The New Orleans Saints remain tied atop of the NFC South after an impressive 35-32 road victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Our takeaways:
- Give it up for the Saints, who peeled themselves off the turf after dropping three straight games at the Superdome. Drew Breesdelivered a vintage performance, throwing five touchdowns without an interception. Each of his scoring strikes went to a different receiver. The Saints did whatever they wanted against a lethargic Steelers defense.
- Brees tossed five touchdowns, but none to Jimmy Graham. In fact, Graham didn't even have a catch. The Saints' receiving star was Kenny Stills, who had five receptions for 162 yards and a touchdown.
- The Steelers proved again why they never deserved our trust this season. Pittsburgh came out flat from the very beginning, taking the home crowd out of the game. The final score was a total mirage thanks to 16 late points in garbage time. Fantasy owners won't complain, but Ben Roethlisberger might have delivered the most deceiving statistical game in NFL history.
- Saints running back Mark Ingram bounced back from a quiet couple of weeks with a 122-yard performance. When Brees and Ingram are both humming, this offense is very tough to stop. Just a friendly reminder for those who think it's impossible for the Saints to make noise in January.
- Roethlisberger struggled with accuracy in this game, repeatedly missing high. You wonder if it had something to do with Curtis Loftonhammering his right wrist during a follow-through in the first half. The notoriously tough Roethlisberger was hurting enough to hand the ball off with his left hand on the next two plays.
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