After the Saints regained the lead (34-27) on Drew Brees’ fourth touchdown pass of the game, Carr drove Oakland 75 yards, throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Seth Roberts with 47 seconds left. In a stroke of confidence and pre-planning, Del Rio had informed his third-year quarterback the team would be going for the win rather than having Sebastian Janikowski attempt a game-tying extra point. The call was for WR Michael Crabtree on an out route, and QB Derek Carr put the ball where only Crabs could wrap it up, which he did, and the Raiders won for the first time on opening day in five years, 35-34. They also had to sweat out rookie kicker Wil Lutz’s last second field goal attempt from 61 yards, which narrowly missed wide left as the Superdome crowd briefly erupted before realizing the kick was no good.
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Drew Brees- Brees moved back into 3rd All-Time on the NFL’s passing touchdown list yesterday, as he was tied with New England’s Tom Brady (428) coming into the game. The Saints did not register a sack, and while Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was hurried a couple of times, he basically had all the time he needed. One can take the long view – “one game at a time”, they like to say.
Carson Wentz: 278 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions is miles better than anyone expected from a rookie out of the FCS starting Week 1.
KANSAS CITY 33, SAN DIEGO 27: In Kansas City, Missouri, Alex Smith dived for a touchdown on the first possession of overtime, completing the Kansas City Chiefs’ frantic rally from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit. The insane chain of events led to a Travaris Cadet 2-yard touchdown giving the Saints a 7-point advantage. More importantly, he led the Raiders on yet another fourth quarter comeback after four of those a year ago. As hard as it might be to believe, things could get even worse for the New Orleans defense. He logged two touchdown receptions, including one 98-yard dash over cornerback Sean Smith.
The final score wasn’t the only rough outcome of Sunday’s season opener against the Oakland Raiders for the Saints.
Particularly noteworthy was the Raiders’ late-season win on the road against the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, during which the new look Oakland roster outplayed their AFC West rivals in a statement win.
“They’re going to see that we have young corners and they’re going to try to attack that”, Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro said.
But look. A win’s a win and this is exactly the sort of game the Raiders would have lost over any of the previous 14 seasons.
Drew Brees had his passing game in high gear. “We’ve just got to really understand who we’re playing and who we’re taking away”. He also hauled in nine touchdown catches to go with it, which was a drastic jump from the solid 550 receiving yards and three touchdown catches he posted in his rookie season in 2014.
“Hopefully it’s not too serious and we get those guys back, because I’m not trying to play right tackle again”, said Penn. It went unnoticed because the Saints would score the next play.
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“I’m not going to start the season off complaining about the officials”. It’s as if the Saints took having the worst defense in National Football League history in 2015 as a challenge and said, “You think 2015 was the WORST?” I believed that we would come back and win that game.
