Saints 17 Jaguars 13 summary ^^^^^^^ The Saints made the most of their limited offensive output to win a game filled with iffy officiating. play-by-play ^^^^^^^^^^^^ The O quickly picked up a 1st with a 6 yd Paul Green catch and a 7 yd Mario Bates run, but a high throw on 3rd & 6 forced a punt. A holding call on the return backed the Jags to their 9. Andre Rison caught a 12 yarder on Jacksonville's first play, but the visitors couldn't manage another 1st. The Saints turned 3rd & 6 into 3rd & 16 with back-to-back penalties, but the refs bailed out the team with a 34 yd pass interference call on an uncatchable throw. Ricky Whittle took advantage of a one-on-one matchup with a LB to take a 3rd & 6 throw 14 yds to the Jacksonville 33. Two plays later, Jim Everett found Torrance Small in a seam on 3rd & 7 for a pickup of 22 and a 1st & goal at the 8. Bates took the ball to the 1, then punched it in for the TD on the next play. On the Jaguars' next play from scrimmage, Joe Johnson poked the ball free from James Stewart's grasp. Mark Fields scooped up the pigskin and returned it to the 7. Two Bates runs brought up 3rd & goal from the 2, but a pair of false starts eventually forced the team to settle for a 27 yd FG. With 2:26 left in the first quarter, the Saints were up 10-0, their biggest lead of the season. Jacksonville picked up a pair of 1sts via catches by McCardell- for 11 on 3rd & 1 and for 6 on 2nd & 5. A 3rd down scramble to the NO 42 came up 3 yds short of the 1st down marker, so a punt was in the offing. The O couldn't do much with the ball, and Klaus Wilmsmeyer's punt went only 32 yds to the Jag 40. McCardell was the target for a 6 yd gain on 3rd & 1, and the WR caught a ball for 11 on the next play. A run, catch, and run by Stewart moved the chains again, and on 3rd & 7 from the 23 Jacksonville called a screen on a play that saw an all-out Saints blitz. Stewart easily scored the TD. A 3rd & 3 throw went through the hands of Lee DeRamus, so the team once again booted the ball to the visitors. Natrone Means gobbled up 35 yds on a run to the NO 37, but two plays later the D stuffed a 3rd & 2 run. The Jags' 49 yd FG attempt doinked no-good off of the right upright with 1:08 to go before halftime. Michael Haynes caught a short ball and took it a good distance into Jax territory, but a hard-to-detect illegal shift on the play negated the gain. One play later Everett missed a wide-open DeRamus on an out & up that would've put the team in FG range, and Wilmsmeyer wound up shanking a 7 yd punt to give Jacksonville the ball at midfield with a half-minute left. A Mitchell catch gave the Jags a 1st at the 39, then one play later he caught a ball at the 29. Brunell appeared to spike the ball with at least a second remaining before the half, but the officials ruled that time had expired, thus denying Jacksonville a try at a last-second FG. The Jaguars started the second half strong with a 9 yd Smith catch, a 13 yd Stewart run for 1st, a 6 yd McCardell catch, a 2 yd Stewart run, and a 4 yd Brunell scramble for 1st. Two plays later on 3rd & 1, K. McCardell found an alley and took a short throw all the way to the NO 10. On 3rd down, Smith caught a pass and came within inches of crossing the plane of the goal line before Richard Harvey ripped the ball free. Renaldo Turnbull recovered at the 3 to end the scoring threat. A sweet lob to Hendrick Lusk for 21 got the team out of the hole, but on 3rd & 1 Bates couldn't get the 1st. The punt was returned from one 20 to the other, thus re-establishing the visitors' good field position. A messy Jag series ensued- a Stewart run to the 2 was negated by a procedure penalty, a fumbled handoff on 3rd & inches was negated by a false start, and a shotgun snap hit Brunell while he was trying to call timeout. Jax settled for a 36 yd FG to tie the score with 2:53 left in the third quarter. Tyrone Hughes returned the kickoff to the 48, but three poor Everett throws went incomplete, incomplete, INT at the 16. Jacksonville started to march with a 3 yd Stewart run, a 10 yd Smith catch, and a 12 yd Stewart run, but the visitors failed to penetrate into Saint territory. The Saints went 3 & punt. Eric Allen intercepted a low throw near midfield on the second play of the ensuing series, but Smith got his hands on the ball too and managed to convince the ref that he had secured possession first. The Jags went downfield methodically- Stewart 4 run, Stewart 7 run, Means 2 run, Smith 8 catch, Stewart 13 run, Stewart 0 run, Means 11 run to the NO 8. Three Stewart runs left Jacksonville 2 yds short of the goal, so Hollis kicked a 20 yarder to put his team up 3 with 5:15 remaining. The O took possession at the 19 and began with a 9 yd Small catch and a 2 yd Bates run. One play later Haynes caught a ball for 10. On 3rd & 4, Small made a huge twisting catch along the sideline for a 23 yd pickup. Haywood Jeffires caught a ball for 8 on the next play, and on the play after that Jacksonville was flagged for interference at the 6. Everett hit Small in the back of the endzone for the TD on the next play. The PAT put the Saints up 4 with 1:45 to go. Doug Brien's kickoff was good for a touchback, and Jacksonville's first play was negated by a holding call, but a pair of completions moved the line of scrimmage to the 33. A Turnbull sack helped bring up 4th & 7, and Anthony Newman appeared to end the Jags' hopes by defensing a pass. The safety was flagged for interference, however. Disaster nearly struck on the next play when Allen was beaten deep, but the pass was barely overthrown. A downfield jumpball fell incomplete on the second-to-last play, but a bogus personal foul on Johnson let the Jags have one more throw from the NO 41. Fortunately, Newman batted the ball down cleanly to end the game. stats (from my notes, not official) ^^^^^ ....runnin'....../......throwin' & catchin'.... jim Everett 16-41-1 mario Bates 3-(4) ricky Whittle 4- 37 michael Haynes 1- 10 torrance Small 4- 60-1 haywood Jeffires 1- 8 lee deRamus 1- 8 paul Green 1- 6 hendrick Lusk 3- 33 incompletions 12 interceptions 1 19-37-1 15-28-162-1-1 yardage histogram (player marks are as in stats above- B=Bates, etc.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ W BB BB BB <--runs W BB B W B BBBB BB ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** W L GWLSH W LSS S R W J <--passes comments ^^^^^^^^ * finally, a big day from Small * for once, we're the team that gets dominated in the stats but scores more points * our performance wasn't significantly better this week, we were just due for a win ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu