New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees goes over the top for the winning touchdown in overtime to beat the Atlanta Falcons 43-37 in NFL football game, Sept 23, 2018.Curtis Compton/The Associated Press
Drew Brees’s one-yard run capped an 80-yard touchdown drive to open overtime that lifted the New Orleans Saints to a 43-37 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Brees’s score came after his apparent three-yard TD pass to Alvin Kamara was overturned on a review that determined Kamara’s knee was down before the goal line. Brees scored on a keeper on the following play, giving the Saints (2-1) the win on the day the 39-year-old quarterback set the NFL record for career completions.
“This was a wild one,” said Brees, who passed for 396 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two scores. Kamara had 15 catches for 124 yards and ran for 66 yards.
Brees’s biggest play before the winner might have been his improbable seven-yard scoring run with 1 minute 15 seconds remaining that forced overtime. He ran to his left and then spun to avoid tackle attempts by Brian Poole and Robert Alford.
“At some point, I felt they were coming to take my head off and I could probably spin out of it,” Brees said, adding he now has film evidence to show the youth flag football team he coaches that “spin moves work. Spin moves are good.”
Atlanta’s Matt Ryan had his first career game with five scoring passes, including three to rookie Calvin Ridley. That wasn’t enough for the Falcons (1-2) against Brees and the high-scoring Saints, who gained 534 yards.
Ryan bemoaned a lost opportunity when the Falcons were forced to punt when stopped at the Atlanta 44 with 25 seconds remaining in overtime.
“We had chances to finish the game today and we didn’t do that,” Ryan said. “That’s disappointing.”
Ryan passed for 374 yards, including 146 to Ridley, who became the first Falcons rookie with three scoring catches. Ridley, who had seven receptions, including a 75-yard TD, had his first game with more than one touchdown reception in his first game with at least 100 yards receiving.
Ridley’s third scoring catch against the Saints was a nine-yarder early in the third quarter that held up following a review.
Ryan’s five touchdown passes tied the team record set by Wade Wilson on Dec. 13, 1992, at Tampa Bay.
The fifth scoring pass to Mohamed Sanu came after Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata was called for unnecessary roughness on Matt Bryant’s 29-yard field goal. With the penalty, the Falcons’ offence came back on the field.
Ridley beat P.J. Williams on his first two scoring catches, an 18-yarder in the first quarter and the 75-yarder in the second quarter.
The Saints made a defensive switch, moving Ken Crawley into coverage on Ridley. Crawley was called for pass interference on a deep incompletion to Ridley early in the third quarter that gave Atlanta a first down at the New Orleans five. On second down from the nine, Ridley’s third scoring catch gave the Falcons a 21-16 lead.
With his 14th completed pass, Brees broke the record of 6,300 career completions set by Hall of Famer Brett Favre. He set the record with a 17-yard pass to Michael Thomas in the second quarter.
“I’m just very grateful,” Brees said. “I hope there’s a lot more coming. I just think about all the people who have had a hand in that. A lot of hands have caught a lot of passes. … They are all a part of this.”
Brees completed his first four passes, including a 19-yard scoring pass to Ted Ginn Jr., on the Saints’ opening drive.