Brees enters 305 yds. shy of Marino mark

September 27, 2010

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—As blitzing linebacker Jonathan Vilma(notes) stormed in for acrushing hit, Matt Ryan(notes) zipped a quick scoring pass over the middle to TonyGonzalez(notes).

When the Saints flushed Ryan out of the pocket, sending him scramblingtoward the sideline, Atlanta’s third-year quarterback found Gonzalez for adrive-extending diving catch.

Whenever Ryan needed a conversion on third down—even on fourth down—hecouldn’t go wrong by looking for Gonzalez.

The pair’s extraordinary chemistry in the clutch—along with a little luckon Saints kicker Garrett Hartley’s(notes) missed overtime field goal—allowed theFalcons to escape New Orleans with a 27-24 victory on Sunday.

“He’s such a talented player,” Ryan said of his veteran tight end. “Youjust have to trust him regardless of who goes out there and covers him.”

Ryan was 19 of 30 for 228 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He hitRoddy White(notes) five times for 69 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown. MichaelTurner(notes) rushed for 114 yards with a 1-yard TD for the Falcons (2-1), who finallyseized the victory on Matt Bryant’s(notes) 46-yard field goal with 1:55 left inovertime.

It was Gonzalez, though, who gave the defending champions the most trouble.New Orleans (2-1) tried covering him with linebackers and defensive backs.Neither worked.

Ryan found Gonzalez eight times for 110 yards, including a 13-yard scoringstrike on third down and a fourth-down connection that kept a second TD drivealive. Five of Gonzalez’s catches came on third down and one came on fourthdown. Together, those six catches produced five first downs and a touchdown.

“He’s just a tough guy to defend,” Ryan said. “I haven’t figured it outyet which is a better way to defend him. Hopefully nobody ever figures it out.”

The Saints can only hope Hartley, a playoff hero last season who also hit agame-winning kick at San Francisco in Week 2 of this season, can figure out howto hit field goals consistently again.

After nailing a 32-yarder with 4 seconds left in regulation to forceovertime, Hartley hooked his potential gamewinner badly to the left from 29yards out.

“I missed basically an extra point,” Hartley said. “It was clearly mymistake. … It’s the highs and lows of being a kicker.”

Hartley’s hook resembled a missed potential gamewinner against Tampa Baylast season before the Buccaneers rallied for an unlikely win. It also resembleda pair of less consequential misses in New Orleans’ season-opening win overMinnesota. This season, Hartley is 4 of 7 on field goal tries.

Saints coach Sean Payton spoke with Hartley after the game, but had nointerest in making that exchange public or discussing the possibility of lookinginto other kickers.

“He pulled his kick. Certainly he has to play better than that,” Paytonsaid. “But there are a lot of us that have to do a better job.”

New Orleans’ blunders went beyond Hartley’s botched kick. Rookie Chris Ivoryfumbled on a fourth-and-1 carry on the Atlanta 32 and Drew Brees(notes) threw his firsttwo interceptions of the season in the first half.

In the end, the mistakes left the Saints unable to capitalize on a careerperformance by Lance Moore(notes), who in Reggie Bush’s(notes) absence returned a punt apersonal best 72 yards to set up Jeremy Shockey’s(notes) TD. Moore then added twotouchdown catches of his own, including a career-long 80-yarder, and finishedwith six catches for 149 yards.

Brees finished 30 of 38 for a season-high 365 yards and three TDs, butdwelled afterward on his interceptions, particularly the second one, which cameon an ill-advised underhanded flip as he fell forward.

“That was not like me. I was disappointed in myself,” Brees said. “Wemissed some opportunities in some short yardage situations. We need to go backto the drawing board a little bit. The answer is to find a way to win in theend.”

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Brees, 49ers defense form elite matchup

September 21, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—For nearly 59 minutes, coach Mike Singletary’s boldproclamation that San Francisco would stop Drew Brees(notes) and the high-powered NewOrleans Saints looked prophetic.

Then with one late drive worthy of the Super Bowl champions, Brees eked outanother victory for the Saints.

Garrett Hartley’s(notes) deflected 37-yard field goal fluttered over the cross barafter time expired to cap the winning drive that gave the Saints a 25-22 victoryover the 49ers on Monday night.

“We won the game and that’s all that counts,” Brees said. “There weredefinitely things you wish you would have done a little bit differently but thefact of the matter is we found a way to win at the end.”

The Saints (2-0) took advantage of four turnovers, an errant shotgun snapthat gave them a safety and a kick that barely made it through the uprights tospoil the home opener for San Francisco (0-2).

In a testy television interview last week, Singletary bristled at a questionabout how the Niners would try to stop Brees.

“We will not try to stop Drew Brees,” he told KPIX-TV. “We will stop DrewBrees. Next question.”

The Niners held Brees and the Saints to 231 yards of offense until the finaldrive. The game appeared headed to overtime when Frank Gore(notes) scored on a 7-yardrun with 1:19 remaining and Alex Smith completed a 2-point conversion to VernonDavis(notes) that needed a replay review to count.

But there was enough time for Brees, who had the wind at his back. Hecompleted two short passes to Pierre Thomas(notes) to move the ball into San Franciscoterritory and a 30-yarder to Marques Colston(notes) to get into field goal range.

“We’ve been here before,” Brees said. “We knew exactly what we had to do,just find a way to win. We’ve shown that we can win in a lot of ways. To bebattle tested like this, just in the first two weeks of the season, is going toserve us very well as we go forward.

