Making a stand

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 17, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With their backs pressed firmly to the wall on Sunday, the New Orleans Saints’ much-maligned defense made a stand.

Make that two stands in a game the Saints just had to have.

Needing at least six wins in their final seven games to have a shot at the playoffs after last Sunday’s 34-20 setback to the Atlanta Falcons, the Saints rose up for a 30-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium.

In a critical stretch late in the second quarter and early in the third, the Saints defense came up with two goal-line stands that were instrumental in the win when all was said and done.

The first kept the Chiefs (1-9) from taking a 14-10 advantage just before halftime and the second helped the Saints (5-5) maintain a 20-13 cushion midway through the third quarter. In the end, Kansas City had to settle for field goals of 20 and 21 yards by Connor Barth.

“Those two (goal-line stands) were huge,” Saints cornerback Jason David said. “Any time you keep a team from getting a touchdown you feel good because three points versus seven is always better. We just went in there and played hard and tried to help the team as much as we could.”

The big thing was the Saints defense built momentum with the first stop.

Trailing 10-7 after a 1-yard touchdown run by Deuce McAllister and the first of three Garrett Hartley field goals, the Chiefs were playing a first-and-goal from the Saints’ 1.

But running back Larry Johnson was stuffed by linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Marvin Mitchell and then by Scott Fujita and Vilma before cornerback Randall Gay tipped a pass away from former LSU wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who caught a 6-yard TD from Tyler Thigpen in the first period.

Then, after the Saints offense got a 23-yard field goal from Hartley on the final play of the first half and a 47-yard TD pass from Drew Brees to Lance Moore on their first series of the second half, the defense showed up again in defending their goal line.

This time, they had a first-and-goal at the Saints’ 3 when Johnson, who rushed for 67 yards on 19 carries, was held to no gain by strong safety Roman Harper and Thigpen misfired on two straight passes to Bowe.

“When we needed a stop defensively, we were able to come up with the big ones there,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I thought our red-zone defense early on helped us and they had to settle for a few field goals.”

“We knew we had to stand up and make a couple of plays down there,” said Harper, who teamed with weakside linebacker Scott Shanle to hold tight end Tony Gonzalez to five catches for 39 yards. “They have two great receivers, and you tip your hat to them because they made some nice catches. They won some, but at the end of the day we made more plays today.”