Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers were both outstanding on Sunday at Lambeau Field, but in a back-and-forth game with plenty of twists and turns, it was Rodgers’ Packers who ended up on top of Brees’ Saints, 28-27.
Brees completed 35 of 54 passes for 446 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions, but that wasn’t enough. Although he maneuvered them into range for an apparent go-ahead field goal late in the fourth quarter, the Saints’ successful kick was called back on a holding penalty, and when they were backed up the Saints missed.
Rodgers completed 31 of 41 passes for 319 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception, and a short completion on a third down just after the two-minute warning iced the game and gave the Packers the win.
For the second consecutive week, the Packers suffered at the hands of bad officiating. Last week it was the infamous Hail Mary in Seattle that wrongly gave the Seahawks a touchdown and likely led to the end of the NFL’s lockout of its referees. This week there are no replacements to blame, just longtime ref Jeff Triplette and his crew, who botched several calls, including a fumble by Saints kickoff returner Darren Sproles that they wrongly ruled down by contact, and a push-off in the end zone by Saints receiver Marques Colston on a touchdown catch that should have been called back for offensive pass interference.
But this time the bad officiating didn’t cost the Packers the game, and they improved to 2-2. The Saints fought hard, but in the end they lost once again, falling to 0-4.