NEW ORLEANS — The defending Super Bowl Champions Philadelphia Eagles walked into the Super Dome with so much confidence on Sunday that they actually thought that they could walk out with some sneakers and jewelry. They threw the first couple of punches and actually had the Saints bleeding from the mouth for a minute. However, Drew Brees and Co. understood that they were the better team and when the smoke cleared they were walking out of the joint with a 20-14 win as they advanced to the NFC Title game next week.
Week 11 the Saints beat the brakes off of the Eagles 48-7. Boyz thought that they would just roll the ball out onto the field and win just because. So the only thing to do was to go for the house on the first play of the game. However, Philly wasn’t about to just lay down and let a boy have his way. On the first play from scrimmage Drew Brees tried to catch them sleepin’ and got picked by Cre’von LeBlanc on the Philly 24 yard line. They took that joint and walked it back down the field in 7 plays for 76 yards as Nick Foles hit Jordan Matthews for a 37 yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
Philly forced the Saints to three and out on their very next possession and Philly marched another 10 plays for 75 yards as Foles punched it in from a yard out to go up 14-0. Boyz in the Super Dome were about to throw up all of the gumbo eaten at the tailgate. All of this had taken place by the 5:14 mark of the first quarter. I hadn’t even unwrapped my darn Bratwurst yet bruh.
New Orleans finally settled down as Sean Payton decided to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 1 yard line as Drew Brees hits Keith Kirkwood from 2 yards out to get on the board 14-7. Earlier in that same drive they pulled a fake punt out of their pockets on their own 30 yard line to keep the drive alive. It paid off and now we had a ball game on our hands.
Literally the fake punt changed the momentum of the ball as New Orleans closed the half with a Will Lutz 45 yard field goal to make it 14-10 with Philly up going into the break.
On New Orleans’ first possession of the second half they marched 90 yards on 18 plays while burning 11 and a half minutes off of the clock as Michael Thomas scores from 2 yards out. The Saints took their first lead 17-14 after being down 14-0 early in the first quarter. That fake punt was the game changer.
They go on to add another Will Lutz 39-yard field goal to extend their lead to 20-14. The Saints scored 20 unanswered points by shell shocking a boy with a fake punt to literally take over the game.
After a missed Will Lutz missed a 41 yard field goal the Eagles still had life being only down 6 points with 5:40 left to play. However, everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Philly. As they were marching, Alshon Jerry let one slip through his hands and Marshon Lattimore picked it off. With an additional first down the Saints burned the clocked and that was all she wrote playboy. The faked punt was the game changer.
This was the biggest deficit the Saints have ever overcome in the playoffs in franchise history and it was the biggest lead the Eagles have ever blown in the playoffs too. Great ball game but somebody had to lose it right?