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Michael Thomas had 3 words of advice for Saints WRs in Week 4; here's how they followed it

DETROIT — As the New Orleans Saints beat the Detroit Lions on Sunday, star receiver Michael Thomas was limited to watching the broadcast and tweeting his thoughts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t have at least a little bit of an impact on the outcome.

“Ask Tre’Quan what I texted him before the game,” Thomas tweeted midway through the game. “He doing exactly that!”

So, Tre’Quan Smith, what did Michael Thomas text you before you hauled in a pair of touchdowns and a key third-down conversion in the fourth quarter that went a long way toward clinching the win?

“Right before the game, Mike texted me and he said, ‘Ball out, bro,’ ” Smith said. “I sent him the '100' emoji.”

With Thomas sitting out for the third straight game with an ankle injury and top receiving tight end Jared Cook joining him on the shelf with an injured groin, the Saints needed a big game from Smith and the rest of the receiving corps. And they got it.

What Smith lacked in volume, catching all four of his targets, he made up for in impact. His first catch was a heavily contested 2-yarder, which he muscled into his hands for a score that gave the Saints their first lead.

He briefly left the field after getting crunched by a linebacker away from a play but returned on the next drive to make a crucial catch on a third-and-9 that kept a drive alive. He hauled in a 20-yard touchdown on the next play, giving the Saints a 28-14 lead just before the end of the first half.

And his last catch may have been his most important. The Lions rallied to close the gap to just six points late in the fourth quarter, and the Saints were facing a third an--5 from their own 27-yard line with 3:25 to go in the game. A failure to convert would have opened the window for Detroit to take the lead.

Instead, quarterback Drew Brees found Smith on a crossing route for 19 yards, keeping the drive alive so New Orleans could ultimately kneel the clock out.

“He was outstanding today,” coach Sean Payton said. “He made some contested plays in real big situations. That third down on the last drive, that was significant.”

Smith was not the only one to show up with a big day. Veteran Emmanuel Sanders more than doubled his season receiving yardage output, with a team-high six catches for 93 yards, including three of the Saints’ seven longest plays from scrimmage with catches of of 25, 19 and 18 yards.

Before Sunday’s game, Sanders had eight catches for 89 yards all season.

A few weeks ago he spoke of being about “85% comfortable” in the Saints offense after his abbreviated offseason. Earlier this week, he said he felt his touchdown catch against the Green Bay Packers served as an “icebreaker.” Sunday after the game, he said he was “all the way there.”

In the previous two games without Thomas, the Saints wide receiver corps combined to catch 19 passes for 230 yards. In just Sunday’s game, Smith and Sanders accounted for 10 catches and 147 yards.

“Both those guys played outstanding,” Brees said. “... It takes everybody. We knew the last two weeks we were not at the level of execution, we haven’t had the tempo and the rhythm that we know we can have.”

They did not lose faith though, neither the players on the field nor their teammates stuck watching while nursing injuries.

Sunday, they kept it 100.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill