New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Article Tackle by New Orleans Saints' Usama Young beginning of end for Carolina Panthers

This one was nice in a special way.

Sometimes one tackle can do it.

With less than two minutes remaining, after the marching Carolina Panthers converted a fourth-and-4 to get new life and had moved to the New Orleans Saints' 36, you could sense the feeling inside the Superdome on Sunday.
The Panthers were on their way to terminate an 0-3 losing streak and turn the Saints into a 2-2 football team.
And then?

And then Usama Young came up with the biggest one-on-one stop of the afternoon. When it looked as though the odds might be against it, he wrapped up DeAngelo Williams for 4 negative yards and pretty much wrapped up a 16-14 victory that could have been a 17-16 loss.
"It was huge,'' said Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma. "You saw what it did. It was the kind of play that lit a fire.''

It was the kind of fire that saw Malcolm Jenkins sack Jimmy Clausen for another 4-yard loss, then saw Clausen hurried into a game-ending incompletion.

Earlier in the day, Young had no idea he'd wind up filling in at strong safety.
First, Roman Harper was inactive. Then, Pierson Prioleau and Chris Reis made an exit with injuries.
So what was Young thinking as he went eyeball-to-eyeball with Williams on second-and-8 at the 36?
"Only one thing,'' he said. "If he gets the ball, get him down and try to get them out of field-goal range.''
At that point, Williams had rushed for a game-high 90 yards, which included a 39-yard explosion for a touchdown that gave the Panthers a 14-10 lead in the third quarter.

"I remember him from college,'' said Young. "He not only ran with power, he was plenty elusive, with a wicked change of pace.''
But there came Young, greeting Williams as Williams tried to twist his way into a large gob of daylight, the kind that could have put the Panthers into chip-shot range for a winning kick.

"There were times those guys were tough to get off the field,'' said Young. "It was great the way our defense kept battling though all the injuries. But that's how it is in this league. Every team has to deal with injuries. You don't know where you might be playing. All you have to do is look at what we've had to do at running back.''

At running back is where Reggie Bush is on the mend with a broken leg, where Pierre Thomas sat out Sunday with a sprained ankle, where new faces such as Ladell Betts and Chris Ivory have stepped in, Ivory with 67 yards on Sunday, Betts with 47.

John Carney, the oldest player in the league at 46, was part of the step-in parade with field goals of 32, 32 and 25 yards, points that helped the Saints overcome two huge turnovers, a fumble into the end zone by Lance Moore after a long drive in the first quarter, and a fumble by Ivory at the Carolina 21 in the second quarter.

In this one, the Saints learned once again how it is to dominate your enemy and come up empty.

After a scoreless first quarter, the home team owned a 111-17 edge in total yards. At halftime, when it was Saints up 10-7, the edge was 235-108.
"We haven't scored like we're used to scoring and we're still a missed field goal away from 4-0,'' said Drew Brees. "This could have been a 30-point day for our offense without the turnovers and some red zone failures.''
He was particularly unhappy about driving 86 yards in 18 plays in the fourth quarter and having to settle for three points instead of putting his team out of field-goal range with a touchdown.

And he felt the same way about marching from the Saints' 9 to the Panthers' end zone in 15 first-quarter plays and winding up with a touchback instead of a touchdown.

"Every game we've played this year has come down to the fourth quarter or overtime,'' Brees said. "We still have the killer instinct. We're just making stupid mistakes.''
His October message to Who Dats is simple.
Be patient.