By: Jordan Fiegel
“You got to fight your way through adversity. Nothing’s ever easy.”
That’s what WWL NFL analyst Mike Detillier had to say after the New Orleans Saints 20-14 thriller over the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Games have a lot of twists and turns to them,” he continued. “In this postseason, every team that has scored first won with the exception of one game: yesterday.”
The Eagles scored first and second, racing out to a 14-0 lead, while the Saints had no answers on offense or defense. That did not last, though, as both sides of the ball eventually got things going.
“When you look at it, in two drives, you had over 150 yards of total offense for the Eagles. In the rest of the game, they didn’t get 100 yards!”
In their first two drives, Philadelphia gained 151 yards. In their remaining eight drives, they gained just 99 yards. New Orleans, on the other hand, gained just 13 yards on their first three drives. In their final seven, they gained 407 yards.
Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore helped to start the turnaround with an interception. On the ensuing drive, the Saints offense stalled out with a 4th and 1 in their own territory. The Saints faked the punt, however; and Taysom Hill picked up a big conversion and kept the drive alive.
“That was huge…I thought that kind of stopped the bleeding,” Detillier said. “You needed something to jump start your football team.”
Detillier compared it to the blocked punt Hill had against Tampa that sparked the team.
“It certainly helped change the momentum of the game, and it was certainly the play of the game,” Detillier declared. He also pinpointed another drive, this one in the second half.
“That 18 play drive that took over 11 minutes, that, to me, was really the telltale of that football game, because that really wore out that Eagles defense,” Detillier said.
After holding Philadelphia to a three and out on the opening possession of the second half, New Orleans held the ball, until there was just under 17 minutes left in the game. The drive officially gained 92 yards, but the Saints had to overcome penalties and actually gained 112 yards total. The two yard touchdown pass to Michael Thomas put the Saints up 17-14, and they never trailed again.
New Orleans gets another rematch for the NFC Championship Game, when the Los Angeles Rams come to town.