Detroit Lions hold off late rally to defeat New Orleans Saints
Tuesday 22 December 2015 11:18, UK
Matthew Stafford threw three touchdown passes as the Detroit Lions held off a late surge by New Orleans to defeat the Saints 35-27 on Monday night.
Stafford, who set a Lions one-game accuracy record by completing 22 of 25 passes for 254 yards, threw first-half touchdown passes of one and five yards to Golden Tate and four yards to Michael Burton for a 21-3 half-time edge.
And when Detroit's Ameer Abdullah ran untouched 15 yards around the left end for a touchdown early in the third quarter, the Lions built a 28-3 lead.
That prompted a fightback from the Saints, who scored 17 unanswered points when Drew Brees threw touchdowns to Brandin Cooks and Marques Colston, with Kai Forbath adding a field goal to make it 28-20.
The Lions responded with a nine-play, 76-yard touchdown drive capped by Joique Bell's one-yard run to seize a 35-20 edge with 5:24 to play.
Brees answered by marching the Saints 80 yards in 15 plays and New Orleans pulled it back to 35-27 on his one-yard touchdown pass to Benjamin Watson with 1:55 remaining.
Detroit receiver Calvin Johnson recovered an onside kick attempt by the Saints and the Lions ran the clock down, but Matt Prater missed a field goal to give the Saints the ball with nine seconds remaining and needing 72 yards for a touchdown.
The Saints managed to gain a few yards on two desperation plays but time ran out on them.
Brees became the fourth NFL quarterback to throw for 60,000 yards when he hit Cooks with a 27-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.
With 60,168 passing yards, Brees now trails only Peyton Manning (71,871), Brett Favre (71,838) and Dan Marino (61,361), while his 424 touchdown throws are behind Manning (539), Favre (508) and Tom Brady (427).
Brees also became the first NFL quarterback with 10 consecutive seasons throwing for 4,000 yards and stretched his NFL record streak of games with a touchdown pass to 52 in a row.
