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The Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, and the team they beat, the Indianapolis Colts, both are 3-2 five weeks into the season. Neither is playing close to its championship form of a year ago, and are probably more lucky than good to be over .500.
Peyton Manning missed out on a 300-yard game, did not throw a touchdown pass and seemed out of sync, but the Colts got a late touchdown run from Mike Hart for a 19-9 win Sunday against the visiting Kansas City Chiefs.
Drew Brees threw three interceptions against Arizona and the Cardinals capitalized for a 30-20 victory with undrafted rookie Max Hall making his first start at quarterback.
New Orleans trails Atlanta (4-1) in the NFC South, with Tampa Bay at 3-1, while Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Houston and Tennessee are tied in the AFC South.
“Certainly there are things we can work on and improve on, but that is kind of the game we expected coming in,” Manning said of the Colts’ tough outing against the Chiefs, who came into the game as the NFL’s last remaining unbeaten team.
Manning led the Colts to field goals by Adam Vinatieri of 20, 24, 47 and 42 yards before Hart, replacing the injured Joseph Addai, scored from 11 yards out with 4:02 left. Ryan Succop had field goals of 45, 35, and 43 yards for the Chiefs.
Kansas City’s loss marks the first time since 1970 that the NFL has no 4-0 teams.
Saints coach Sean Payton says his team’s continued failure to produce in the red zone, as well as turnovers, poor kick coverage and penalties are taking a toll.
“If we are going to expect different results we have to play better than today,” he said after the Saints managed one TD and two field goals on four trips inside the red zone. Also, John Carney missed a 29-yard field goal attempt that would have given his team a 16-13 lead in the third quarter.
Hall completed 17 of 27 passes for 168 yards, but had some luck and a lot of help from his defense. Hall fumbled twice, but both times teammates recovered, with one ending in a 2-yard TD run by tackle Levi Brown.
“I need to fix my mistakes,” said Hall, “but I think those guys trust me and I think when they look at me they know we have a chance to win.”
Also, Kerry Rhodes returned Ladell Betts’ fumble 27 yards for a score and, with 10 seconds to play, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie returned an interception 28 yards for the clinching TD.
Brees came into the game with just two interceptions and a league-best 74 percent completion rate. He threw for 279 yards and two TDs, but the three picks did not help.
“This was not up to our standard of the way we want to play,” Payton said.
Source: yahoo.com/sports
Author: The Associated Press
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