Saints buzzer beat Giants

For certain, the offenses were that good, but the defenses were also that bad.

All week long we’ve been hearing from Odell Beckham Jr say the Giants offense was on the verge of breaking out and today he was right. That’s just the way it’s going to be.

OK, fine, he didn’t cop to that, but he didn’t need to because everyone knows it. This Giants team is talented and exciting – and blatantly flawed. “We left a few plays out there on the field, left a few possessions where we had three-and-outs, and could have even been more productive”. Both Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks had two touchdown catches each, and Mark Ingram had 80 rushing yards in the offensive assault.

On November 1, 2015, the Saints awarded themselves their 2015 season back with a spiritually stomping, statistically super, Saintsational, 52-49, victory over the New York Giants on a 50-yard field goal by Kai Forbath as time expired. As beneficial to the Saints (4-4 overall) as that field goal was, no one will forget the marvelous and prolific game that Brees had.

Heck, their own quarterback threw for 350 yards, six touchdowns, without a single interception … and lost!

“It hurts”, safety Brandon Meriweather said. Peyton Manning appeared rejuvenated, passing for 340 yards, while Rodgers threw for 77 yards (not a misprint) and got roughed up by the Denver defense. “There is none of this pointing the finger, there’s none of that”. In fact, I still can’t believe what I just witnessed. So that was our goal. Since the Saints struggle mightily on the defensive side of the ball, their offense has to produce on a weekly basis.

Manning got the equalizer with a gorgeous 20-yard strike to Harris, who made a fingertip grab over cornerback Damian Swann to tie the game 42-42 with 9:30 left. They had the ball right on the money, right where they needed to. With neither defense able to stop the other team’s offense, the game was a roller coaster affair that saw the score tied five different times. But Coughlin believes that unit will improve in the season’s second half.

“It was great to come back here and come back home and play in the dome”, Beckham said. “We should’ve stopped them on the last drive”. Our communication sometimes was not as good as it should’ve been.

There’s no way I could limit this to one turning point.

“I think we adjusted well”, Anthony said. But maybe it is time to start thinking of him a little bit more. Wing may have been better served punting the ball out of bounds. You can’t get down on yourself. Makes us stronger and it’s something we can build on for sure.

In their loss, the Giants achieved a milestone only accomplished once before. “It makes Brees feel a lot better about the guys he’s playing with”. In other games, it’s the defense that steps up.

“That’s just football”, Manning said.

New Orleans head coach Sean Payton said the game reminded him of something one of his mentors, former Giants head coach Bill Parcells used to say: if you lose a low-scoring game it’s your defence’s fault; if you lose a high-scoring game, it’s your offence’s fault. For heaven sake’s Willie Snead is a viable starting fantasy receiver now. “We had to convert on that third-and-5, if anything just not to give them an opportunity to score (before the fourth ended)”. “We still had a lot of football left to play. I’m not anxious about taking one step forward and one step back”.

Four different Kansas City players rushed for a touchdown – quarterback ALEX SMITH, running backs SPENCER WARE and CHARCANDRICK WEST and wide receiver DE’ ANTHONY THOMAS – marking the first time since October 2, 1960, when the team was known as the Dallas Texans, that four different players rushed for at least one touchdown in the same game for the franchise.