Saints’ Defense Stiffs Zeke and Prescott, New Orleans Beats Dallas Cowboys, 12-10

The New Orleans Saints managed to spoil Dallas Cowboys perfect record and post another victory. In the closing game of Sunday’s football program, the hosts won 12-10, after one hell of a defensive fight.

In a tough and fierce contest, Sean Payton’s boys had more nerves and composure in the finish, and they endured Dallas’ last attack in which Marcus Williams intercepted Dak Prescott’s pass two seconds before the end.

This is a huge win for the Saints who are without injured Drew Brees. The game against the Cowboys was for most of the fans a real test of New Orleans’ strength, and it appears that they’ve passed this one. The offense struggled, but on the other side, the defensive team has done a massive job, limiting one of the best-attacking crews in the league to just 257 yards.

“Hats off to the defense,” said Saints quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, “In this league, we know how hard it is to win football games and no one said it had to be pretty.”

Ezekiel Elliot recorded just 35 rushing yards on 18 carries, and had one touchdown, but didn’t have any impact on the game. He also had one fumble. According to Jordan Cameron, that was the key for this win. Saints’ defensive end explained that once you slow down Zeke, everything else in Cowboys’ game starts to lose its edge.

“You got to be able to focus and take away Zek Elliot. Once that happens, the other pieces you can put in check,” stated Jordan.

Prescott finished the game with 223 yards without a touchdown, completing 22 of his 33 passing attempts. Amari Cooper had 48 yards on 5 receptions, and there was no one among the visitors who would pull his team from apathy.

Meanwhile, Teddy Bridgewater was 23 of 30 for 193 yards, with one pick and without a touchdown. He suffered 5 sacks for 44 negative yards, but maintained his composure and ran the Saints’ offense pretty well.

He had a vast help from Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas. Kamara had 89 yards from the scrimmage, 69-rushing ones plus 20 through the air, while Thomas had 9 receptions for 95 yards.

“We knew to come into this game, that we had to be the most physical team,” said Bridgewater.

New Orleans’ kicker Wil Lutz was instrumental in the second period, once he scored all of his three field-goal attempts, from 40, 42 and 19 yards. He would hit another one in the last quarter from 26 yards, to set the final result. Saints’ win without a touchdown was the first one since Sean Payton became their head coach, and will be remembered for a long time.

From a team who had one of the most dominant attacks over the past decade, the Saints have showcased that they can be an excellent defensive crew also. Jason Garrett acknowledged that following the match saying that New Orleans has one of the best defensive cores in the league.

“They have first-round picks all across that defensive front. They’re a talented group, and they did a good job moving upfront and not allowing us to consistently run the ball,” said Dallas’ HC.

With this win, the Saints are now 3-1 and are still first in the NFC South ahead of the Buccaneers who defeated the Rams last night. They will be facing Tamba Bay in the next round, at home. After that, they have two road games, the first on Jacksonville against the Jags and after that in Chicago.

Dallas leads the NFC East with 3-1 also. The Cowboys will have a derby coming up next week vs. the Green Bay Packers at home. Following that challenge, Dallas travels to New York to meet the sorry Jets.