The New Orleans Saints somehow managed to pull off two difficult challenges in one game. First, they overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to take the lead from the Houston Texans, Then, they dared Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson — who hung more than 800 passing yards in two national title games against Alabama in college — to move the ball 75 yards in under a minute, with no timeouts. He did that in two plays.
What’s impressive isn’t that the Saints’ gamble against Watson crashed hard. It’s that Saints quarterback Drew Brees nodded and led his offense into the very fringe of Wil Lutz’s range of kicking, then asked the former undrafted free agent out of Georgia State to reset his career-longest field goal.
58 yards and what felt like a century later, Lutz did just that, and the Saints left Week 1 with a victory in hand. They managed to take the lead, lose it in astounding fashion, and then come back again to seal the win. How many teams have made that hat trick?
But Lutz didn’t get there on his own. Here’s your Monday Night Football highlight reel, with the best plays from both the Saints and Texans.
