– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW ORLEANS — Shockingly enough, the team currently playing the best football in the topsy-turvy NFC South Division is also the same one that has been rooted at the bottom of it for the entire season. The New Orleans Saints took their lumps in the first couple months of the season, but have assured sure that, whoever eventually comes out of their division as the champion, the winner will have some black and blue marks going into the postseason because of Who Dat Nation.
Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough led three second-half scoring drives, the last one capped off by Charlie Smyth’s 47-yard field goal with two seconds remaining as the Saints dented the Carolina Panthers’ shot at gaining first place in the NFC South with a come-from-behind 20-17 win inside the Caesars Superdome on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re not going to be able to be able to go to the playoffs this year, but we’re building something really special,” Saints first-year head coach Kellen Moore said. “Every single guy in that locker room, the way they prepare and compete and stay together through each and every experience, the last two weeks has been another awesome example.”
Last Sunday, the Saints went into Tampa Bay and stunned the first-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-20, a result that helped Carolina a great deal in its push to win its first NFC South crown since 2015. But the Panthers, who would have gained sole possession of first place with a win today, couldn’t take advantage of that Buccaneers’ loss and Tampa Bay’s subsequent defeat against Atlanta this past Thursday due to the Saints’ newfound mastery of the division’s front-runners.
Like last month, when the then one-win Saints stunned the Panthers in Charlotte, Shough used both his arm and his running ability to keep drives alive and the Carolina defense off-balance. The rookie quarterback completed six passes in a drive lasting 2:08 that ended with a 12-yard touchdown strike to Chris Olave that tied the game at 17-17 more than midway through the fourth.
On the final drive, Shough moved New Orleans from its own 9-yard line with 57 seconds remaining to just past midfield. From the Panthers’ 48 with just 12 seconds remaining and no timeouts, Shough surprised Carolina with a quarterback draw that ended up earning New Orleans an extra 15 yards on a late hit by linebacker Lathan Ransom on the sliding quarterback. Two plays later, Smyth’s kick sent the superdome into raptures and the Panthers into another state of disappointment in what has proven to be a promising yet inconsistent season.
“We’re a team that prides ourselves on the finish and we didn’t get that done today,” Panthers quarterback Bryce Young said. “It’s not going to feel good for 24 hours … We have a locker room full of guys ho want to do better.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by New Jersey-based photographer Vinnie Lucia. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 39 pictures in total.
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