Saints march on with a brilliant performance to win 49-24 over Giants – NFL Recap Week 12
New Orleans Saints marched on to their third straight win with a stunning performance against New York Giants at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Saints stay top of the National Football Conference South with a game in hand after comprehensively dismantling a shell-shocked Giants side 49-24.
"Can't say enough about our team. Our coaches, offense, defense -- it was a great team win tonight in every aspect," Quarterback Drew Brees said.
And a great win it was with Brees playing a pivotal role. The 32-year-old veteran’s passes were like a hot knife through butter easily cleaving through Giants defensive line with the quarterback ending the game with an impressive
four touchdown passes.
With zero interceptions during the game, Brees completed 24 out of 38 attempted passes with a 63.2% completion rate as he covered 363 yards.
"There's that confidence that players around him have, and obviously we have in him," Saints coach Sean Payton said of Brees. "He made some fantastic throws tonight."
New York Giants (6-5) entered the match on a two-game losing streak and desperate for victory, but they faced a side at the peak of its powers coming from a long bye-week and rearing to go. Giants were swept aside easily and instead
of a roar ended the match on a whimper failing to gain a lead even once throughout the match.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning tried his best to galvanise the team, but failed with his two touchdown passes simply not enough and with his team managing to gain just 73 rushing yards the game had a foregone conclusion.
A scoreless first half at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome gave way to a glut of touchdowns in the final three quarters. Drew Brees started the second quarter on fire with Saints taking the lead through Lance Moore who collected a four
yard pass from the quarterback at 14:52.
Lawrence Tynes scored a 42-yard field goal for New York Giants on nine minutes but Brees was not done yet. Two quick-fire touchdown passes in the final two minutes of the second quarter to Jimmy Graham and Lance Moore led Saints
to build a mammoth 21-3 lead at the end of the first half.
New York Giants gave a semblance of putting up a battle at the start of the third quarter as Brandon Jacobs completed an eight-yard run to the end-zone to make it 21-10 on 10:43.
Brees turned from provider to scorer after five minutes with a powerful eight yard run into Giants end-zone and a minute later, sent a 29 yard scorcher to Jimmy Graham to give Saints 35-10 lead with his final touchdown pass of
the night.
The fourth quarter saw Giants trying to get back into the game, but it was too little too late. Eli Manning connected with a 72-yard pass to Victor Cruz to bring the score to 35-17 with 14:50 on the dial. Saints struck back immediately
with a touchdown from Pierre Thomas’s powerful 12 yard run.
Cruz scored another touchdown to make it 42-24 after collecting another TD pass from Eli Manning but the effort was futile with just five minutes of regular time left.
Saints rubbed salt into the Giants wounds with Mark Ingram scoring a 35 yard touchdown with a brilliant run at 1:02 giving New Orleans a well deserved 49-24 victory and securing their position at the top of NFC South.
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