On the Saints’ second-to-last drive, they started at their own 22-yard line with 4:37 to play. Shough threw four straight passes of over 10 yards, all completions. Three of those were to Olave: 17 yards, 18 yards, and 16 yards, respectively. Then there were two incompletions, before a quick crosser to Juwan Johnson put New Orleans into the red zone.
The next play, a third-down pass to Olave, helped the receiver slip past Horn and into the end zone for the tying score.
The seven-play drive lasted 2:08.
“They hit us with the tempo, and that was good on their part to catch us on our heels,” Horn admitted. “They were just going tempo, and they were catching us in the same call, damn near the whole drive, and they were just getting easy completions. We were in zone, and that’s just how it played out.”
In total, the longest pass play given up on the day to the Saints was 19 yards, and before the final two drives, the Panthers had only given up four passes of 15 yards or more. But when New Orleans went into their two-minute drill on the penultimate drive, it forced Carolina to stay in a base defense with no adjustments.