Drew Brees threw for 305 yards and two touchdowns, guiding the New Orleans Saints to a 20-10 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.
Brees shook off a shaky first half and threw fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Marques Colston and Lance Moore as the Saints prevailed in a matchup of the last two Super Bowl winners.
A fumble by Steelers tight end Heath Miller with just under 6 1/2 minutes to play set up an eight-play, 55-yard scoring drive by the Saints (5-3).
Brees found Moore over the middle from 8 yards out to extend the Saints' lead to 20-10 with 2:37 to play.
Leigh Torrence picked off Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger 57 seconds later to clinch the victory.
Brees finished 34 of 44 with the two TDs and one interception. In the second half, he was 20 of 22 for 191 yards with both scoring passes.
Roethlisberger wound up 17 of 28 for 195 yards and one pick as Pittsburgh fell to 5-2 and dropped into a tie with Baltimore atop the AFC North.
Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 71 yards on 15 carries, including a 38-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter for the Steelers.
The defenses dominated through the first three quarters, with each team failing to get in the end zone after having a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line.
Jeff Reed and Garrett Hartley traded second-quarter field goals to account for the 3-3 halftime score.
Pittsburgh | New Orleans | |
Rashard Mendenhall | Player | Julius Jones |
15 | Attempts | 7 |
71 | Yards | 16 |
4.7 | Avg Yards | 2.3 |
1 | Touchdowns | 0 |
38 | Long | 11 |
Pittsburgh | New Orleans | |
Mike Wallace | Player | Robert Meachem |
3 | Receptions | 6 |
43 | Yards | 76 |
14.3 | Avg Yards | 12.7 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
21 | Long | 50 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Pittsburgh | 279 | 108 | 171 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 1 |
New Orleans | 318 | 30 | 288 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3.0 | 2 |