Saints Play of the Day: Drew Brees finds Willie Snead IV on flea flicker TD
It involved some trickery -- Mark Ingram II initially took the handoff, then spun around and tossed the ball back to Brees for a flea flicker. Brees stepped up, found Snead down near the goal line with a step on the Giants secondary, and rifled a touchdown pass to him from 34 yards out. You can watch the crazy play for yourself here.
So many things could have gone wrong here. Ingram lost his footing on the toss and could have lost control of the football for a fumble. Brees could have put too little air underneath his pass and had it intercepted by the New York defense. Snead could have dropped the ball himself. New Orleans may have lost this one without those first six points.
But they didn't. This time, the Saints gambled and it paid off. They were off to the races from here on out. Brees took the lead with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks to close out the first quarter, and New Orleans held onto that lead until the Giants rallied back with a pick-six midway through the fourth quarter. Brees tied it up again with a 9-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Spiller, and then things really got wild.
A Saints defense that had given up 416 yards and 49 points already finally got a stop inside the final minute, forcing a Giants punt from their own 25-yard line. Marcus Murphy returned that punt back into New York territory but fumbled at the end, and Snead picked it up -- along with a 15-yard face mask penalty on Giants punter Brad Wing as he tried to bring Snead down. That moved the Saints into field goal range, and Kai Forbath split the uprights from 50 yards out. It was a thrilling, entertaining game for anyone who wasn't a fan of good defense. It probably shouldn't shock anyone that embattled defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was dismissed two weeks later, which led to Dennis Allen getting the keys. The rest is history.
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