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The New Orleans Saints saved their season with fastest OT touchdown in NFL history

At 10:32 p.m. CT, the New Orleans Saints saw their season flash before their eyes. A few minutes earlier, Brandon Weeden hit Terrance Williams on a fourth-down pass with under two minutes left to tie their Sunday Night Football matchup at 20. But before the Superdome had too much time to get depressed about that, Drew Brees marched the Saints 68 yards in 99 seconds with no timeouts to set up a chip-shot, game-winning field goal by Zach Hocker. Only Hocker didn’t get the message, plunking the upright “like a Pete Rose single,” accordingto Cris Collinsworth. All of a sudden, what had twice felt like a surefire win was now in doubt and a season along with it, because if the Saints dropped to 0-4 in a division with two 4-0 teams, they were as good as done in 2015.

Then, at 10:39 p.m. CT, on the second play of overtime, Drew Brees hit C.J. Spiller in stride, who broke wide open after Cowboys rookie Damien Wilson blew his assignment. The running back caught the ball at the 38, ran 62 more yards and gave the Saints their first win of the year.

Seven minutes. That’s how long New Orleans’ season was on life support. That’s how long it took the team to go from the horror of a kicker missing a kick that’s been made 97% of the time since the start of last season and primetime glory (and relief.)

Thirteen seconds: That’s how long it took to win in overtime, the quickest in NFL regular-season history. (Some guy named Tebow holds the playoff record at 12 seconds. You may remember the play. The Saints broke the regular season record held by the New York Jets, who won an OT game in 2002 when Chad Morton took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. That took 14 seconds, which is odd. Morton still had to travel 16 more yards that Spiller, but the Saints ran one play before Spiller’s touchdown. Huh.)

(AP)

(AP)

Now, New Orleans is 1-3, still facing a massive uphill climb, but alive. Dallas is 2-2 with Tony Romo out until at least late-November. Thy’re in a three-way tie atop the NFC East and have mighty Patriots coming to Texas next week (followed by games with the Giants and Seahawks) to face Weeden, a guy who’s now lost 10-straight starts.

This is why we love the NFL. It can all change just like that, in seven minutes or 13 seconds.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

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