After another short pass to Jeremy Shockey(notes) and a false start penalty,Hartley came on with 2 seconds left for his first game-winning attempt sincewinning the NFC championship with a 40-yarder in overtime against Minnesota inJanuary.

That kick sailed easily through the uprights. This one had a much moretreacherous route. Ray McDonald(notes) got a hand on the ball but it still managed tomake it over the cross bar for the win.

“I got half the ball but I didn’t get enough,” McDonald said.

The kick was especially sweet for Hartley, who missed two kicks in theseason-opening 14-9 win against Minnesota. He came in on his day off for extrawork and it paid off with three fourth-quarter field goals.

“When I went out there to kick, coach (Sean) Payton came up to me and gaveme a high-five and said `Let’s go home,”’ Hartley said. “And here we are aboutto get on a plane.”

The near blocked kick typified the night for the Niners. They turned theball over three times inside the New Orleans 30 to thwart scoring chances andPhillip Adams(notes) fumbled a punt deep in San Francisco territory to set up a shortfield goal by Hartley that made it 22-14.

That proved to be too much to overcome for the Niners, who are winless aftertwo games after entering the season with high hopes of making it to the playoffsfor the first time in eight years.

“When we stop defeating ourselves, when we stop putting the ball on theground and we stop doing things to hurt ourselves, we’re going to be a goodfootball team,” Singletary said. “How good, that remains to be seen.”

There were some positive signs for the Niners. Gore ran for 112 yards andscored two touchdowns and Smith put together one of the best drives of hiscareer to tie the game.

He completed four of five passes on the drive for 51 yards and alsoscrambled twice for 24 yards. Then after Gore’s run, Smith found Davis on theshort pass that tied the game. The officials originally said Davis was stoppedoutside the end zone, but changed the call after replays determined Davis hadpossession in the end zone before Roman Harper(notes) drove him back.

Smith finished 23 for 32 for 275 yards with one touchdown and threw twointerceptions. This came a week after he failed to lead the offense to atouchdown and the Niners struggled even to get plays off on time in a 31-6 lossat Seattle.

“In the end, it’s a loss just like last week,” Smith said. “Lose by oneor lose by whatever—it doesn’t matter. There are some things to take away fromit, but still killing ourselves.”

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Chiefs lead Chargers 13-12 after 3

September 14, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Derrick Johnson is ready to credit this rain-soakedSeptember victory to those brutally hot two-a-days in August.

“We’re a physical team throughout training camp and it paid off tonight,”said Kansas City’s veteran linebacker.

While Jamaal Charles(notes) and Dexter McCluster(notes) were grabbing the headlines withlong touchdown plays for the Chiefs, Johnson was compiling a team-high 12tackles in Monday night’s 21-14 victory over San Diego.

Johnson’s jolting hit on Chargers rookie Ryan Mathews(notes) caused a fumble whichled directly to one of Kansas City’s two offensive touchdowns of the game.

Not bad for someone who struggled all last year to regain his starting job.

“That’s what I’m trying to prove. Every game, I’m trying to play with achip on my shoulder,” he said. “That’s not a negative chip. That’s a chip thatkeeps me on my toes at all times.”

The Chargers, four-time defending AFC West champions, appeared ready to movein for a tie after Philip Rivers(notes) drove San Diego to a first-and-goal from the 4with a little over 1 minute left.

On the final series, Rivers’ first pass was incomplete, then Darren Sproles(notes)lost 2 yards on a stalled run. Another pass from Rivers sailed high. Then, with39 seconds left, Rivers missed on fourth down, clinching the Chiefs’ firstMonday night victory in a decade.

On that final game-saving defensive play, Glenn Dorsey(notes) said the plan was tomake Rivers throw from a spot he prefers to avoid.

“We wanted to get a push in the middle to force him to make a sporadicthrow outside the pocket where he is not comfortable,” said the Chiefsdefensive end. “He did that. He started moving around and he wasn’t able to sethis feet. That’s the biggest thing, trying to get pressure on him and holding uplike we had been doing all night long.”

San Diego’s winning streak against the Chiefs ended at five games.

“They made some big plays in all three phases,” Chargers coach Norv Turnersaid. “They handled the environment in terms of the weather conditions. Ithought they did a good job in handling that, particularly in the secondquarter.

“The disappointment for me comes obviously from our (kick) coverage teams.We think that should be a strength for us and something we work hard at.”

Jamaal Charles had a 56-yard touchdown run after Rivers’ 3-yard TD pass toAntonio Gates(notes) put the Chargers on the board first. Then, rookie DexterMcCluster, a training camp sensation with quickness and flair, broke ateam-record by one yard with a 94-yard punt return for a 21-7 halftime lead.

“That’s the longest of my career at any level,” said McCluster. “Whatbetter time than that—Monday night football in Arrowhead. You couldn’t ask fora better time.”

Ryan Mathews, in his NFL debut, had 75 yards on 19 carries for the Chargers.

Rivers was 22 for 39 for 298 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Cassel(notes), with ahistory of playing poorly against the Chargers, was 10 for 22 for 68 yards,including a 2-yard TD pass following a San Diego turnover.

The 9:15 p.m. kickoff was the latest in Arrowhead history.

“This was the longest day of my life,” joked Cassel.

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Chiefs lead Chargers 13-3 at halftime