Much like Han Solo, never tell Drew Brees the odds. With 4:21 left in the ballgame, the Washington Redskins (4-6) had a 99.5% chance to come away with the win.
The New Orleans Saints (8-2) found some of that magic from the 2009 season to come away with a 34-31 win in overtime. The rally began with Brees getting the Saints down to Washington six-yard line with a 24-yard pass to Coby Fleener. Two plays later, Brees connected with another tight end in Josh Hill to make it an eight-point ballgame.
Manti Te’o came up big on 3rd and 1 on the next drive with a tackle for loss on Samaje Perine to give the Saints the ball with two minutes left in regulation. The rally looked to be over before it really got started after Brees was intercepted by Kyle Fuller, but it was negated by an illegal use of hands call against Fuller to give the Saints an extra life. Alvin Kamara wound up knotting things at 31-all after managing to hold onto a short pass from Brees, followed up by a run into the endzone by the rookie.
The Redskins quickly got into field goal range with 31 seconds left in the ballgame. However, Kirk Cousins made a costly mistake with an intentional grounding call. That led to Vonn Bell forcing a fumble from Cousins to send it to overtime.
The Saints defense continued to control in overtime, forcing a three-and-out, highlighted by a big sack from Cam Jordan.
The Saints stuck with the run game on the next drive with two straight runs from Mark Ingram for 20 and 31 yards respectively. That set up a 28-yard field goal from Wil Lutz to give the Saints the big win.
New Orleans will travel up to Los Angeles to take on the Rams (7-3) with kickoff set for 3:25 pm.
-Clint Domingue