At some point -- and amid the flurry of touchdowns and big plays it was difficult to say exactly when it went from remarkable to ridiculous.
The New York Giants and New Orleans Saintswere turning the Superdome on its ear with one of the most prolific displays of offensive football the NFL has ever seen. And no one watching could quite believe what they were witnessing. Even the players themselves were in awe.
"It was like magic," Saints running back C.J. Spiller said.
"It was amazing," wide receiver Brandin Cooks added.
How amazing? The Giants and Saints combined for 101 points, 1,030 yards and an NFL-record 14 touchdowns. And on the final snap of the 141-play pyrotechnic marathon, Kai Forbath"s 50-yard goal was the game winner.
Saints 52, Giants 49.
Fittingly, the third highest scoring game in NFL history was decided by the team that had the ball last.
"I"ve never been a part of something like that," Brees said.
Few have.
The teams" 14combined touchdowns were the most since the NFL-AFLmerger in 1970.
Quarterbacks Eli Manning (six) and Drew Brees (seven) combined to throw 13 touchdown passes, the most in a single game in NFL history.
For the Saints, it was the second most points and third most yards they"d amassed in club history. And they needed every one of them to secure the win.
"It was like a heavyweight fight," Saints tight end Ben Watson said. "We were scoring. They were scoring. They hit us. We hit them."
Watson said he told teammate Terron Armstead in the tunnel before pregame introductions the Saints weredue an offensive outburst. Brees said he visualized having a big game during his week of preparation.
But no one envisioned this. This was the NFL"s version of Oklahoma State-Texas Tech fromSaturday (123 combined points). The Saints were scoring touchdowns like Steph Curry scores buckets, and somehow the Giants were matching them.
It was reminiscent of the Loyola-Marymount vs. LSU men"s basketball shootout in 1990, when the Tigers and Shaquille O"Neal needed overtime to outlast the Lions 148-141 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Saints and Giants combined to average 7.3 yards a play. Of the 141 combined offensive snaps, only seven resulted in lost yardage. Thirty-six of the combined plays gained at least 10 yards. Eight of the touchdowns covered 20 or more yards. There were five scores in the fourth quarter alone.
Late in the fourth quarter, Brees had completed 18 consecutive passes and had as many touchdown passes (six) as incompletions (six).
At one point, I think Saints head coach Sean Payton and Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo were calling running plays simply to give their wide receivers a chance to rest.
"This was certainly one of the craziest games that I have ever been a part of," Brees said. "It was punch for punch. We knew we couldn"t slip up. There were a lot of things about today that were kind of mind-boggling."
For the Saints more so than the Giants, this one would have been a soul-crusher to lose. The Saints started the fourth quarter with a two-touchdown lead then saw it disappear in a three-touchdown, five-minute whirlwind by the Giants.
"It was a wild one," said, Manning, who, despite throwing for 350 yards and a career-high six TDs, lost for the third time in as many trips to his hometown. "I definitely don"t know if I"ve played in one quite like that, with that many touchdowns back and forth. ... I just wish we could have come out on top of it."
The Giants are probably praying to the NFL schedule-rotation Gods to keep them away from the Superdome in the future. In their past four trips to the Superdome dating to 2003, the Giants have been beaten by scores of 45-7 (2003), 48-27 (2009), 49-24 (2011) and now 52-49.
"Frustrating," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We couldn"t stop them. We didn"t stop them."
The win was the Saints" third consecutive and served notice to the rest of the NFL that they plan to be a factor in the NFC in the second half of the season. They have weathered the shaky 1-4 start and will enter the second half of their schedule with major momentum at 4-4.
"This is one of the greatest feelings I"ve ever felt right now," Spiller said amid the Saints ebullient postgame locker room.
Saints fans everywhere would echo Spiller"s sentiments.
That it happened on All Saints Day only made the win all the more satisfying. No one in the Superdome will soon forget this one. Nov. 1, 2015 will forever be known as the day fantasy football became reality.
Source: http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2015/11/new_orleans_saints_celebrate_a.html
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