The New Orleans Saints (5-1) were mere moments from heading into an overtime matchup against the Baltimore Ravens (4-3) late Sunday afternoon after Joe Flacco connected with John Brown in the endzone with 24 seconds left.
It seemed like an inevitability that veteran Justin Tucker would send it through the uprights, as he made his first 222 extra point attempts in his career. However, the ball sailed wide right to hand the Saints a 24-23 win.
That wasn’t the only bizarre thing about this ballgame though as New Orleans started with the football and marched down the field with an incredibly methodical drive that took 10:53 off the clock thanks to some gutsy play-calling from Sean Payton. All of that resulted in zero points though as Taysom Hill fumbled the at the Ravens six-yard line on fourth and one.
The ballgame remained scoreless until Tucker barely got a 31-yarder through the uprights to get the Ravens on the board first. Things turned around though for the Saints as they picked up the pace on the next drive and took the lead courtesy of Drew Brees connecting with Benjamin Watson, making it 7-3 with 1:57 left until halftime. However, Joe Flacco led the Ravens down the field and it was capped off by Lamar Jackson getting his first NFL touchdown with a run up the middle from one-yard out to give the Ravens a three-point lead headed into the half.
After both teams punted to start the second half, the Ravens made it a 10-point ballgame when Flacco connected with Mark Andrews from eight yards out. The Saints responded though in the fourth quarter with another lengthy drive, this time resulting in points when Alvin Kamara ran it in from two yards to make it 17-14.
After the defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive, the Saints had another twelve play drive that resulted in Drew Brees giving them the lead with a five-yard pass to Michael Thomas to get the lead right back. It seemed like the Saints were going to put the game out reach, but wound up settling for a 39-yard field goal to make it a seven-point ballgame with 2:15 left on the clock.
The Saints will head to Minnesota for a primetime matchup against the Minnesota Vikings (4-2-1) with kickoff set for 7:20 pm.
-Clint Domingue