Never count out Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, a lesson learned the hard way by the Washington Redskins on Sunday, as the Saints erased a 15-point deficit with just 6:00 minutes left to play to eventually win 34-31 over Washington and improve to 8-2 on the season.
After Washington's Kirk Cousins hit his third touchdown of the day with 6:03 left in the final quarter of play, Redskins fans were certainly counting on a victory. However, Brees had other plans, orchestrating two quick touchdown drives, capped by a passing touchdown, including a heart-stopping touchdown catch from rookie sensation RB Alvin Kamara that cut the lead to two points.
Brees hit Kamara out of the backfield, on a pass in which Kamara bobbled before ultimately catching and making three defenders miss on his way to the end zone to push the score to 31-29 in favor of the Redskins. Kamara then ran in the two-point conversion, and the game was headed to overtime.
Undone by a penalty on their first possession of overtime, the Redskins were forced to punt away and Brees again led the Saints in scoring position, this time a game-winning Will Lutz 28-yard field goal, and with that, we give you our PFF exclusive takeaways from the contest for each team.
Top 5 Grades:
Edge Alex Okafor, 89.5 overall grade
G Andrus Peat, 83.3 overall grade
QB Drew Brees, 81.5 overall grade
TE Coby Fleener, 81.0 overall grade
Edge Cameron Jordan, 80.6 overall grade
Performances of Note:
QB Drew Brees, 81.5 overall grade
Brees was lights out when throwing over the middle of the field Sunday. On passes targeted between the numbers, he went 18-21 for 257 yards and a touchdown.
G Andrus Peat, 83.3 overall grade
Peat had the second-highest graded game of his young career in this one. In 48 pass-blocking snaps he allowed only one hurry.
Edge Alex Okafor, 89.5 overall grade
Okafor had a dominant day off the edge. He picked up seven run stops on only 22 snaps against the run and registered six pressures.
CB P.J. Williams, 56.5 overall grade
The Saints secondary reverted back to their early season form on a handful of snaps Sunday. They had a handful of miscommunications that led to multiple touchdowns. Williams himself struggled, giving up all three of his targets for 43 yards and committing two penalties.
Top 5 Grades:
CB Bashaud Breeland, 90.4 overall grade
G Brandon Scherff, 89.0 overall grade
QB Kirk Cousins, 84.7 overall grade
C Chase Roullier, 84.4 overall grade
CB Kendall Fuller, 81.3 overall grade
Performances of Note:
QB Kirk Cousins, 84.7 overall grade
There weren't many holes to poke in Cousins performance. He only whiffed on a handful of passes all game long. On seven deep passing attempts, he completed four for 134 yards and a touchdown.
C Chase Roullier, 84.4 overall grade
After a few ugly outings in relief of Spencer Long, Roullier looked back to his Wyoming form. He didn't allow a single pressure and handled his own in the run game.
CB Bashaud Breeland, 90.4 overall grade
Breeland was picked on quite frequently by Drew Brees and held his own. The Redskins corner was targeted 11 times and yielded only six catches for 58 yards. He also broke up three passes in a superb performance.
S DeAngelo Hall, 24.6 overall grade
Hall's day was about as bad as it gets for a safety. He missed three of his eight tackle attempts and allowed all four of his targets to be completed for 67 yards and a touchdown.
PFF Game Ball: Alex Okafor, Edge
*Grades are subject to change upon review
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