The defenses rested all day in New Orleans and now the offenses have as well.
Kai Forbath hit a 50-yard field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter to end a game that saw Drew Brees and Eli Manning throw more touchdowns in the same game than any two quarterbacks in NFL history.
Brees tied the NFL record for touchdown passes in a single game when he hit C.J. Spiller for a nine-yard score with 36 seconds left to play in the game. It was his seventh score and Manning wasn’t able to match him as the Giants went three-and-out and punted the ball to the Saints with 20 seconds left.
Marcus Murphy returned the punt 24 yards across midfield, which would have left the Saints with a Hail Mary chance before overtime. Murphy fumbled at the end of the play and Saints wideout Willie Snead recovered. Snead tried to advance the ball, which he can’t do but got 15 yards tacked on for a facemask penalty committed by Giants punter Brad Wing.
That flag was briefly announced as not a foul before referee Craig Wrolstad clarified that it was a penalty despite coming on a player who couldn’t advance the ball and gave Forbath his chance to play hero in a 52-49 Saints victory. Giants coach Tom Coughlin lost a game years ago by punting to DeSean Jackson as time expired and he’ll surely hear questions about why he didn’t instruct Wing to put the ball out of bounds again this time around.
The 101 combined points are the third-most in NFL history and Brees finished with 511 yards, which is good for the 10th-best single-game performance of all time. Manning had 350 yards and six touchdowns of his own as the two teams had 1,020 yards of offense between them on a day that doesn’t say much for the talent, execution or coaching for either defensive unit.
It was entertaining to watch two top quarterbacks taking turns shredding their way up the field, though, and it seemed that the game might ultimately turn on a defensive play. Willie Snead couldn’t hold onto the ball after a big hit by Giants corner Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and the ball popped into Trumaine McBride’s hands for a 63-yard touchdown that put the Giants ahead by a touchdown with seven minutes to play.
The Saints went methodical to go 80 yards in 14 plays that included a fourth-down conversion by Mark Ingram in New Orleans territory that kept hope of tying the game alive. As he did all day, Brees did most of the heavy lifting from there and the Saints were able to keep some hope of a second-half surge alive thanks to one of the greatest individual days of a great quarterback’s career.
That potential surge will die hard if the defense continues to be as awful as it was on Sunday, something that’s equally true of the 4-4 Giants’ hopes of contending for a division title in the NFC East.
