Amazingly, Brandon Browner even managed to incur a penalty on the interception return for an illegal block in the back, his league-leading 16th penalty of the season. “He does them all the time at practice…” The Saints added a 30-yard field goal by Kai Forbath to make the score 14-3 with 6:31 left in the first half.
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The Texans finished 5 for 5 on third-down conversions in the first quarter.
When quarterback Drew Brees doesn’t throw a touchdown pass, you just know, the New Orleans Saints failed to secure a “W”.
The Texans opened each halves with gusto, overlaying 70 and 50 yards on first-quarter landing drives engineered by quarterback. Griffin grabbed a short pass in the middle of the field and dashed for a 37-yard gain on that drive. “We’ve definitely been playing at a high level lately”.
“The preparation, the want-to, the desire, those guys have been outstanding”, he said.
The defense showed signs of improvement under Ryan’s replacement, Dennis Allen, giving up 63 fewer yards and 7 fewer points than the season average coming into last weekend. Those are losing numbers, to be certain. Eight or nine offensive third downs were 10 or more and then conversely the down and distance that we were defending was a lot less.
Payton indicated Monday that it was easy to see where it went wrong against the Texans. 500 mark for the first time this year at 6-5. Griffin missed seven games on short-term injured reserve, and the touchdown marked the Texans’ first score on an opening possession this season…. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. The Jaguars suffered a loss they absolutely could not afford against San Diego yesterday, so they will have a very hard time climbing back into the divisional race down two games with five to play and 0-2 against the Colts and Texans so far this season. The gap between the two teams was evident, even stunning.
As a Saints fan, that’s about as bad as it gets.
“It’s disappointing to lose a game like that, and certainly it’s disappointing to not score a touchdown”, Saints coach Sean Payton said.
The Texans and Colts will hit the road next Sunday, as Houston is slated to visit Buffalo, while Indianapolis will visit Pittsburgh in prime time Sunday night. Nick Foles returned as the starter and threw three interceptions, including one that Leon Hall returned 19 yards for a touchdown.
New Orleans (4-7) dropped its third straight on a day when the team didn’t score a touchdown for the first time since 2005, snapping a streak of 155 games. That was a Jets defense led by Darrelle Revis.
Coach Payton went on to mentioned most of Saints 3rd down struggles were due to the Texans defense upfront.
-WLB Dannell Ellerbe (hip) was sidelined for a fourth game in a row and it’s not known if he’ll be back for Sunday’s game with the Carolina Panthers.
Houston’s star defensive end recalls every aspect of that takedown and reminisced on it this week as he prepares to face the man who was the recipient, Drew Brees.
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By virtue of being on the brink of missing the playoffs for the second straight year, the Saints are close to qualifying for HBO’s annual inside look an National Football League training camp that has somehow overlooked the Black & Gold since its debut in 2001, another prong of the three-part test for an NFL-mandated starring role.
