When the time came to dial up a big play for Michael Thomas

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authentic Wil Lutz Jersey , the Saints‘ leading receiver answered the call.He even had a flip phone planted in the padding of each goal post, just in case.Thomas caught a late 72-yard touchdown reception and then celebrated with a cellphone in a throwback to another famous New Orleans play, and the streaking Saints handed the Los Angeles Rams their first loss of the season with a 45-35 victory on Sunday.“I loved the celebration myself, and I think it was the perfect time when I did it,” Thomas said. “We love our fans and we always want to bring them back great memories.”Drew Brees passed for 346 yards and four touchdowns in New Orleans’ seventh straight win, and Thomas finished with a club-record 211 yards receiving. But what happened after the last of his 12 receptions stole the show in a wild shootout between two of the NFL’s best offenses.Thomas’ long TD came on a pivotal third-down play with about four minutes left. The Rams (8-1) seemed to expect the Saints (7-1) to run a play closer to the first-down marker and double-teamed dynamic running back Alvin Kamara.Brees recalled thinking, “Kamara’s doubled, Mike’s singled, Mike’s by him, here we go.”Thomas ran free behind Marcus Peters, caught Brees’ long throw virtually in stride and ran straight to the goal post to begin his reprise of Joe Horn’s Sunday night TD celebration against the New York Giants in 2003.“I paid a tribute to him, tried to get the crowd going a little bit more, set the tone, have fun out there, giving people a show,” said Thomas, who eclipsed Wes Chandler’s club record of 205 yards receiving against Atlanta in 1979. “You got to have fun. All these guys just catching touchdowns and celebrating with each other, having fun, getting the crowd involved. I felt like I had an opportunity to make it happen.”Like Horn, Thomas was penalized Limited Teddy Bridgewater Jersey , but the Rams never threatened again.P.J. Williams, who forced a fumble and had an interception for a touchdown in New Orleans’ previous victory at Minnesota, broke up a fourth-down pass intended for Brandin Cooks, virtually sealing the result. The former Saints receiver, who caught six passes for 114 yards and a TD, fell to his knees in frustration.Kamara scored three times, twice on runs and once on a 16-yard catch-and-run — all in the first half.Rams defensive players lambasted themselves for poor tackling at inopportune times, particularly on Kamara, who gained 116 yards from scrimmage. But coach Sean McVay sought to put the season’s lone loss in a positive light.“We’re good. We love it. You find out about yourself when you have a little bit of adversity,” McVay said. “I know that everybody in that locker room is going to respond the right way. Sometimes setbacks can be setups for comebacks — and that’s the way we look at it.”COMEBACK BIDJared Goff, who passed for 391 yards and three TDs, nearly led the Rams to an extraordinary comeback amid the din of the Superdome.Los Angeles rallied to tie it at 35 with 21 unanswered points in less than 21 minutes, starting with Greg Zuerlein’s 56-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.The Rams opened the second half with an 11-play touchdown drive capped by Malcolm Brown’s 18-yard catch in which he hopped over safety Marcus Williams along the sideline and kept his balance long enough to reach the ball across the goal line.After another Los Angeles field goal, the Rams forced a second straight punt and tied it on Cooper Kupp’s 41-yard catch-and-run along the sideline.The Saints regained the lead on Wil Lutz’s 54-yard field goal, and then forced the Rams’ first punt of the game with about five minutes left.SCORCHING STARTBoth teams scored touchdowns on each of their first two possessions, starting with Kamara’s 11-yard run and Todd Gurley’s 8-yard score.Gurley’s score have him a TD in a Rams-record 12 straight games, passing Hall of Famer Elroy Hirsch.The tenor changed when outside linebacker Samson Ebukam stripped Saints running back Mark Ingram and defensive Aaron Donald recovered on the Saints 22. But four plays later, Johnny Hekker was ruled down just short of a first down on a fake field goal.“We’re an aggressive, attacking-type team, and if we feel like some of these looks present themselves to try to do that Josh LeRibeus Jersey , we have confidence in our players,” McVay said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”The Saints responded with Brees’ quick hit over the middle to rookie Tre’Quan Smith from 4 yards out for the first of three successive New Orleans touchdowns.After Zuerlein missed a 51-yard field goal attempt, the Saints scored on Brees’ 13-yard pass to Ben Watson with just more than a minute left in the half.Alex Anzelone’s diving interception of Goff’s pass over the middle set up Kamara’s short TD run with 26 seconds left in the half.