NFL Recap (New England-New Orleans)
Posted: Sun October 4, 1998 at 6:03 p.m. EDT
NEW ENGLAND 30, NEW ORLEANS 27
NEW ORLEANS (Ticker) -- Drew Bledsoe threw his
first interceptions this season, but helped overcome a special teams
blunder with pinpoint passing on New England's winning drive as the
Patriots beat the New
Orleans Saints, 30-27.
The Saints (3-1) spoiled Mike Ditka's 200th game as an NFL coach,
failing in a bid for their third 4-0 start in the franchise's 31-year
history. New Orleans is locked in a three-way tie for first place with the
Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers in the
NFC West. The Saints host San Francisco next Sunday.
Bledsoe had thrown 91 passes entering the game without throwing an
interception before tossing two in the first half alone, but New England
(3-1) still led 27-17 after three quarters.
"It's difficult to overcome four turnovers versus an undefeated team
with a great crowd," New England coach Pete Carroll explained. "I don't
think there's any question our offense stepped up all day today. The times
we got going in this game, we could move the football."
Ahead by three late in the fourth, the Patriots attempted to down a
punt at the Saints' 1 but allowed Andre Hastings to scoop up
the ball a yard deep in the end zone and sprint 76 yards. Doug Brien's 37-yard field
goal with 89 seconds left tied the game at 27-27.
But Bledsoe responded on the ensuing drive, completing all four of his
passes for 62 yards. Adam
Vinatieri's third field goal of the game, a 27-yarder with three
seconds to play, gave New England its third straight victory.
"I have great confidence in our two-minute offense, and under two
minutes I expect to be able to score," said Bledsoe. "I have confidence in
all of my guys."
The Patriots started the game-winning drive on their own 20 before
Bledsoe found Troy
Brown with consecutive passes for a total of 25 yards. After a
timeout, Bledsoe hit tight end Ben Coates for 10 yards
and found Vincent
Brisby for 27 more to the Saints' 18. New England ran the ball four
times in the next 47 seconds before Vinatieri kicked the go-ahed field
goal.
New Orleans forced the Patriots to punt with just over two minutes
left. Tom Tupa bounced
a kick to the 1, where rookie Tebucky Jones and special
teams star Larry
Whigham each got a hand on it. Earl Little grabbed it for the Saints
and dropped to one knee, but Hastings alertly stripped his teammate and ran
down the sideline, setting up the tying field goal.
"If you know the rules, once you take a knee in the end zone, the play
is dead," Whigham claimed. "The referee threw the beanbag, and I thought
he was going to call the play dead, but he didn't."
The Patriots had built a 10-point lead early in the third quarter on
big plays from a trio of Louisiana products.
Brisby hauled in a six-yard TD pass from Bledsoe with 4:25 left in the
first half as New England took a 10-7 lead. Later in the quarter, Whigham,
Brisby's teammate at Northeast Lousiana, partially blocked a punt,
resulting in rookie Robert
Edwards' eight-yard TD run and a 17-7 advantage.
The Saints cut the deficit to 17-14 on the final play of the first
half as Danny Wuerffel
capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard toss to rookie tight end
Cameron Cleeland. But
Louisiana State graduate Henry Thomas, a defensive
tackle, returned an interception 24 yards 1:41 into the second half for his
third career TD.
Thomas victimized a sloppy screen pass from Wuerffel, who went
25-of-47 for 278 yards with two interceptions and two TDs. New Orleans,
however, managed just 276 yards of total offense, rushing 18 times for 39
yards.
"I think anytime you do well down the stretch, confidence builds
confidence," said Wuerffel. "I was really proud of the way everybody hung
in there. It looked like things were starting to fall apart. But we hung
in there."
Bledsoe completed 21-of-35 passes for 317 yards but threw three
interceptions. He inreased his total number of passes without an
interception to 101, going 4-of-10 for 33 yards on the opening drive. But
Alex Molden picked off
Bledsoe at the goal line, ending the drive.
The Patriots eventually opened the scoring with 81 seconds to go in
the first quarter on Vinatieri's 34-yard field goal. New Orleans
linebacker Kevin
Mitchell later blitzed, stripped Bledsoe and raced 63 yards for a TD,
giving the Saints their only lead, 7-3.
New England still improved to 6-3 in the all-time series and 4-0 at
the Superdome, snapping a three-game losing streak to the Saints dating to
1989. Ditka's career mark stands at 121-79 with New Orleans and the Chicago Bears.
"I'm proud of them, really and honestly," said Ditka. "We didn't do
enough on offense, defense or special teams to win the football game."
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
|
