What Luck? Comeback Has Saints Believing in 'Destiny'

LANDOVER, Md. -- The New Orleans Saints are not ashamed of being lucky. Quite the opposite.

"I definitely believe in destiny,'' Drew Brees said Sunday afternoon, as his teammates headed out of FedEx Field with a victory that had defeat stamped all over it for 58 minutes. "And I believe in karma, and what goes around comes around, and just the fact that 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, that we start being the team that wins them like this in the end. And I definitely feel like if we continue to do things the right way, good things happen to you."

That feeling ran through the visitifvng locker room like an electric current Sunday, after a 33-30 overtime victory over the Washington Redskins that was as improbable as it gets. It might very well light them up for the rest of this season, however long it lasts and however long their record stays perfect, as it is today at 12-0.

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If it was still perfect after the Washington Redskins outplayed them all afternoon, after they trailed by 10 points with 13 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, and after Washington lined up for the chip-shot field goal of all chip-shots with less than two minutes left, with another 10-point deficit and no timeouts staring them in their chilled faces ... then the Saints have permission to dream of an undefeated season, and of never having to apologize for how they got it.

Any of it, even Darren Sharper's explanation for the infamous Shaun Suisham 23-yard field goal with 1:52 left in the fourth, which, to the shock of the sellout crowd and players and coaches on both teams, sailed far to the right. "For the New Orleans Saints, God said --'' and Sharper puffed his cheeks and blew out a breath, "and pushed it to the right.''

From then on -- with Washington (3-9) having blown (pun intended) a chance to take a 10-point lead -- a series of events unfolded for the Saints that rival the Bill Belichick fourth-and-2 call in Indianapolis last month for honors of the most fortunate break any recent unbeaten team has ever gotten:

* Starting at their 20 with no timeouts and down 30-23, the Saints scored on five plays spanning 33 seconds. The last was a 53-yard strike from Brees to Robert Meachem -- who made a less-conventional connection at the end of the first half -- in which Brees pump-faked to freeze the cornerback and Meachem threw a double-move on the safety to get behind him and everybody else. The Saints tied the game at 30 with 1:19 left.

* The Redskins, who hadn't committed a turnover all day, got the ball back at their own 25 with 1:13 to go and two timeouts, tried to get into position for a redemptive field-goal try, but Campbell threw short of Fred Davis on the right sideline and was picked off by Jonathan Vilma. The Saints, with the ball at their 46 with 28 seconds left, even managed a shot at the win in regulation -- a 58-yard field goal try by Garrett Hartley on the final play that was short.

* Washington got the ball first in overtime, and on the third play, hit fullback Mike Sellers with a pass in right flat at the 39. Sellers was upended by Chris McAlister, the ball came loose, but the official ruled that Sellers was already down. Sean Payton wasn't as sure, called a timeout before the next snap, "buying a little time,'' he said, for a review in the replay booth.

He got it. The review ruled the play a fumble, recovered by New Orleans at the Washington 37. Eight plays later, Hartley was knocking through the perfect season-preserver from 18 yards out, 6:29 into overtime.
McAlister was playing in his second game as a Saint, after 10 seasons in Baltimore ended in the offseason when he was released. Hartley was playing in his first this season, after serving an early-season four-game drug suspension and having had John Carney keep the job until this week.

Campbell, who ended last week's game in Philadelphia face down on the turf after a controversial hit, carved the Saints up for 367 yards and three touchdowns. The Saints converted only three of their first 10 third-down tries and were stopped on a fourth down early in the third quarter. The Saints never led until the game-winning overtime kick, and they were down by 10 twice in the second half. Rather than it being time, as Brees said, to win one the way they did, it looked like it was simply the Saints time to lose.

"A lot of teams in that situation would've said, 'OK, it's not our day, they've got it,''' Sharper said. "We never said that.''

Not even when the Redskins were lined up for the late field goal. "For us, we were just trying to do whatever we could to block it,'' said Vilma, who acknowledged that he had been unaware that his team had never led until the end, and that the defense had not forced a turnover until his interception.

"We actually thought he would make it,'' Vilma said of Suisham's field goal. "We were going to keep fighting. We weren't going to bow out to anybody -- and fortunately, he missed it."
"A lot of teams in that situation would've said, 'OK, it's not our day, they've got it.' We never said that.''
-- Darren Sharper
Then, Brees (419 yards, two touchdowns) and the offense took over: "We feel comfortable in the two-minute situation, so let's go execute, let's be aware of where we are on the field ... chip away at this thing, and when we get the opportunity, let's make it.''

Yet the best example of a team putting itself in position to get breaks and capitalize, was the play Brees and Meachem combined for late in the first half -- when Brees threw what looked, for a few seconds, like an interception that would put the Saints in a deep hole, only to have Meachem keep chasing the play, yanking the ball out of safety Kareem Moore's hand as he tried to return it, and sprinting untouched 44 yards for a touchdown that tied the score at 17 with 22 seconds left.

"I saw the way he was carrying the ball,'' Meachem said. "Defensive players normally, when they pick the ball off, they don't secure the ball like an offensive player, because they don't always have it. I knew he was going to try to fall, so if I strip the ball before he falls, I might have a chance.''

Somehow, the play survived a booth review that encompassed whether Moore had been down by contact, and if Moore had caught the ball cleanly, either of which would have nullified the score. Brees said it was "the only time ever'' he had rooted for a replay to confirm one of his interceptions.''

It turned out to be an omen for a Redskins team that, since a surprise win at home over Denver, has now lost three straight games in which it led in the fourth quarter, including at Dallas and at Philadelphia. The Redskins did tons of things to win the game -- Campbell's crisp performance, the again-patchwork line allowing no sacks, receiver Devin Thomas's career day (seven catches, 100 yards, a touchdown), the defense's shutdown of the Saints' running game (55 yards total) and its control of third down, the lack of turnovers, the highest point total in two years.

But again, they did just enough to lose it. "It teaches you a lot about finishing. It's a four-quarter game, and you have to continue to fight unto the clock goes all zeroes,'' Campbell said.

The Saints, who clinched the NFC South title with the win, seem to have learned that, and if the lesson hadn't sunk in before Sunday, it was anchored down by that win -- whether or not the football world believes they got their Christmas present three weeks early.

"It doesn't matter to us, we got a W,'' Meachem said. "We're not worried about, 'We got lucky, or the Redskins should've won.' We got a W.''