Once Drew Brees got the New Orleans offense on track, it hardly mattered that Jonathan Vilma wasn’t the solution for the Saints’ leaky defense.
Vilma played for the first time while appealing a season-long suspension for his role in the Saints’ bounty program and Brees shrugged off an early interception to throw for 377 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-28 come-from-behind victory over the Buccaneers yesterday in Tampa, Fla.
Brees extended his NFL record for consecutive games with at least one TD pass to 49, while leading long scoring drives on four straight possessions to turn a 14-point deficit into a 28-21 halftime lead for the Saints (2-4).
Josh Freeman threw for 420 yards and three touchdowns for the Bucs (2-4), who scored on their first three possessions of the game to build a 21-7 lead.
Vikings 21, Cardinals 14
In Minneapolis, Adrian Peterson and a dominant Minnesota defense put the Vikings back on track, even if Christian Ponder and the passing game fell further out of sync.
Peterson ran 23 times for 153 yards and a first-quarter touchdown and the Vikings hung on to hand the Cardinals their third straight loss.
Percy Harvin caught Ponder’s only touchdown pass, but Ponder committed another costly turnover, an interception that led to a second-quarter touchdown run by LaRod Stephens-Howling for the Cardinals (4-3). Ponder has seven turnovers in the last three games; two of them were turned into TDs last week at Washington.
The Vikings (5-2) had four straight three-and-outs into the thick of the fourth quarter, and Ponder finished 8 for 17 for 58 yards and two interceptions.