Marcus Williams sat sobbing in front of his cubicle in the silenced New Orleans locker room Connor Williams Color Rush Jersey , his face buried in a folded white towel.
Deep inside Minnesota’s stadium that erupted in victorious euphoria a few minutes earlier, Williams was having a hard time grappling with what had just happened. The rest of his Saints teammates were, too, after a 61-yard touchdown pass by Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs burned Williams on the game’s final play and gave the Vikings a 29-24 victory for a place in the NFC championship game .
”You can’t let it beat you down,” Williams said, his eyes still reddened by the tears. ”I’m going to take it upon myself to do all I can to never let that happen again. If it happens again, then I shouldn’t be playing.”
Williams, the rookie free safety and second-round draft pick from Utah who was one of several new players who helped the Saints transform a once-lagging defense, was the last man in coverage when the Vikings sent Kyle Rudolph, Jarius Wright and Diggs on routes toward the sideline with no timeouts remaining. Diggs was the deepest, and as he jumped to catch the ball, Williams went low to try to undercut him with an awkwardly executed attempt at a tackle.
”It was just my play to make Authentic Marquis Haynes Jersey ,” Williams said. ”The ball was in the air. I can go attack it.”
Diggs, who made sure to note right before the catch that Williams was the only one behind him, kept his balance as he landed and deftly kept his feet in bounds. Then he spun around and kept on running into the end zone to queue up the celebration.
”As a safety back there, you’ve got to be the eraser,” Williams said. ”Last play of the game, you’ve got to go do it. You know you’ve got to save the game.”
The Saints were both defensive and supportive of their first-year teammate, who could play another decade in the NFL and not experience a similar devastation with the stakes so high and the chance for failure so low.
”He’s got to keep his head up,” said cornerback and fellow rookie Marshon Lattimore. ”I’m not going to say he’s not feeling bad about the play, but we’ve got his back. We’re young, and we’re trying to come back next year. Marcus is a special player. You can’t let that one play, as big as it was, turn you against him. He’s been playing great all year. Just didn’t get the tackle this time.”
Defensive end Cameron Jordan tried to take on some of the blame.
”Had I been a half-step faster and been able to get off the tight end and the tackle and completely take over that play Authentic Todd Gurley Jersey ,” Jordan said, he could have sacked Keenum before the ”Minneapolis Miracle,” or the modern-day ”Immaculate Reception,” ever made it to the air.
The Vikings finished with 403 total yards, though the defense recovered well enough from a 17-0 deficit to give Drew Brees the opportunity to throw for three touchdown passes over the final 16:16 of the game and drive the Saints in position for Wil Lutz’s go-ahead field goal with 25 seconds left.
Williams intercepted Keenum earlier to set up the second touchdown drive, and the Saints sacked Keenum twice. In the end, though, all that mattered was the failure to tackle Diggs on the fateful final play.
”You work so hard for a goal. It’s right there, and you come up short,” linebacker Manti Te’o said. ”You can imagine anybody, how they would feel. It’s just a learning opportunity for all of us.”
—
Cam Newton walked into the interview room Friday night sporting a black eye and questioning his own judgment after an unexpected crash landing.
The Panthers' eighth-year quarterback escaped a potentially serious injury when he scrambled out of the pocket and dove headfirst on a third-and-9 play in the first quarter, only to get upended by cornerback Jonathan Jones causing the 2015 MVP to land on his head.
Newton was forced to leave the game to be evaluated for a concussion Authentic Thomas Rawls Jersey , but returned four plays later and helped lead Carolina to a 25-14 win over the New England Patriots to remain unbeaten in the preseason.
"I was thinking to myself it's the preseason, what do I do? What do I do?" Newton said while describing the run. "I was like I want to get a first down, but I want to bring this plane in as smoothly as possible."
The landing was anything but smooth.
As Newton was contemplating how to avoid contact, Jones hit him low, flipping the QB off his legs and sending Newton spiraling into the air.
"There were a lot of malfunctions going on from the cockpit," Newton said with a laugh. "Buttons were getting stuck. It was bad. It was real bad."
Newton didn't have a concussion, but said his noticeably swollen left eye was hurting. Newton said he received the black eye from his own helmet when he hit the ground.
He joked it was his first black eye since getting in a fight in middle school.
Newton finished 11 of 17 for 142 yards passing and led three scoring drives 鈥?all resulting in field goals 鈥?as the Panthers built a 9-3 lead at halftime.
"I always worry about him, but that's him 鈥?he plays to win," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. "I would much rather he didn't (do that), but he's going to give us all he has because he wants to do the best he can out there."
Tom Brady's night wasn't nearly as eventful for the Patriots (2-1).
It was a quiet game for the five-time Super Bowl champion, who completed 12 of 18 passes for 102 yards in the first half and got the Patriots in field goal range twice. But drops and costly mistakes proved pivotal for the Patriots, who were limited to 130 yards in the first half.
"Our execution needs to be better Authentic Jonathan Toews Jersey ," Brady said. "You look back at a lot of the things and it's a lot of us. It's not so much what the other team is doing."
WHO'S THE GUY?
With Julian Edelman suspended for the first four games, Brady will be looking for a go-to guy. He hooked up four times with Phillip Dorsett for 36 yards and once each with Cordarrelle Patterson and Chris Hogan for 10 yards.
"We're going to have to be on the same page and we have two weeks to figure out who is going to be out there doing it," Brady said.
MCCAFFREY BUSY AGAIN
Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey continued to be a major player on offense, touching the ball 10 times for 51 yards on Carolina's opening drive which lasted nearly 10 minutes.
OTHER SCORES
Backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke scored on a rollout in the second half and Garrett Gilbert connected on a TD pass to Mose Frazier for Carolina's only touchdowns. New England's only touchdown came with 2:51 left when Mike Gillislee scored on a 2-yard run. Rivera said both Heinicke and Gilbert are proving worthy of a roster spot as they battle for the No. 2 spot behind Newton.
NATIONAL ANTHEM
There were no on-field protests during the playing of the national anthem.
INJURIES
Patriots: Running back Jeremy Hill, who is battling for a roster spot, left the game in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury and didn't return.
Panthers: Already without three starting offensive linemen, Carolina lost starting offensive tackle Jeremiah Sirles on the game's opening drive to a hamstring injury. He did not return.
NEXT UP
Patriots: Visit Giants on Aug. 30.
Panthers: Visit Steelers on Aug. 30.
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