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Giants Stun and Spoil Saints' Superdome Return

The Saints lose in overtime to the Giants, as they spoil the first game in the Superdome in 637 days.

John Hendrix

NEW ORLEANS -- The Saints are now 2-2 after being upset by the Giants in the Superdome return. It took overtime, but New York got a 27-21 win over New Orleans after being down 21-10 at one point. The defense allowed 402 total yards, while the offense suffered some woes in playcalling and clock management. Here's how the game went.

Game Recap

The Saints ended up winning the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. The Giants had the full force of a hostile Superdome crowd to deal with on their first series, but the special teams unit set the tone with Zack Baun and Kaden Elliss on the kickoff. New York ended up going three-and-out, as they totaled 4 yards in the first snaps of the game. Tanoh Kpassagnon had a nice tipped pass on 3rd-and-6 play to force a punt.

The offense came out with a strong start, being powered by Alvin Kamara on the ground and catching a swing pass that should have been a loss, but turned it into a 10-yard gain. Things would stall out over the next few downs, and forced New Orleans to punt. The defense continued to hold strong, even with the Giants getting a first down on the drive deep in their own territory. They'd come up big on three straight plays after the conversion to force another punt.

New Orleans would find some success on the ground and get some things going in the passing game on their ensuing possession, with big plays to Deonte Harris on a bubble screen and some good runs by Alvin Kamara. The drive concluded after the Saints elected to go for it on 4th-and-3 and come up short on the pitch out to Kamara. The spot did not appear to be favorable, and Payton didn't decided to challenge the play, as the Giants took over from their own 27-yard-line with 3:44 left in the opening quarter.

The Giants offense would dig themselves out of an early hole, converting a big 3rd-and-18 play from Daniel Jones to Kadarius Toney that helped them pilot a 10-play, 57-yard drive that took 5:29 off the clock. Jones also found Kenny Golladay for a 27-yard hookup to put them inside the Saints' 25-yard-line. However, on a 3rd-and-1 play Jones would try the end zone and then New York opted for a 35-yard Graham Gano field goal that was wide left, and we remained scoreless at the 13:15 mark of the second quarter.

As New Orleans took over, they'd put together an 8-play, 35-yard drive that saw it end without points again, as Aldrick Rosas missed from 58. On the drive, the Saints lost Tony Jones Jr. due to a leg injury, and he was carted off the field. The big play of the drive came when Winston connected with Deonte Harris, who took the short pass on an 18-yard gain to get across midfield. However, things would stall and the Saints could not get points out of it, as we stayed locked at 0-0 with 8:59 left until the half.

It took the Giants one play to find the end zone, as Daniel Jones unloaded deep and connected with John Ross for a 52-yard score. It came with some drama, as Ross fumbled towards the end of the play. The Giants went up 7-0 with 8:51 to go in the quarter.

The Saints offense was able to respond and answer, as they'd go on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took 8:28 off the clock and resulted in a 15-yard touchdown to Juwan Johnson from Jameis Winston. New Orleans got a big 3rd-and-9 conversion from Winston to Ty Montgomery, and kept churning on the drive to get into the end zone. They were facing a 3rd-and-1 from the Giants' 15-yard-line, but an illegal formation penalty on Kamara backed them up to a 3rd-and-6 play that ended in the Johnson score.

The Giants would make things interesting after being aggressive with little time left on the clock, but Marcus Williams would close the door after picking off the hail mary attempt from Jones.

Second Half

The Saints took a shot on the very first play of their offensive drive, and it was a 58-yard hookup to Marquez Callaway. They followed that up with a nice gain to Chris Hogan, who made a great individual effort to break some tackles and pick up some extra yardage. However, it was Taysom Hill who had the exclamation point to get the team's second touchdown, as he broke several tackles and took it in from 8 yards out to make it 14-7.

The Giants answered quickly with a 25-yard Gano field goal, taking just 4:48 to march 70 yards down the field in 10 plays. They got big plays from Kadarius Toney, Kenny Golladay, and Kyle Rudolph to set them up with a 1st-and-Goal situation from the 3-yard-line. However, the Saints defense would answer and step up in a big way to only hold them to three points to make it 14-10 with 8:36 left in the third quarter.

New Orleans looked to respond in a big way, and it appeared that they were on their way. The Saints offense got things going, and had a big 21-yard hookup on a 3rd-and-2 from Winston to Ty Montgomery. Just a play later, Winston would find Kenny Stills for a 46-yard touchdown, but holding was called on Adam Trautman that wiped it out. One play after, Taysom Hill was picked off by James Bradberry on an underthrown ball to Deonte Harris, and the Giants took over at their own 12-yard-line with 6:08 left in the quarter.

The Saints defense forced a Giants punt after several plays and a Giants first down, and the offense took advantage, going 63 yards in 11 plays. The drive took 6:14 off the clock, and ended with Taysom Hill's second rushing touchdown of the day, once again from 8 yards out to make it 21-10 with 12:09 left in the game. 

New Orleans would bend a little on the ensuing Giants drive, mainly giving up a big 21-yard catch-and-run to Kadarius Toney, but wouldn't break when it counted most. New York tried to dial up a trick play with Toney throwing it, but the Saints were ready for it. Toney, who was very active on the day, could not get the 2nd-and-9 throw over the middle, and the Giants could not convert the 3rd-and-9 to keep their drive alive across midfield.

The Saints offense took over with 9:24 left in the game from their own 17-yard-line, Alvin Kamara ended up going over 100 yards rushing on the first carry of the drive, a 7-yard gain. However, it ended up being a three-and-out for New Orleans, who punted the ball back to the Giants with just over 7 minutes to play. It took New York a single play to get into the end zone, as Jones found Saquon Barkley for a 54-yard scoop-and-score. The Giants converted the 2-point attempt, and it went to 21-18 with 6:52 left in the game.

New Orleans ended up punting the ball back to New York after running a few minutes off the clock, as they ended up getting a costly delay of game penalty that forced them into a 2nd-and-14 situation. Winston would be pressured and have to throw it into the dirt, and the next play to Harris wasn't going to get them a first down. 

As the Giants took over with 3:01 to play, they marched down the field with two timeouts to work with. They piloted an 11-play, 59-yard drive to get the 48-yard Graham Gano field goal to tie things up at 21 with just 31 seconds left in the game. New Orleans would get a small window to try to make something happen, but would settle for overtime.

New York would win the overtime coin toss after calling heads, and put together a strong drive to end the game and sink New Orleans after Saquon Barkley took it in from 6 yards out. The Saints will travel in Week 5 to take on the Washington Football Team in their last game before their bye week.

Published
John Hendrix
JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net

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