“We as a defense didn’t play well enough,” Rams defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. “The first half, we gave up way too many points and put ourselves in a bad position.”INJURIESRams edge pass rusher Matt Longacre was being evaluated for a concussion during the second quarter.UP NEXTRams: Host Seattle on Sunday.Saints: Visit Cincinnati on Sunday. I’ll say this.The way the Saints have varied how they’ve won games this year gives the impression they have an assortment of multi-purpose cleaners under the kitchen cabinet for those tough stains that end up on their Louisiana boot,For the second week in a row, New Orleans whipped out the S.O.S pads expecting a gritty matchup against a very good defensive team allowing a measly 36% conversion rate on 3rd down - Best in the league.Sean Payton made it clear that staying ahead of the chains early would be integral to mitigating the Vikings best asset.Mission accomplished.New Orleans went 4 of 9 on 3rd down, which doesn’t look like much when you write it that way, but when you point out that it equals a 44% success rate, eclipsing the Vikings season average, it brings things in to focus.Combine that with 0 sacks and only two hits on 23 dropbacks for Drew Brees, and you have a gameplan that was executed well enough to overcome losing the time of possession battle and only 150 yards through the air.Fact is, #9 having a huge game through the air was never a necessity for this game-plan to work.Nope, this one was always going to be about the performance of Dennis Allen and thedefense versus the Kirk Cousins led John DeFilippo offense, especially following the midweek trade for Eli Apple to bolster the secondary.Allen delivered.The blitzes, calls, and execution were much improved, and even though it’s hidden beneath the fact that Kirk Cousins had over 400 yards through the air, what we witnessed Sunday was the defense we expected to see up to this point.A defensive line with the most draft capital delivered in a big way and combined for 4 sacks Austin Carr Jersey Salute to Service , 9 hits, 2 pass deflections and 2 tackles for loss.The linebackers were again consistent and chipped in with 19 tackles and a pass deflection and then the secondary topped it off with a forced fumble (though Williams wasn’t credited), a fumble recovery, an INT, and 4 pass deflections.Dennis Allen looked as confident as a playcaller as he’s looked all season following the acquisition of Eli Apple, and the execution from the players was on point.The double A gap blitzes/fake blitzes were well timed and below is an example of how well the players disguised, as the sack Sheldon Rankins gets is possible because of the 1 on 1 he saw.This doesn’t happen if the linebackers aren’t showing blitz and forcing the guards to account for them, and it definitely doesn’t happen if Allen doesn’t install that look during the week.Haters will say P.J. Williams played horribly, and if it wasn’t for the Vikings miscues (missed extra point, Stefon Diggs not finishing his route, and a lucky fumble) this would surely be a different game.No, it wouldn’t.See, I knew that Mike Zimmer knew that this Saints team is a different monster the moment he challenged the Michael Thomas sideline completion on only the third play of the game.This was a coach that knew he’d need every little advantage he could get to win this game....AT HOME.It was precisely the same level of respect that Ravens HC John Harbaugh displayed a week prior when he ended up out of challenges before I could finish spreading the mayo on my game-day sandwich.Heck, before the game started the Vikings had played the Minnesota Miracle video three (3) times on their Jumbotron.In the end, none of the above mattered as the Saints went into one of the tougher venues to play and thoroughly beat up on one of the most physical teams (albeit a weakened one) in the NFC.The victory over the Vikings was their fourth road win of the season and get this, all four wins were against division leaders.These Saints are beating up on pretty good teams, and Sunday’s win felt comparable to their Week 4 win versus the Panthers last year. It was the moment you could see defense develop a swagger, and I do believe what we saw against the Vikings will carry over.You see that guy who just jumped out of the stands buck naked and is making a mad dash across the stadium?That’s the Saints running around the NFC making their best teams look average at bestWho Dat! Custom Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys