Stafford’s 3 TD passes lead Lions past Saints, 35-27

Brees completed 34 of 52 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns, without an interception, and was sacked once.

On second-and-goal from the 1, running back Tim Hightower fought off a backfield collision to stretch out for an apparent touchdown, but the Saints were flagged for illegal procedure because reserve tackle Senio Kelemete, inserted for extra blocking, failed to report as an eligible receiver. It was Moore’s first game in the Superdome with a team other than the Saints, for whom he played eight seasons.

The Lions flowed left and Stafford faked that way before tossing the ball to Abdullah going right. Then came a pair of disputed flags, the second as time expired in the second quarter, and New Orleans never fully recovered in a 35-27 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night.

Stafford played almost mistake-free, completing 22 of 25 passes without turning the ball over. Brees tested out his right foot on the sideline, got it re-taped and allowed backup Matt Flynn to warm up briefly.

After Detroit recovered the onside kick at the Saints’ 45, reached the 9 on a 36-yard run by Bell and was pushed back to the 20 after a couple of kneels by Stafford and a delay of game penalty, it missed a 38-yard field goal attempt. New Orleans has allowed a league-high 3,878 yards passing and 39 passing touchdowns in 14 games. Saints coach Sean Peyton and Brees led the Saints to a Super Bowl title in the 2009 season but those glory days are far behind them. Brees is an obvious QB1 for next week’s home finale against Jacksonville. Abdullah finished with 77 yards on nine carries, but had a costly fumble that led to a Saints touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Lions receiver CALVIN JOHNSON set up the Lions for their first points of the game with a reception down the middle for 19 yards to the NO 8 yard line.

Under fire from the Lions pass rush for most of the first half, Brees was taken down by Lions defensive end Ezekiel Ansah on a pass he threw away while scrambling and came up limping.

The Lions led 21-3 by halftime on Tate’s touchdown catches of 1 and 5 yards and fullback Michael Burton’s first career touchdown from 4 yards out on his fourth catch this season. Second year pro Willie Snead, who made his regular season debut this year, made a career-high 10 catches for 76 yards.

After going undrafted out of Fordham, Abdul-Quddus said his agent suggested the Saints as a place he could carve out a role, and even though his time ended unceremoniously, he managed to stick in New Orleans.

The Saints finally got on the scoreboard with an actual touchdown, when Cooks got behind the defense to snare a Brees pass that the receiver turned into a 27 yard score.

First, Cooks made a spectacular one-handed catch of Brees’ 28-yard pass and was initially ruled to have scored, but the call was changed after a video review, marking Cooks down at the 1.