But before the finish there was the mud-stuck start. New Orleans forced a punt on the game’s opening drive, but gave up a sack to end its own three-and-out open on offense. The Titans kicked two field goals and scored on a 43-yard touchdown pass by rookie Cam Ward to take a 13-0 lead, and the Saints answered with Smyth’s 56-yard field goal before Young injected life back into the game.
Tennessee drove from its own 24 to the Saints’ 46-yard line before a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the Titans’ 44. On first-and-20, Ward was pressured by edge Carl Granderson and, in his quest to escape, was sacked from behind by Young. Instead of taking Ward to the ground, Young wrestled the football away and won a 33-yard sprint to the end zone, pulling the Saints within 13-10 with 3:51 left in the second quarter.
The Titans scored another touchdown before the half ended, but New Orleans had already found the jolt of adrenaline it needed.
“They chipped me, I went high,” said Young, who raised his sack total to a career high 8.5 this season, with three fumble recoveries. “I owe Grando a couple of steak dinners. He pushed the pocket — it doesn’t work if we’re not together. He went lower, I went high, (Ward) came right to me.
“Mid-play, when I saw him the ball was in the air, and for that split second — my Dad used to tell me when I was a kid and I played D-end, ‘Take the ball out of his hand’ — And for that split second it hit me and I was like the ball is right there, I can take it. I came down on it, and I just took it. And that was all she wrote.”