A dramatic finish kept fans on edge down to the wire, but the New Orleans Saints managed to grind out a 14-11 win over the New York Giants on Sunday in a battle of two hapless teams still up to their same old struggles.
After a lukewarm first half that featured nine combined punts across 15 drives, the Saints held a 14-3 lead entering the fourth quarter after logging their longest touchdown drive since 2016 (98 yards) in the first and an 11-yard Derek Carr TD pass to Juwan Johnson in the third. New Orleans’ momentum stalled following the second score.
After struggling most of the day, Giants quarterback Drew Lock seemed to save his best for last as he led a 13-play, 82-yard scoring drive capped by a Tyrone Tracy plunge to cut the deficit to three and another series to give his team a shot at tying the contest.
Carr went down with a hand injury following a 9-yard run with 3:59 left in the game and did not return. The quarterback was also being evaluated for a concussion.
The late flurry for the Giants would prove for naught as Saints defensive tackle Bryan Bresee blocked kicker Graham Gano’s game-tying 35-yard attempt to keep New Orleans’ (5-8) divisional hopes in NFC South alive and send New York (2-11) falling further into despair. Currently, the Giants are behind the Las Vegas Raiders in the battle for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Kick is no good. Saints hang on to win! pic.twitter.com/90AmV41piH
— NFL (@NFL) December 8, 2024
Lock-led Giants fall short
Even with Lock back starting at QB, the Giants offense struggled to get anything going. Lock went 0-of-8 in the first quarter before finally throwing his first completion in the second quarter.
He went into halftime just 6-of-19 for 52 yards as the Giants offense mustered up just 86 yards of total offense. Things finally got clicking for New York late in the fourth but the Giants couldn’t get it done with a Gano game-tying field goal blocked. — Charlotte Carroll, Giants beat writer
Still some good, even within the bad for Saints
At this point for the Saints, why not highlight some of the positives?
They’ve won three of their four games with Darren Rizzi as the interim coach. They went on the road and beat a team that, even in its weakened state, it should’ve beaten in the Giants. And technically with four games left, the Saints possess a faint playoff pulse given the meandering state of the NFC South and a favorable schedule (vs. Washington, at Green Bay, vs. Las Vegas, at Tampa Bay) ahead.
Maybe there’s one more win remaining but, unfortunately, the bad continues to creep back in for New Orleans. The Saints’ offensive injury list added another player with Carr leaving the game with a right hand injury. Add him to a list that includes Taysom Hill, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. How will the Saints offense function going forward?
Backup Jake Haener replaced Carr Sunday, but the Saints rolled with Spencer Rattler when Carr missed time with an injury earlier this season. But hey, the Saints continue to show fight even if they take potential knockout punches in a season that likely will end in a TKO sooner than later. — Larry Holder, NFL senior writer
Required reading
- NFL Week 14 scores and live updates: Playoff picture, standings, news, inactives, predictions, odds
- 2025 NFL mock draft: Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward go top 3 in polarizing class
- Giants 2025: How many building blocks can one of the league’s worst rosters actually have?
- Giants mock draft reaction: How would Shedeur Sanders fit in New York?
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
