East Rutherford, N.J. – Aesthetics, schmethetics.
The New Orleans Saints won Sunday and despite the look of it – and it wasn't a beauty by any stretch of the imagination – New Orleans (5-8) improved to 3-1 under interim head coach Darren Rizzi and kept alive its slim hopes of winning the NFC South Division with a 14-11 victory over the Giants (2-11) at MetLife Stadium.
On a chamber-of-commerce kind of day in East Rutherford – sunshine, a high of 55 degrees and navigable wind – the Saints offense was stuck in the mud for long periods of time but extracted its cleats just enough with a significant assist from the defense, which posted one of its stingiest performances of the season.
New Orleans lost quarterback Derek Carr in the process, and we'll learn more about his injury and availability in the coming days. But the wins eased a bit of the discomfort.
OFFENSE: The offense constructed two big-boy touchdown drives – a nine-play, 98-yarder and a nine-play, 69-yarder – but didn't do much else against a Giants defense that was allowing 23 points per game and almost 150 rushing yards. The Saints had 92 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries, Carr threw an interception (his first in five games) and New Orleans totaled just 292 yards overall – 135 outside of the two touchdown drives. Red zone efficiency was perfect (2 for 2) but there were numerous negative plays – New York had 13 tackles for loss. The flow never developed and New Orleans was fortunate to get away with it.
DEFENSE: The defense gave up virtually nothing for three quarters, then had to hang on for dear life in the fourth quarter as the Giants snatched momentum. Drew Lock's mobility was problematic; New York's quarterback ran for a game-high 59 yards on five carries. But New Orleans shut down the passing game: Lock completed 21 of 49 passes for 227 yards with no touchdowns, an interception, was sacked twice and was hit 13 times. He was repeatedly harassed and that led to much of the inaccuracy, which helped the Saints produce stops on 14 of 19 third-down attempts and two of four fourth-down plays. New Orleans was especially stingy in the first half, when the Giants totaled 86 yards and converted once in eight third-down attempts.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Defensive tackle Bryan Bresee really kept this from being a messy day. Blake Grupe missed a pair of field-goal attempts – his 53-yarder was wide left and the 60-yard attempt was blocked. Not easy, but you'd like to have him split those kicks. And the Saints were saved when a punt return for a touchdown was erased by a holding penalty. Bresee literally sealed the victory by blocking Graham Gano's chip-shot field-goal attempt from 35 yards with 11 seconds left in the game. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened in an overtime period.
