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Published: Monday, November 01, 2010, 3:00 AM
Showing more grit than they had all season, the New Orleans Saints beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-10 Sunday night in the Superdome and reasserted themselves as a team of consequence in the NFL.
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger is sacked in the first quarter during the game between the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers at the Superdome on Sunday, October 31, 2010.(Doug Parker MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE)
Whispers had begun to dog the defending Super Bowl champions after a lackluster seven games left them barely above .500. But hosting a team many considered the league's best, New Orleans had an inspired defensive effort, and quarterback Drew Brees, capping a masterful second-half performance, led two fourth-quarter scoring drives to seal the victory.
Those were hallmarks of the Saints' championship season in 2009, and therefore familiar to the national television audience that saw New Orleans (5-3) end the first half of the 2010 season in style against Pittsburgh (5-2).
The Saints made a goal-line stand after a Pittsburgh touchdown was reversed on appeal, got two huge turnovers in the fourth quarter, and saw Brees complete 20 of 22 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns after halftime. For the game, Brees completed passes to nine receivers.
Afterward, Coach Sean Payton was a model of calm, but that belied his approach leading up to the game, according to wide receiver Lance Moore. Coming off an ugly home loss to Cleveland, the message the Saints needed to make a statement was delivered clearly.
"Coach Payton said this game was different, he said that at the beginning of the week," Moore said. "We needed this. I think we were the hungrier team today. It was important for us to come out here and do whatever it took to win."
Moore certainly did. It was his brilliant catch in the end zone that gave the Saints a two-score cushion, 20-10, with 2:37 left. On first-and-goal from the Pittsburgh 8-yard line, Brees zipped one high to the back part of the end zone, and Moore went up and cradled the ball as two Steelers lowered the boom.
"I got smashed a bit," Moore acknowledged. "I didn't really know where I was when I hit the ground. But, hey, I got up, touchdown."
That play capped Brees' magnificent display, but the groundwork for the win may have come much earlier in the game. By the end, the Saints had allowed the Steelers to convert only three of 10 third-down attempts.
"Our best game overall," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said, making it clear he included the whole team in that assessment.
The first half unfolded as something of a punting clinic until its final minutes. The Saints seemed to gain an edge when punter Thomas Morstead pinned the Steelers on their 11-yard line, but the Steelers got a first down out near their 30, where they stalled and punter Daniel Sepulveda boomed a kick 49 yards.
After a scoreless first quarter, Pittsburgh got a field goal in the second. But those three points came after the Saints' inspired three-down goal-line stand. Set up at the New Orleans 44 by a punt return by Emmanuel Sanders, the Steelers appeared to score a touchdown seven plays later when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who completed just 17 of 28 attempts and was sacked three times, connected with Antwaan Randle El at the goal line.
But when replays clearly showed Randle El never broke the plane, Payton challenged the call, and it was reversed. Three times the Steelers tried to muscle the ball in on the ground, and three times Saints defenders swarmed the Steelers' ballcarriers. Pittsburgh lost a yard, got it back, and then was stuffed for no gain.
With a Halloween-fueled Superdome crowd of 70,011 rocking, Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin settled for a 19-yard field goal by Jeff Reed.
The Steelers led 3-0, but the Saints had achieved something more than a moral victory. The stand made it clear the Saints would concede nothing to Pittsburgh, a team that came in humming on all cylinders and carrying a long-earned reputation for physical football.
"The defense did a great job with those three goal-line snaps," Payton said. "That was a good turn of events. When you come up with a stop like that, it's pretty significant."
Lance Moore TD, 4th quarter, during action at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, La., Sunday, October 31, 2010. (TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE)
It seemed Pittsburgh would take that 3-0 lead into halftime, when Payton made the surprising choice to keep slinging the ball. After Brees had taken a sack for a 10-yard loss that left the Saints facing second-and-10 at their 8-yard line at the two-minute warning, the Saints passed again, and this time Brees badly underthrew Devery Henderson. Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor intercepted at the New Orleans 45 and returned the ball 9 yards to the Saints' 36.
But after Pittsburgh picked up a first down, wide receiver Hines Ward was flagged for offensive pass interference near the goal line. Facing fourth-and-20, Tomlin decided to let Reed try a 51-yarder. It never had a chance, falling wide left, and the Saints suddenly were in business with a first down near midfield with one timeout and 1:11 left.
The Saints seized their unexpected opportunity. New Orleans launched a seven-play drive, highlighted by a 27-yard pass from Brees to Marques Colston that came after what seemed a killing holding call on tackle Jon Stinchcomb. With eight seconds left, Hartley booted a 31-yard field goal to tie it at 3-3.
The Saints got the ball to start the second half and slowly, inexorably, began to take control of the game. Their opening drive, beginning at their 44 after a fine kickoff return by Courtney Roby, ate up more than 6 minutes, 30 seconds. Although it ended with a 23-yard Hartley field goal after some odd running plays at the goal line failed to punch it in, the Saints took their first lead at 6-3 at 8:24 of the third quarter.
As it happened, they never relinquished that edge.
The Saints stretched the lead to 13-3 and appeared to have the game in hand after Pittsburgh got stopped on fourth down and Brees took the Saints 59 yards on 10 plays. That drive ended with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Colston, who caught the ball at the 3 and lunged past the goal-line pylon for the touchdown.
No sooner had the Saints taken their 13-3 lead, however, than the Steelers struck back with a four-play, 68-yard drive that ended when Rashard Mendenhall, who had been held in check most of the night, broke through a big hole on the right side, faked Saints cornerback Malcolm Jenkins badly, and went untouched down the sideline for a 38-yard touchdown. That made it 13-10 with 10:48 left.
The Steelers tried to claw back, especially after cornerback Bryant McFadden burst through on a blitz and Brees fumbled when hit. Pittsburgh recovered on its own 27.
Roethlisberger was moving his team down the field for what would have been the tying field goal - or more - when tight end Heath Miller, rumbling downfield with a catch, was stripped of the ball by linebacker Marvin Mitchell. It popped right into the waiting arms of Saints safety Darren Sharper.
That set the stage for the Saints' final drive and the Brees/Moore heroics. Or, as Brees noted, capped off the Saints finest 30 minutes of football this year.
"We knew what a big game this was," Brees said. "Really we had four great drives in the second half. Scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. We talked about winning in the fourth quarter and finishing this game the right way. We did that."
Which means, Brees hinted, the second half of 2010 might be nothing like the first.
"We've built a reputation around here," he said. "I felt like we played as complete a football game as we've played all year."
James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or 504.717.1156.
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