Pretty much everybody who made a pick on Sunday's game between the Chargers and Saints expected a high-scoring shootout. Pretty much everybody was right.
Quarterback Drew Brees made his return to Qualcomm Stadium for the first time since the final game of the 2005 season ... the last one he played as a member of the Chargers ... and was outdueled by Philip Rivers, his former understudy, but still found a way to get his team a win. New Orleans erased a 13-point lead in the 4th quarter to win a thriller 35-34.
The Saints scored first, taking the opening drive 75 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown. Brees completed a pair of passes on 3rd down and running back Mark Ingram ran completely untouched for a 1-yard TD and a 7-0 lead.
San Diego's offense went 3-and-out, putting the Bolts on dangerous footing. Another quick New Orleans score would have been borderline disastrous but veteran defensive tackle Brandon Mebane stuffed Ingram for a 6-yard loss and linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu sacked Brees to force a punt and the San Diego offense started clicking.
Rivers, who completed his first nine passes, hit rookie tight end Hunter Henry for a 20-yard touchdown, the first score of Henry's career, to tie the game 7-7.
Brees engineered another long drive, again completing a pair of passes on 3rd and long situations, including a 4-yard touchdown pass to fullback John Kuhn. But for the rest of the first half the Chargers were in control.
Rivers worked some 3rd down magic of his own, finding wide receiver Dontrelle Inman for 17 yards on 3rd and 9. On the very next play the Saints defense blew a coverage and Inman was running all by himself up the sideline. Rivers hit him for a 57-yard touchdown and a tie ballgame.
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On the next play Brees tried to hit Brandon Coleman but Jason Verrett tipped the ball in the air and Craig Mager grabbed it for his first career interception. That set up a Josh Lambo 30-yard field goal the the Chargers had their first lead of the day at 17-14. San Diego's defense forced a 3-and-out to give Rivers another shot at the end of the half.
This time it was the Melvin Gordon Show. The Chargers running back touched the ball seven times in the next 11 plays, finishing the drive with a one-yard scoring run that gave the Bolts a 24-14 halftime lead.
On their first drive of the 3rd quarter the Saints got a 1-yard TD run from Kuhn to cut the lead to 24-21 then the game kind of slowed down. After trading punts for a bit Rivers found another groove. He threw 12 times on a 15-play drive then handed off to Gordon, who scored from the one again for his 6th rushing touchdown of the season. The Chargers added another field goal to take a 34-21 lead in the fourth quarter. Then all heck broke loose.
The Saints had to punt and Gordon immediately fumbled. Brees threw a TD pass to Thomas four plays later and the lead was down to 34-28.
On the very next San Diego snap Rivers hit Travis Benjamin ... who fumbled. The Saints recovered and scored again, this time on another Kuhn TD run, giving the Bolts the ball with 1:57 to play trailing 35-34.
Rivers was sacked on his next two drop backs and on 4th and 22 had to force one in to coverage and it was intercepted. It's the second time in four games the Chargers have lost a game they led by double digits in the 4th quarter. San Diego and New Orleans are both 1-3 on the season.
