The Houston Texans entered the 2019 NFL regular season having made a bunch of random moves near the end of the preseason. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints headed into this season after disappointing endings to the last two campaigns. Both teams are hoping to have great seasons, head into the playoffs, and possibly play in the Super Bowl, but they had to get past Week 1 and a hard-fought game on Monday Night Football .
As recapped by ESPN , it came down to who wanted it more and the final minute of the game. The Saints were up, the Texans scored quickly to retake the lead, but they left too much time for Drew Brees and Will Lutz as the Saints won 30-28 on a 58-yard field goal as time expired.
The first quarter went by kind of slow for the two teams, which are known for being rather explosive on offense. New Orleans was able to contain Deshaun Watson for the most part, but that changed near the end of the first 15 minutes. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was putting on a clinic until he threw his first red-zone interception in quite some time.
At the end of the first quarter for both teams in 2019, it was a stalemate at 0-0.
A few minutes into the second quarter, Watson found the end zone after rushing for 21 yards and leaping in for the score. It came at a cost, though, as the Texans’ starting quarterback spent a while in the medical tent after landing hard on the turf.
The Saints were able to manage a field goal, but the Texans put together a very long drive right after that. After nearly eight minutes with the ball, Houston was able to see DeAndre Hopkins find the back of the end zone for their second touchdown.
All gold everything ??? pic.twitter.com/Ay07u5oWJE
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 10, 2019
Will Lutz missed a 56-yard field goal attempt at the end of the first half, but things heated up quickly in the third quarter. Alvin Kamara had a 41-yard catch-and-run to set up a 30-yard touchdown run by Latavius Murray to make it 14-10 in favor of the Saints with less than three minutes gone in the second half.
Deshaun Watson ended up putting on a two-play clinic as he completed a pass to Hopkins and then a touchdown to Kenny Stills to retake the lead, 28-27. Brees had 37 seconds, though, and he quickly positioned the Saints in position for Lutz to hit a career-long 58-yarder to seal the victory.
The second half of the game was more exciting, but the final two minutes of the game were the most thrilling of the night. As recapped by The Inquisitr , LSU and Texas may have had a shootout in Austin over the weekend, but the barn-burner in New Orleans had it beat on Monday night.