Saints 17 Cardinals 19 Jake Plummer trumped the Saints' late go-ahead TD by leading the Cardinals to a last-second game-winning FG. Whereas the Saints drew a bizarre delay-of-game penalty for a tardy opening kickoff, the hyperactive Cardinals came out in a no-huddle offense. Plummer hit Sanders for 12 on 3rd & 8, ran for 11 on 3rd & 2, then hit Metcalf and Moore for 12 & 9 on back-to-back plays. The progress halted when the refs incorrectly denied Moore a catch at the 5. Arizona came up empty on the drive when Jacke pushed a 51 yarder wide right. After the Saints went 3 & punt, Plummer continued spreading the ball around, hitting Centers for 20 and McWilliams for 22 on the first two plays of the possession. He converted 3rd & 7 with a 14 yd throw to Metcalf, then put his team at the 7 with an 11 yd throw to Centers. Mark Fields missed a chance to keep Arizona off the scoreboard when a deflected pass hit him in the hands but fell to the turf; the home team settled for a 21 yd FG. Neither team mounted a threat during the next two possessions. A 23 yd throw to Cam Cleeland put the Saints into Cardinal territory for the first time, but a sack of Kerry Collins on the next play pushed the team out of FG range. After Mark Royals' punt went for a touchback, it was again time for the D to provide points. Sammy Knight grabbed a Plummer misfire at the Arizona 39 and wove his way across and down the field to register his second TD of the season. With 11:45 left in the half, it was 7-3 Saints. The Cards continued to march- Sanders caught a ball for 11 on 3rd & 8; a defensive holding call moved the sticks; on consecutive plays Plummer went to Sanders (19 yds), Murrell (13 yds), and Sanders again (24 yds). On 2nd & goal from the 5, Sanders made a catch and was nearing the goal when Fields stripped him of the ball. Chad Cota recovered in the endzone for a touchback. An intentional grounding penalty helped create another 3 & punt Saints series. Plummer did more damage with an 11 yd throw to Gedney and a 33 yd pass to Moore. He dodged a bullet when Knight dropped an easy INT at the goal line. A 38 yarder put the Cards' point total at six. Though to this point the Arizona offense had quadrupled the output of the New Orleans offense (277 yds to 69 yds), the Saints were in the lead. Eric Guliford's return gave the O the ball at the NO 37 with 1:54 left before halftime. The team quickly moved to the Arizona 30- Aaron Craver 8 yd run, Andre Hastings 18 yd catch, Lamar Smith 7 yd catch. A holding call pushed the Saints back 10 yds, but on the next play Keith Poole caught a 20 yd ball. A Cleeland catch and a Craver run gave the team a 1st at the 10 with :16 left, but three shots at a TD came up empty. Doug Brien closed the second quarter with a 28 yd FG. The O continued its success in the opening drive of the second half- Craver ran for 25 yds on the first play from scrimmage. Sean Dawkins caught a 19 yd throw on 2nd & 14, then Collins went to Cleeland for 10 on 3rd & 8 to put the ball at the Cardinal 23. The ball went back to Arizona on the next play, however- Collins was hit behind the line and fumbled. Plummer threw to Moore for 10 on 2nd & 7, sneaked for the 1st on 3rd & 1, then hit Metcalf for 23. On the next play, Murrell reversed his field to notch a 21 yd TD run. The PAT made it 13-10 Cardinals with 8:16 to go in the third quarter. The Saints came back- Guliford caught a 13 yd ball on 3rd & 4; defensive pass interference near the line of scrimmage moved the chains on 3rd & 5. A 6 yd Dawkins catch on 3rd & 3 put the team at the 38; three plays later Brien lined up to try a 54 yarder. It was partially blocked, however, so the visitors still trailed by 3. Neither team reached FG range in the next two possessions. On 2nd & 11 from the Arizona 19, Fields stripped Murrell of the ball; Knight recovered. Dawkins' 3rd & 7 catch came after running a shallow route, so the team faced 4th & 1 at the 9 with 10:57 remaining. Instead of going for a game-tying FG, Ditka ran Craver up the middle. The RB was stopped short. The first 5 plays of the ensuing possession saw the Cards slice quickly into Saints territory- Moore 11 catch, McWilliams 13 catch, Murrell 8 run, Centers 11 run, Centers 17 catch. Jacke kicked a 48 yarder with 6:48 left to make it 16-10 Arizona. Collins launched the comeback drive with a 9 yd throw to Dawkins and a 7 yd throw to Craver. On 4th & 4 from the NO 47, he found Cleeland for 6. Smith ran for 14 on the next play, but on the play after that he fumbled- Chris Naeole was able to wrestle the ball away from the Arizona defenders to keep the drive alive. Passes to Dawkins and Smith each moved the chains. Finally, on 3rd & 12 from the 13, Collins fired one to Cleeland in the endzone. Brien's kick put the Saints ahead by one with 1:21 left. Holding on the ensuing kickoff meant that Plummer and the Cardinals would start at their 8, in possession of all three timeouts. The wily QB struck immediately, hitting Sanders down the middle for 25 & 28 on the first two plays of the drive. On 2nd & 15 from the NO 44, Jake the Snake scrambled out of trouble and picked up 21 yds. On the next play, a 4 yd QB draw set up Jacke for a 36 yd try. He nailed the game-ending kick and thus ended the Saints' playoff chances. stats & yardage histograms (from my "le Stat" system, not official) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ note: this stuff is meant to be read using a fixed-width font, like Courier note: the capital letters in the stats are used in the histograms and the drive chart to identify the players ..runnin'....../.......throwin' & catchin'........ Kerry collins 13-43 Lamar smith 4- 45 8-42 Aaron craver 3- 13 1-(3) Wilmont perry andre Hastings 2- 24 Sean dawkins 7- 77 eric Guliford 1- 13 keith Poole 1- 20 cameron Cleeland 7- 72-1 incomplete 18 intercepted 0 22-82 25-43-264-1-0 A L A <--runs W ALAL L ALLLLLLAL AL L A ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** A CSA SS LC L SSP C CSL SC G H AC C <--passes H L ..runnin'......./.......throwin' & catchin'................. 4- 38 Jake plummer 19- 60-1 adrian Murrell 2- 8 2- 15 larry Centers 5- 56 1- 1 frank Sanders 10-137 Rob moore 9- 99 Eric metcalf 3- 49 johnny mcWilliams 2- 35 chris Gedney 1- 11 incomplete 11 intercepted 1 26-114-1 32-44-395-0-1 SJM MMMJ <--runs MMMC M J J M MMMMMMMM M C M ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** M CSRSS SRRRSSWR C SC WESS S R R C R REME G <--passes C comments ^^^^^^^^ * this season, 30% of the Saints' TDs have been scored by the defense ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu