New Orleans overcomes miscues in 31-19 victory over Jets

It wasn’t pretty, but the New Orleans Saints did what they needed to do on Sunday. They overcame three turnovers against the New York Jets in order to keep pace in a heated NFC South playoff race. They say a win is a win, but this one was about the exact opposite of a moral victory.
After dropping two out of three, the New Orleans Saints got back to their winning ways on Sunday with their 10th victory of the season, behind some more strong outings from the usual playmakers Mark Ingram, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas, a trio that combined to score all four of the Saints’ touchdowns in a somewhat sloppy 31-19 victory over the New York Jets. Head Coach Sean Payton said, “I didn’t feel like it was one of our better games, nonetheless we were able to do what we had to do to win a game. So, situationally we fumbled the ball, we turned it over, we did a lot of things that keep you from winning games and will keep us from winning when we play better competition.”
Saints Running back Mark Ingram said, “There’s no looking over any team in the NFL, they all have good players. All are professionals, man, and the coaching staffs as well so you can’t look over any opponent. That’s just it. I don’t think we looked over them, we were focused on them.”
Saints Wide receiver Michael Thomas said, “That’s when I want to rise to the occasion and that’s when I want to show my teammates, because you never know when you’re going to get that other moment or when you can show your teammates how much you care about them. You can say it, you can talk it, and you can say whatever and say on the sidelines like a lot of chatter. But the ultimate way to do it is to go handle business, and that’s what I tried to do.”
Saints Defensive End Cameron Jordan said, “What we’re trying to do this season, we have this single-minded focus of getting to the playoffs and going further than we’ve ever gone before, or further than I’ve ever gone before. The goals that we have, the lofty goals that we have, we’re still in the hunt to achieve those so at the end of the day we have to continue to get better.”
“We always push each other and we want to be great and we want to go for everything,” said Ingram.
Saints Running back Alvin Kamara said,”It’s a lot of work that goes into it so to have that it’s like a reward for the work that we’ve been putting in. We’ve just got to keep it going. It’s 1,000, but we want another thousand and another thousand so.” “For sure, for sure.”
Next up for the Black and Gold is a Christmas Eve rematch versus the Atlanta Falcons which could ultimately decide the NFC South playoff picture.
Now, another note from Sunday’s victory, Drew Brees is just 35 yards away from eclipsing 70,000 career passing yards.
The Saints and Panthers remain tied atop the NFC South at 10-4 with the Black and Gold still holding the head-to-head tie-breaker.