Going for six instead of three catapults Saints' comeback

MIAMI -- New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees spiked the Dolphins at the end of the first half, and then he dunked them in the fourth quarter as the Saints overcame a 24-3 deficit to win 46-34.

Brees' biggest contribution in his team's sixth straight victory was convincing coach Sean Payton to go for a touchdown with five seconds left in the first half instead of a field goal.

'There are times in a game where your team needs an emotional lift,' Drew Brees says of this big touchdown run. (AP)

Trailing 24-3, the Saints were six inches from the end zone, and Brees' 20-yard completion to Marques Colston was being reviewed to see if it was a touchdown. The field-goal team was on the field.

"Initially, we were going for the field goal," Payton said, "but Drew was in my ear telling me that he would get it in."

With no timeouts, the ball would have been marked when the review was completed. It was determined Colston's knee was six inches short of the end zone.

The Dolphins provided the biggest assist by calling a timeout rather than forcing the field goal attempt.

"The field goal team was on the field, but the offense was huddled on the sideline," Dolphins coach Tony Sparano explained. "I thought that they might switch at the last second, and I wanted to have the right personnel."

Brees didn't deny being in Payton's ear. Tight end Jeremy Shockey saw it the same way. Brees didn't think the timeout made a big difference.

"We would have been lined up and spiked the ball," he said. "We would have had a chance to run the play anyway."

No matter how it happened -- and Payton wasn't sure of the sequence -- Brees got his way. He leaped forward and stuck the ball over the goal line to score, reducing the Saints' deficit to 24-10, he then vigorously spiked the ball, giving his team much-needed momentum.

"There are times in a game where your team needs an emotional lift," Brees said. With 8:35 to play, he ran 2 yards for the go-ahead touchdown and then dunked the ball over the crossbar.

"Down only 14 points, our locker room had no doubt at halftime that we would win the game. The touchdown as opposed to the field goal was big at the end of the half. It gave us the momentum."

If New Orleans eventually becomes a candidate for an unbeaten season, Sparano and the Dolphins will have more questions to answer about the ill-fated timeout that allowed the Saints to march from defeat to victory.

"It was a turning point," safety Yeremiah Bell said. "They got seven points instead of three. That hurt. I don't really know what happened, but it happened.

"You have to deal with it so we did, and it ended up turning out pretty bad in the second half. It was that simple. They won the second half by a bigger margin than we won the first half, and it was the game."

The Dolphins led 24-3 thanks to 14 points off turnovers, and in a first half where the Saints' offense, averaging 430 yards and 38.4 points per game coming in, managed only 112 total yards.

"About everything that could go wrong went wrong in the first half including the replay system malfunctioning," said Shockey, who had four catches for 105 yards.

In the first half, Brees was sacked twice, hurried three times and completed only 12 of 22 passes for 104 yards with two interceptions. More important, the Saints ran for only 23 yards, making it a one-dimensional game.

The Saints, with Mike Bell gaining 80 yards on 12 carries, were committed to the running game in the second half as they gained 115 yards, making it tougher on the Dolphins' defense.

"It is much tougher when a team runs and throws, especially when it has the type of explosive offense they have," Dolphins nose tackle Jason Ferguson said. "Still, we didn't make plays. You have to tackle people."

With more people committed to the run, Brees was more effective in the second half as he faced more manageable third downs, and he finished 22 of 38 for 298 yards and a 10-yard touchdown to Colston.

The Saints' defense also slowed down the Dolphins and their Wildcat offense, allowing just 17 yards rushing in the second half.

With the Dolphins unable to run, quarterback Chad Henne faced more pressure to produce, and he threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, 42 yards by Darren Sharper and 54 yards by Tracy Porter.

The Saints' comeback erased a three-touchdown performance by Ricky Williams, including a career best 68-yard touchdown run.

"We were just a different team in the second half," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "We made plays that we didn't make in the first half, but with Drew, we never think that we are beaten."

It also proved the Saints, who trailed in a game for the first time this season, could win when they didn't just run away from an opponent.

Questions were posed to the Saints about being the No. 1 in the NFC, and Payton and Brees were cautious with their replies.

"We are promised to play 10 more regular-season games," Payton said. "That is all that it means. It isn't the BCS. There is a lot of football left. We aren't Florida, Alabama or Texas."

Brees hopes the victory will eliminate the "front-runner" tag that had been attached to the Saints.

"We proved what type of team we have," Brees said. "We had a number of losses last season by three points or less where we couldn't get anything going. We got it going today."