It was far from easy for the New Orleans Saints (13-2) late Sunday afternoon, but they were able to give the fans in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome an early Christmas present with a 31-28 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers (8-5-1).
The Saints had a rough start offensively when Taysom Hill threw a deep ball towards the endzone that was picked off by Sean Davis and took it to their own 40-yard line. Ben Roethlisberger then led them down the field, but were stalled at the Saints 30-yard line and settled for a 49-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to get on the board.
The Saints wasted little time with a rebuttal with a five-play drive that was aided by a questionable pass interference call by Joe Haden on 4th and 1. That resulted in Mark Ingram finding the endzone to take the lead. With the touchdown, Mark Ingram recorded his 50th touchdown with the franchise, passing Deuce McAllister for the most of all-time.
Pittsburgh responded with a nine-play drive that was capped off with another successful field goal by Boswell to get them within one point.Things continued to look up for the Saints on the next drive after another defensive pass interference was called on the Steelers and that resulted in an eight-yard run from Alvin Kamara to make it 14-6.
The Steelers were able to tie it up late in the second quarter when they capitalized on a pass interference penalty on Eli Apple with Roethlisberger finding Jaylen Samuels for the touchdown and a successful two-point conversion to cap off a 15-play drive. They left a little too much time on the clock for Drew Brees and the Saints offense and thanks to a 31-yard pass to Kamara, they were able to take a 17-14 lead as the first half came to a close with a 43-yarder from Wil Lutz.
Brees started the second half just like how he ended the first with a 42-yard pass to Kamara to get deep into enemy territory. The second-year running back punched it in from one-yard out to give the Saints a 10-point lead early in the third quarter. Big Ben and the Steelers responded on the next drive thanks in large part to Juju Smith Schuster, who caught two straight passes for 34 yards and got them into enemy territory. However, Antonio Brown was the one who got them into the endzone with a wide-open catch in the endzone to make it 24-21.
The Steelers defense came up huge on the very next drive when they were able to sack Brees twice and force New Orleans to punt. Four plays later, Roethlisberger found Brown once again for a 20-yard touchdown to take a four-point lead.
Pittsburgh was looking to seal a victory after blocking a Lutz field goal, but they failed to convert on a fake punt and that gave Brees a short field to work with. The Saints took the lead right back when Brees found Michael Thomas in the endzone to take a three-point lead.
The Steelers looked like they were about to send this game into overtime when they got close to Boswell’s field goal range, but Smith-Schuster coughed up the football which was recovered by DeMario Davis to seal the victory.
The Saints will wrap up the regular season against the Carolina Panthers (6-9) with kickoff slated for 12 pm.
-Clint Domingue