NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints rediscovered an old friend in Sunday’s NFC wildcard playoff game against the Carolina Panthers – the right arm of Drew Brees.
After turning to running back Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara in their first two meetings, the Saints rode the arm of their 38-year-old Pro Bowl quarterback to a 31-26 victory over the Carolina Panthers and advanced to face the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs.
When called upon, the future Pro Football Hall of Fame didn’t disappoint. Brees completed 23-of-33 passes for 376 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. It was the second time this season Brees passed for more than 375 yards in a game.
By comparison, Brees passed for a combined 489 yards and four touchdowns in the Saints’ previous two wins over the Panthers.
“If a team is going to stack the box, I feel like with the matchups we have on the outside that there should be some opportunities,” Brees said. “You still need to have a level of patience to take advantage of them when they do come around. I feel like we’ve shown offensively is that we have a lot of ways to be effective and a lot of weapons to spread the ball around.”
With Ingram and Kamara leading the way in the regular-season meetings, the Saints averaged 148.5 yards per game against the Panthers.
On Sunday, Carolina keyed on stopping the run, as the Saints were held to only 41 yards for an average of 1.9 yards per carry.
Ingram said the Panthers made a mistake by putting all of their attention on stopping the run.
“I’ve been saying all year that you don’t sleep on Drew,” Ingram said. “If you are going to stack the box, try to stop the run and take us out of the game, he is going to hurt you. We have been saying that he is the best quarterback in the league. He is still Drew Brees.”
Brees made the Panthers pay for their decision to key on the run.
After starting the game 1-of-4 for 6 yards, Brees started to find his rhythm and connected with wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. on an 80-yard touchdown strike to give the Saints a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“On their defense, I saw the curtain come down and I knew I had a chance,” said Ginn, who played three seasons for the Panthers. “I just had to get to my spot, and I rushed to the end zone. I’m really the clear out guy, but I ended up scoring.”
Brees said Ginn’s touchdown was an early turning point in the game.
“They stopped us on the first two drives and then for us to come up with that big play, I think it blew the whole thing wide open,” Brees said. “I think it broke the seal for us offensively and, obviously, got the crowd rolling.”
Brees was just warming up, as closed out the first half by completing 11-of-13 passes for 134 yards and another score – 9-yard touchdown strike to Josh Hill – as the Saints went into halftime leading 21-9.
During the second half, Brees continued to make big throws when the Saints needed it most, as the Panthers refused to go away.
With the Saints holding on to a 24-19 lead and the Panthers seemingly having the momentum, Brees came up with his biggest throw of the day. Brees scrambled to his right and found Michael Thomas for a 46-yard completion to the Carolina 5-yard line. Two plays later, Kamara scored on a 2-yard run to give the Saints a 31-19 lead.
Brees was effective spreading the ball throughout the game, as he completed passes to eight different players. Thomas led the way with eight catches for 131 yards, while Ginn had four receptions for 115 yards.
“We knew what we had to do,” Thomas said. “We rode on Mark and Alvin’s back (a lot this season. When the time came, we stepped up to the moment.”