By Norman Castro
EBC New York Bureau
NEW ORLEANS (Eagle News) — A wild game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome had the crowd roaring and at the edge of their seats as the New Orleans Saints squeak by the Carolina Panthers 31-26 in the NFC Wild Card game on Sunday night.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw for 376 yards and two touchdowns, beating Cam Newton and the Panthers for the third time this season.
The Saints scored first as Brees on 2nd down, found Ted Ginn Jr. running down the right side with a deep pass for 80 yards and a touchdown. The momentum continued as their offense seemed in tune with each other. Brees spread out the ball among Ginn, Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara, and Josh Hill as they marched down the field 75 yards, with Hill finishing the drive with a nice nine-yard catch and run. The Saints found the endzone one last time, climbing to a 21-9 lead at the half.
Down 24-12 in the fourth quarter, the Panthers didn’t give up without a fight. After going back and forth with punts, they put together an eight play, 68-yard drive to find the endzone cutting the lead to five at 24-19. After a field position battle, the Saints found quick attacks and found the endzone to make increase the lead to 31-19. The Panthers made the game interesting scoring a touchdown with Cam Newton finding Christian Mccaffrey for a 56-yard touchdown with 4:09 remaining.
The Saints went for a risky fourth-and-2 with a little over two minutes left near midfield and proved to be costly as the Saints failed to convert and gave the Panthers field advantage. With having to find the endzone, the Panthers had a costly intentional grounding penalty leading to a long fourth down with time running out. The Saints iced the victory with a sack of Newton on the final play to punch their ticket to the Divisional Round of the playoffs next weekend.
The Saints look to continue this momentum as they head to Minnesota to face the staunch defense of the Vikings.
(Eagle News Service)