Saints KO Carolina

There are a lot of ways to win games.

And Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints used every last one of them.

After Brees lit up the Carolina Panthers in the first half with a performance for the ages – and the aging, given he turns 39 in a week – the defense smothered Cam Newton on the final set of downs. A 17-yard sack by Vonn Bell sealed the 31-26 win and extended the Saints’ season for at least one more week.

The Saints play the Minnesota Vikings next Sunday in the divisional round.

“You try to enjoy as many of these moments as possible,” Brees said after the game, “because they’re not going to last forever.”

He’s more aware of that than ever now.

It’s not just his age, though he knows the window on his career is closing. After making the playoffs five times in his first eight seasons in New Orleans, including a Super Bowl win in 2010, the Saints spent the last three postseasons on the sidelines.

The Super Bowl core was gone, and the roster was in a constant state of transition. Brees didn’t for an out – not from this city, whose rise after Hurricane Katrina was so intertwined with his own resurgence – but many around the NFL wondered if the last years of his Hall of Fame career were being wasted.

But Brees, just as he had when he arrived, could see there was something better to come.

The Saints have surrounded him with all kinds of new toys the last two seasons. Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara are the most effective running back tandem in the league, and Kamara is also one of New Orleans’ most dynamic receiving threats.Michael Thomas is a big-time playmaker – if you missed it, Google his stutter step that broke Shaq Thompson’s ankles for a first down that set up Brees’ 9-yard TD pass to Josh Hill.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the Saints went out and got Ted Ginn Jr. – the same Ted Ginn Jr. who’d killed the NFC South with the Panthers the last two years.

The same Ted Ginn Jr. who might as well have stuck a dagger in the Carolina defense with his 80-yard TD reception in the first quarter.

“It creates that atmosphere that, no matter what, we’re going to find a way to win.”

The play came after the Saints couldn’t get anything going on the first two possessions, with Carolina clamping down on Ingram and Kamara. But that’s what makes this Saints offense so potent. Take away two guys, and it opens things up for others.

“You take us away, we’ve got other elite players,” Ingram said.

And Brees at the heart of all of it.

“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback,” Ingram said.

The Ginn TD would be the first of eight completions in a row for Brees, and 11 of 13 as the Saints built a 21-6 lead. His QB rating at the half was 151.4, highest in an NFL playoff game since Kurt Warner in the 2008 NFC Championship Game.

“It blew the thing wide open,” Brees said. “I think it broke the seal for us offensively and got the crowd rolling.”

As explosive as Brees and the Saints offense is, they wouldn’t be here if there hadn’t been a marked improvement in their defense this season.

Newton and the Panthers got their yardage – they finished with 413 to New Orleans’ 410 – but the Saints managed to get the big plays when they needed them.

After giving up a 56-yard touchdown catch to Christian McCaffrey with 4:09 left, the Saints had a fourth-and-2 at the two-minute warning. Convert, and the Saints could run out the clock. But Brees was intercepted by Mike Adams, and the Panthers had the ball at their own 31 with 1:51 left to play.

Newton, who’d been cleared to return to the game before the McCaffrey touchdown in an apparent breech of the newly toughened concussion protocol, took the Panthers to the New Orleans 26 with his first two passes. A holding call against New Orleans moved them to the 21.

But after an incompletion, Newton was called for intentional grounding. After another incompletion, Vonn Bell burst off the line and threw Newton to the ground like a rag doll for a 17-yard sack.

The game was over. Brees and the Saints were marching on.