Saints live charmed life of the unbeaten, turn certain defeat into 33-30 OT win over Redskins

Saints live charmed life, top Redskins 33-30 in OT

LANDOVER, Md. — Despite the lucky breaks they enjoyed all game, the New Orleans Saints’ bid for an unbeaten season was all but cooked. The Washington Redskins, leading by seven, nursed the ball into range for an easy field goal that would put the game away with less than two minutes to play.

Then Shaun Suisham missed. Wide right from 23 yards out.

“We thought he would make it,” Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma said.

But fortune is truly smiling on the Saints this year, and they’re taking advantage of it. Drew Brees needed only 33 seconds to drive his team 80 yards with no timeouts for the game-tying touchdown, and Garrett Hartley won it with an 18-yard field goal in overtime Sunday for a 33-30 victory that clinched the NFC South and improved New Orleans to 12-0.

“I don’t know about the voodoo, but I definitely believe in destiny,” said Brees, who completed 35 of 49 passes for 419 yards with two touchdowns and a bizarre interception play that turned into another score. “I believe in karma, and what goes around comes around. We’ve been on the other side of this deal probably too many times, and maybe it’s our time, that we start catching some of the breaks.”

The Saints never had the lead until Hartley’s winning kick. They overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit and needed an instant replay reversal to get a fumble called on Washington fullback Mike Sellers to set up the winning drive in overtime. If they do indeed go 16-0, this will be remembered as the one that almost — perhaps should have — got away.

“We were fortunate to kind of hang in there,” New Orleans coach Sean Payton said.

The Redskins (3-9), from owner Dan Snyder on down, can only wonder what they have to do to win a game. They’ve finally started to play decent football in recent weeks, but all they have show for it is blown fourth-quarter leads against Dallas, Philadelphia and New Orleans in consecutive games.

“It’s about as difficult as it gets,” Suisham said. “You have the New Orleans Saints come in here, the guys played an unbelievable game, and I’m disappointed. I wish I could get back out there, but the game is over and we lost. … I sure wish there was something I could do. I just apologize to my teammates, coaches, Mr. Snyder and the fans. I feel terrible.”

The Redskins should have known it wasn’t their day when two fluke plays gave the Saints a touchdown late in the first half.

First, a punt by New Orleans’ Thomas Morstead was shanked so badly that it hit Washington’s Kevin Barnes flush on the back near the sideline. New Orleans recovered at the Redskins 41.

Four plays later, facing third-and-26 at the Redskins 44, Brees backpedalled under pressure and threw a desperation pass deep over the middle toward Jeremy Shockey in triple coverage. Kareem Moore dived over Shockey’s back to make an interception, rolled over, got up and ran 14 yards before Robert Meachem simply took the ball away from Moore and started running down the sideline. Meachem high-stepped 44 yards for the team’s ninth return touchdown of the season, tying the game at 17 with 22 seconds left in the first half.

“Drew throws a pick and then we get the fumble recovery for a touchdown,” Vilma said. “Crazy plays. When you’re hot, you’re hot.”

They’re hot even when they’re cold. With the kickoff temperature at 36, the Saints won a sub-40 degree game for the first time since a 12-0 victory over the Jets on Christmas Eve 1995, according to STATS. They did so even though their defense, led by former Redskins defensive guru Gregg Williams, allowed Washington to pile up 455 yards and score 30 points for the first time in Jim Zorn’s 28 games as coach.

“It was a great game,” Zorn said. “It just feels awful to stand up here and be the losing head coach again.”