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Saints blow out the Lions, Texans grab first playoff victory
Source: Agencies |
January 9, 2012, Monday
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DREW Brees tossed three touchdown passes and the New Orleans Saints romped to a 45-28 win over the Detroit Lions in a National Football League wildcard shootout on Saturday.
The Saints, Super Bowl champions two years ago, raced into the post-season as the hottest team and rode that momentum to set up a divisional showdown against the San Francisco 49ers on January 14.
"I feel like our offense, our team, is built for whatever conditions," Brees said. "We play indoors here but we feel we're the type of team that should be able to go anywhere, anytime and play the type of football we know how to play.
"We scored on every drive in the second half, I guess that's what you hope for."
Only four quarterbacks have passed for over 5,000 yards in a single NFL season and two of them, Brees and Lions' Matthew Stafford, were on the field in New Orleans promising a night of offensive fireworks at the Louisiana Superdome.
As usual, it was Brees at the controls of the NFL's top offense, providing most of the pyrotechnics as the Saints attack piled up a post-season record of 626 total yards. Brees, who set the new single season passing mark, zeroed in on some playoff records completing 33 of 43 passes for 466 yards, the second most in the NFL postseason behind Bernie Kosar's 489 with the Cleveland Browns.
The Saints were unstoppable in the second half where Brees had all his touchdown passes, including a 56-yarder to Robert Meachem and a 41-yard strike to Devery Henderson, as New Orleans outscored Detroit 35-14 over the final two quarters.
Stafford provided his share of thrills completing 28 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns, one to Will Heller and a pair to the NFL's leading receiver Calvin Johnson, who had 12 catches for 211 yards in his playoff debut.
Elsewhere, the Houston Texans won their first playoff game in history by beating the bungling Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 in the AFC wildcard game.
Rookie J.J. Watt's leaping interception return for a touchdown late in the first half put the Texans on course for victory. Third-string quarterback T.J. Yates, another rookie, then threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Andre Johnson in the third quarter and Arian Foster followed with his second touchdown of the game, a 42-yard run in the fourth quarter, to finish off the Bengals. After nine seasons of missing the playoffs, the Texans (11-6) are heading to play the Baltimore Ravens (12-4) next Sunday.
The Saints, Super Bowl champions two years ago, raced into the post-season as the hottest team and rode that momentum to set up a divisional showdown against the San Francisco 49ers on January 14.
"I feel like our offense, our team, is built for whatever conditions," Brees said. "We play indoors here but we feel we're the type of team that should be able to go anywhere, anytime and play the type of football we know how to play.
"We scored on every drive in the second half, I guess that's what you hope for."
Only four quarterbacks have passed for over 5,000 yards in a single NFL season and two of them, Brees and Lions' Matthew Stafford, were on the field in New Orleans promising a night of offensive fireworks at the Louisiana Superdome.
As usual, it was Brees at the controls of the NFL's top offense, providing most of the pyrotechnics as the Saints attack piled up a post-season record of 626 total yards. Brees, who set the new single season passing mark, zeroed in on some playoff records completing 33 of 43 passes for 466 yards, the second most in the NFL postseason behind Bernie Kosar's 489 with the Cleveland Browns.
The Saints were unstoppable in the second half where Brees had all his touchdown passes, including a 56-yarder to Robert Meachem and a 41-yard strike to Devery Henderson, as New Orleans outscored Detroit 35-14 over the final two quarters.
Stafford provided his share of thrills completing 28 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns, one to Will Heller and a pair to the NFL's leading receiver Calvin Johnson, who had 12 catches for 211 yards in his playoff debut.
Elsewhere, the Houston Texans won their first playoff game in history by beating the bungling Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 in the AFC wildcard game.
Rookie J.J. Watt's leaping interception return for a touchdown late in the first half put the Texans on course for victory. Third-string quarterback T.J. Yates, another rookie, then threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Andre Johnson in the third quarter and Arian Foster followed with his second touchdown of the game, a 42-yard run in the fourth quarter, to finish off the Bengals. After nine seasons of missing the playoffs, the Texans (11-6) are heading to play the Baltimore Ravens (12-4) next Sunday.
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