The New Orleans Saints 2025 season is rapidly approaching. To celebrate just 17 days left, we are turning back the clock over 20 years for an Aaron Brooks game-winning touchdown against the Carolina Panthers for today’s Saints Play of the Day.
Back in Week 12 of the 2001 season, New Orleans was fighting to stay above .500 and get back into the playoffs for a second straight year. Though the Panthers got out to an early 7-0 lead, most of the game was really a cat-and-mouse match. The Saints got the lead and kept pushing their lead until Carolina would answer right back. The Panthers ended up taking their second lead of the game with just under three minutes left in the game.
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Brooks and the New Orleans offense would have to get down the field and score. That’s exactly what they did, and it didn’t take long. The first play of the drive was a 42-yard connection with Ricky Williams. Then it was 14 yards to Eddie Williams and just like that the Saints were in striking distance. Our play of the day came on second and nine, when Brooks found Joe Horn in the corner of the endzone for a 17-yard touchdown. You can watch the action unfold for yourself here.
New Orleans would go on to win from that touchdown by a score of 27-23. They improved to 6-5 on the season, but would ultimately finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs. The first year of the Brooks era wasn’t pretty, but it had flashes like in this game. That pretty much sums up the career of Aaron Brooks, though.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints Play of the Day: Aaron Brooks’ 17-yard game-winner vs. Panthers