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New Orleans Saints rally, withstand furious comeback in road victory over Giants

Oct 18, 2026 at 05:30 PM

Senior Writer

East Rutherford, N.J. – It took most of the first half for the New Orleans Saints to find some of what they've been looking for a good portion of this season, but when they found it, they knew precisely what to do with it against the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

And fortunately for the Saints (2-4), they had just enough of it to outlast New York in a 34-27 victory that ended New Orleans' three-game losing streak, made a Herculean comeback stand and prevented what would have been a sizeable collapse.

A running game that had been AWOL produced 175 yards and a touchdown.

The special teams rebounded from an opening-game penalty and missed field goal to provide two 50-plus yard field goals, a forced and recovered fumble (linebacker Isaiah Stalbird and tight end Oscar Delp, respectively), and 181 return yards.

The defense gave up a 93-yard touchdown drive, then shut the door for three quarters as it intercepted three passes (two by cornerback Martin Emerson Jr.), sacked Giants quarterbacks five times (1.5 each from edges Chase Young and Carl Granderson) and helped the offense go on a 34-0 run.

And the offense, after some early shooting in the foot, had enough of it left to give the Giants (3-2-1) a big enough kick to help withstand a 17-0 blitz by the Giants in the fourth quarter.

The result allowed the Saints an exhale as they readied to board the flight for Paris and prepare for their game against the Steelers next Sunday.

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"Wild NFL games," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. "They always come in different shapes and sizes, so I'm glad our guys found a way to win this game. That's ultimately your No. 1 objective going on the road."

New Orleans followed a familiar pattern as the Giants took a 10-0 lead with 2:27 left in the first half behind a Jameis Winston touchdown pass and field goal. But from there, the Saints began their punch-back.

Barion Brown returned the kickoff 41 yards to the Saints' 44-yard line, and after driving 16 yards and stalling, Daniel Carlson kicked a 58-yard field goal to pull the Saints to within 10-3 with 1:18 left in the half.

On the ensuing kickoff return, Stalbird forced a fumble by Charlie Jones on a 22-yard return that Delp recovered at the Giants' 28-yard line. And after Saints quarterback Tyler Shough scrambled for 25 yards on first down, he threw a 2-yard touchdown to rookie receiver Bryce Lance on fourth-and-goal to tie the score at halftime.

"That was a huge turnover," Moore said. "Stalbird created that forced fumble and we were able to score right there, tie the ballgame up. And then come out in the second half and play, I thought, a really good middle right there."

The Saints opened the second half with three touchdown drives and a field goal in five possessions — while forcing two punts and intercepting three passes — to create a 34-10 lead with 10:22 left in the fourth quarter.

Then, the Saints exhaled.

The Giants didn't.

New Orleans subbed out a few starters, the Giants switched quarterbacks from Winston to J.J. McCarthy, and the combination of that — plus a lost Saints fumble — started New York on a 17-0 sprint that didn't end until McCarthy's pass was incomplete on fourth-and-1 from the Saints' 14-yard line with six seconds left.

"A couple of guys are kind of managing some stuff, guys that are sore and tried to get a few guys out," Moore said. "And obviously, it didn't work."

What did was a plus-3 turnover margin and perfection in the red zone (3 for 3). Shough completed 16 of 30 passes for 144 yards, but he didn't commit a turnover and threw three touchdown passes, including a 31-yarder to Alvin Kamara and an 18-yarder to Chris Olave. The toss to Kamara also put him in an exclusive club — he is now one of six players in NFL history to record 5,000+ rushing and receiving yards.