempts.
Moreover, big-play receiver Marques Colton returned after sitting out the previous week with a knee injury and caught seven passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.
Even oft-maligned running back Mark Ingram had an inspiring effort, rushing for a career-high 145 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries. The Saints as a whole ran at will against Dallas, rushing for 239 yards – the most in the Payton era.
“They mixed it up pretty well,” Payton said of the offense. “We got some pressure looks and it seemed to be we got more of them on first down. (Brees) did a good job of getting the ball out and not getting fooled by some of the blitz looks.
“Obviously it was an important win for us. I thought we did a lot of good things. We won in a lot of areas that we talked about all week long.”
Not to be overlooked was the productivity of the Saints’ offensive line, which has come under scrutiny at times this season but on Sunday helped create one big play after another.
They enabled Ingram to have runs of 31 and 34 yards, and Brees to have three of his touchdown passes go for 22, 28 and 52 yards, respectively.
“They were phenomenal,” Brees said of the offensive line. “Win or lose, they’re a bunch of warriors. They battle. What they did in the run game and the pass game after being challenged last week, every one of them deserves a game ball.”
On defense, the Saints were just as dominant.
New Orleans allowed only nine first downs all night and did not yield a single third-down conversion by the Dallas offense, which went 0-for-9 on third down (conversely, the Saints converted 9-of-12). They sacked Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo three times and allowed fewer than 200 total yards.
The Cowboys never had a chance after falling behind three scores at halftime, and the Saints were able to quickly stifle any momentum Dallas might have gained by forcing a three-and-out late in the third quarter following a Romo touchdown pass and subsequent onside kick recovery.
Clearly, this was the Saints’ most complete victory of the season.
“Third down snaps were important,” Payton said. “We thought going into this game that that statistic along with turnovers were going to be two key things. The third down conversions, both defensively and offensively, and also the turnover battle were things we talked about. We had a couple (mistakes) but we handled the short field pretty well.”
And as a whole, the Saints continued their dominance against the Cowboys.
Dating back to December of 1998, the team has now gone 8-1 against Dallas with its only loss in that span coming in 2009. That’s the team’s best record against any non-divisional opponent in that span and Payton improved to 4-1 against his former team, where he was an assistant coach from 2003-05.
“You have to give New Orleans credit,” said Dallas coach Jason Garrett. “They did a great job in all phases of the game, certainly on offense. They were able to move the ball both by running it and throwing it.”
Next up for the Saints is their former NFC West division nemesis, the San Francisco 49ers.
Kickoff is scheduled for 3:25 p.m. at the Superdome this Sunday.
The game will be televised nationally on FOX.
For New Orleans to defeat their foe, they will have to overcome negative history.
The 49ers knocked the Saints out of the playoffs two seasons ago with a thrilling last-second drive to cap a shootout between the teams.
Last year, the San Francisco team followed that up with a win inside the Superdome – a game that sort of showcased 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to the country.
The 49ers will be entering the game with a bad taste in their mouths.
San Francisco losts their last game by a 10-9 count to the Carolina Panthers, who are chasing New Orleans for the NFC South title.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees stands in the pocket, while the Dallas Cowboys’ defense barrels toward the quarterback. The impending pass rush marked one of the only times in the game that the Cowboys pressured Brees. He carved up the Dallas secondary throughout the record-setting game for the New Orleans offense.
