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New Orleans Saints Reggie Bush - Source: Reuters
The New Orleans Saints overhauled a 21-point deficit for a superb comeback victory against the Miami Dolphins on Monday, closing out the game 46-34 for their sixth straight win of the season.
Ricky Williams scored three touchdowns for Miami, who led 24-3 during the second quarter but then spectacularly collapsed after New Orleans touchdowns either side of half-time.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees ran over from a yard on the stroke of half-time to restore hope for the visitors, after taking advantage of a surprise decision by Miami head coach Tony Sparano to call a time-out with just five seconds on the clock.
The time-out allowed the Saints to substitute and set up their offense for a touchdown rather than settle for a field goal, and let New Orleans back into the game.
Momentum then swung towards the visitors with the first drive of the third.
Saints safety Darren Sharper intercepted a Chad Henne pass and raced into the end-zone from 43 yards, his 11th score on an interception in his career.
Miami went into the fourth quarter with a 34-24 lead after former Saint Williams's third touchdown, but New Orleans were unstoppable as they racked up 22 unanswered points.
With Brees finding ample time and space to pass after earlier throwing three interceptions, New Orleans scored three touchdowns and a field goal to keep their streak alive.
"There were a lot of things we didn't do right in the first half but Miami did a lot of things very well," said Saints head coach Sean Payton.
"I was just proud of the way we just hung in there and we talked about playing a full game, four quarters and we did that today. We had to come from behind and I'm proud of the way they responded," he added.
The result dented Miami's hopes of making the playoffs and left them 2-4 in the AFC East.
Sparano said his team had been "a little self-destructive" in the second half but took a share of the blame himself for the fourth quarter collapse.
"We just didn't finish the game. We had untimely penalties, we had dropped balls, we had interceptions -- we just didn't do a good job of executing fourth quarter football," he said.
"That's my fault. We didn't look like a very good football team in the fourth quarter".
