WhoDat!656

4. The Headless Horseman Rides Again

The New Orleans Saints are the Headless Horseman of the 2012 NFL season. The galloping Hessian of American literary lore was decapitated by a Revolutionary War cannonball.

The galloping offensive machine of modern NFL lore was decapitated by trigger-happy Gridiron Godfather Roger Goodell, who suspended Saints coach Sean Payton for the entire season.

The results have been disastrous for New Orleans. The Coachless Horsemen were 1-4 heading into Week 7, before salvaging a 35-28 win at Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Even with the touchdown margin, it was an edge-of-the seat gallop through the valley of near-death for the Saints.

In fact, New Orleans twice fought off execution.

The Bucs enjoyed a first and goal at the New Orleans 1 midway through the third quarter, but failed to punch the ball in. Credit the Saints for the great goal-line stand.

But it seemed more a case of three lame, unimaginative and poorly executed dive plays by LeGarrette Blount that netted 0 yards and did in the Tampa drive.

The drive ended when Josh Freeman was sacked for a loss of 4 on fourth and 1 at the 1.

Then in the final moments of the game, Freeman and the Buccaneers drove from their own 21 to the New Orleans 9 and appeared to knot the game (pending the extra point) with a Mike Williams TD catch in the back of the end zone as time expired.

But officials ruled, correctly, that Williams had stepped out of the back of the end zone. Football Headless Horsemen gallop on, with their second straight win after an 0-4 start.

Brees completed 20 of 25 passes for 313 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT and a 141.7 rating in the first half.

The second half? Not so much: 7 of 12 for 64 yards and zero scores. Despite the prolific first half, Brees was outgunned for the day by the Josh Freeman (420 yards, 10.0 YPA, 3 TD, 115.2 rating).

10. Tampa Bay receiver Vincent Jackson hauled in a 95-yard reception against the Saints Sunday. The Bucs failed to score a single point on that drive. We believe it may be the longest play in history on a drive that failed to net a single point, but we’re trying to determine that right now.

Jackson appeared slow-footed toward the end of the run and was chased down from behind by Malcolm Jenkins.

12 storylines that should frighten football fans

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

Rugby Saint II

Ain't skeered!

SaintsBro

I love how so many of these articles about that last play are like, THE BUCCANEERS TIED THE GAME ON THE LAST PLAY, but the officials (correctly) called Tampa Bay for illegal touching....

They always trumpet the Tampa Bay "touchdown" catch, and then throw that word "correctly" in there, sorta after the fact or just kinda tossed in the mix, like a legal disclaimer they have to do -- as if the Bucanneers REALLY won but the Saints won by some fluke interpretation of the rules or something.... . It's like they are grudgingly forced to admit that the call was right, or they are unhappy about the result. None of these articles by the national people say it was a heads-up play by the Saints defense to know the rules or applaud the Saints defensive staff for coaching their guys on how to defend that type of play in the back of the end zone at the end of the game.

Beastmode

The Saints have been smart on several critical plays this season. Taking advantage of a gimpy Gaither (he was limping the previous play), taking advantage of a gimpy Jackson (not full speed before game), DB's knowing the rules. That's not luck that's awareness and using it to your advantage.

WhoDat!656

No respect!!

UK_WhoDat

Called PROFESSIONAL football.