Page 19 - ATD 17OCT,2015
P. 19
SPORTS A19
Saturday 17 October 2015
Brees, Watson help
Saints beat Falcons, 31-21
BY BRETT MARTEL acted with this Twitter post: stored swagger on offense. New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson (82) makes a
AP SPORTS WRITER “Hey, Falcons. #Never- Late in the third quarter, touchdown catch against the Atlanta Falcons during the sec-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Ben Punt.” the Saints capped a 10- ond half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, in
Watson sank to his knees “The cool thing was that play, 63-yard drive by first New Orleans.
at the back of the end Steve was here to see that,” drawing Atlanta offside on
zone with both arms raised, Brees said. “It brought back fourth-and-goal from the 4, Associated Press
looked up at the frenzied some good memories.” then converting a 2-yard
Superdome crowd and ab- Mark Ingram ran for two pass to Watson.
sorbed the adulation. short touchdowns, and “That’s a huge momen-
This was more like it. New Orleans’ defense re- tum-gaining-type play in a
Drew Brees passed for 312 covered three fumbles - game like that, and it took
yards, Watson racked up two inside its own 20. some marbles to call it,”
a career-high 127 yards re- “That blocked punt and Brees said, summing up the
ceiving to go with a fourth- a couple of turnovers re- night as “validation.”
down touchdown catch, ally told the story,” said first- “For it all to come together
and recently reeling New year Falcons coach Dan like that, it just gives us a
Orleans handed the Atlan- Quinn, speaking after a loss glimpse of what we can
ta Falcons their first loss this for the first time. “It’s hard be,” he said.
season, 31-21 on Thursday to overcome those.” The Saints never trailed,
night. Devonta Freeman rushed racing in front on the open-
“It felt great. It was really for 100 yards, including a ing series, an 80-yard drive
great to see the fans enjoy- 25-yard TD, for Atlanta (5- capped by Ingram’s first
ing themselves,” Watson 1). Matt Ryan passed for TD.
said. “We want to win for 295 yards and two TDs. He Mauti made it 14-0 when
ourselves and for our fami- also was sacked five times, he smothered Matt Bosh-
lies, but to be able to look including three for defen- er’s punt, scooped up
up at the stands and see sive end Cam Jordan. the ball as he landed and
people dancing and hav- “We made mistakes early sprang into the end zone.
ing fun, it was very exciting on and it cost us,” said Atlanta cut it to 14-7 on
for us.” Freeman, who also turned Ryan’s 7-yard pass to Rod-
Desperate for a victory, a short pass into a late 13- dy White, but the Falcons,
the Saints (2-4) enjoyed yard score. “I feel like we who outgained the Saints
big plays in all phases, beat ourselves, but they’re 265 yards to 174 in the
a common occurrence a talented team and they half, squandered a pair
when New Orleans hosts did a lot of great things to- of promising drives with
night games. Including the night.” fumbles. First, rookie Tevin
playoffs, the Saints have Freeman’s first touchdown Coleman was stripped by
now won 19 of their last 21 cut New Orleans’ lead to linebacker Dannell Ellerbe
prime-time games in the 24-14 with 13:07 remaining, and cornerback Brandon
Superdome. which seemed like plenty Browner recovered on the
Michael Mauti, who grew of time for a Falcons team 9. Later, Ryan mishandled
up near New Orleans af- that had already orches- a snap and Ellerbe recov-
ter his father, Rich, played trated four fourth-quarter ered on the New Orleans
for the Saints, blocked a comebacks this season. 17.q
punt and recovered it for a The Saints had other plans,
touchdown, delighting the responding with the type
Superdome crowd with a of will-imposing drive that
play reminiscent of Steve was commonplace during
Gleason’s famous block much of the decade since
against Atlanta in 2006. coach Sean Payton and
Gleason, now paralyzed Brees arrived in New Or-
by ALS, was at the game, leans, but seldom seen this
watching from his motor- season.
ized wheel chair. He re- New Orleans drove 80
yards in 11 plays, eating
about five minutes off the
clock. During the series,
Watson tied a career high
with his 10th catch of the
game. Brees found Bran-
don Cooks for 26 yards
on a third down. Ingram
capped the drive by pow-
ering in to make it 31-14.
That wasn’t the only ex-
ample of the Saints’ re-
