The New Orleans Saints travelled to Atlanta, Georgia to face arch rivals Atlanta Falcons, this past Sunday, 11th September, for their opening salvo in the 2022/23 NFL campaign.
Somehow the Saints managed to come away with a last gasp victory by the narrowest of margins, with the final score being Saints 26 - Falcons 27. With around 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter they were still down by 16 points. The win now puts the Saints just 1 win behind the Falcons in the overall series 54-53 (13-8 to the Saints in since Sept 2012 though - we're coming for ya!!!)
With that dramatic finish, The Saints have now won four opening day fixtures in a row for the first time in the history of the franchise, and new head coach, Denis Allen, becomes just the fourth Saints head coach to win his first regular season game.
But for the first three quarters no one would have guessed this victory was on the cards, with Jameis Winston completing just 5 passes from 10 attempts for just 24 yards in the first half, and was sacked 4 times during the game. I was thinking then this ain't going the way I was expecting.
The running game wasn't faring much better, despite a 57 yard touchdown strike from Taysom Hill that put the Saints in the lead, following an Atlanta field goal. Then it was all Atlanta, as they scored 13 unanswered points in the 2nd quarter, and a further 7 more in the 3rd, countering a Willie Lutz field goal to take the Falcons into a 23-10 lead.
Then came the fourth quarter, another Atlanta field goal opening up that 16 point lead, and i was probably one of many thousands deflated at that point and resigned to accepting an opening day defeat against the team deemed by many expected to be the whipping boys of the division.
But then i got brought out of the fugue by an absolutely thrilling display of leadership from Winston. as he orchestrated firstly a four play, 75 yard drive culminating in a Michael Thomas touchdown from 3 yards, with a 2-point conversion gratefully accepted by Chris Olave, making the score 26-18 in favour of the Falcons
Then the defense woke up too, forcing the Falcons to punt the ball away. Winston took over again and took 3.5 minutes to travel 87 yards in 8 plays to hit Thomas again from 9 yds out this time. The subsequent 2 point conversion attempt failed, however, leaving the score 26-24. Deflation takes over again...feeling that we got so close just to lose it in the dying 3.5 minutes.
The defence once again magnificently held firm and forced another punt from Atlanta, and The Saints took over less than a minute left, surely they couldn't get back up the field again and score one last time? Oh yes they blooming well could, 5 plays later and with just 19 seconds on the clock they had gotten to with field goal range, and Willie Lutz duly obliged, smacking it through the uprights. 16 points wiped out in the space of 11 wonderful minutes - phew!!!.
But wait, there was still drama to be seen, the final Atlanta drive drew a foul on the Saints, putting the Falcons within field goal range. Step up Special Teams blocking the attempt ensuring a seemingly impossible win was secured. Winston's fourth quarter heroics meant he finished with numbers of 23-34, 269 yards and 2 TD's, but I'd rather he was more consistent across all four quarters than leave it late like that again... I don't my heart can take it lol!!!.
I'm now off for a lie down in a very dark room to recover, before we take on the Bucs next week - it never gets easy.
Till next time, have a great week!!!
