Lions hold off Saints in 35-27 victory

Two weeks after they lost a Thursday night game to the Green Bay Packers on an Hail Mary and a little more than two months after they fumbled away a win in the final minutes against the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions withstood a second-half rally to beat the New Orleans Saints, 35-27, on Monday Night Football. “A hundred fifty yards any day, in any point in time, is good”, Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said. With 10:06 left in the game the Saints cut the Lions lead to 28-20. Strong performances from Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford against below-average defenses seemed to be a given, but it was actually one team’s inability to get into the end zone that proved to be a deciding factor. Tim Hightower punched it into the end zone on second down, but it got called back by an illegal formation. With just two games left in the Saints’ second consecutive season, don’t be surprised if the Saints are very cautious about playing Brees the rest of the way. Johnson’s reception set up a right corner of the end touchdown reception of 1 yard by fellow receiver GOLDEN TATE (6 catches for 45 yards and 2 scores).

Brees played remarkably well considering he was hurt. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t match them step for step”.

Payton disputed the penalty, saying Kelemete reported. New Orleans coach Sean Payton said the goal-line failure was the result of “a couple of snafus” on the part of game officials.

But after falling behind 28-3 early in the third quarter, the Saints (5-9) scored 17 straight points to make it a game. Michael Burton extended the lead to 14-3 with the first touchdown catch of his National Football League career.

Saints quarterback DREW BREES (34 of 52 for 341 yards, 3 touchdown passes and no interceptions) once again had a marvelous night against a defense that centered their defensive scheme around him and his passing game weapons.

“So we knew we were going to have to make them pay with other guys and we were able to”.

It was an all-around effort led by Matthew Stafford, an efficient run game and a defense that wasn’t ideal but came up huge when needed against Brees and the Saints offense.

QUIET NIGHT: Lions star receiver Calvin Johnson, who’s been nursing an ankle injury, had one catch for 19 yards, marking his second straight game with just one catch.

The Lions responded by going 76 yards on nine plays in a drive kept alive by a 10-yard catch by Tate on third-and-4.

New Orleans marched from its 27-yard line to the Detroit 29, and Brees completed a 28-yard pass to Brandin Cooks (10 catches, 124 yards) that initially was ruled a touchdown with 57 seconds left, but was reviewed and ruled down by contact at the 1.