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Saints use big first half to pick up first win

Oct 15, 2007 - 5:30 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- It took a lot longer than expected, but the New Orleans Saints finally showed up.

One of three winless teams in the NFL entering Sunday, the Saints showed glimpses of their old selves in a 28-17 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

The Saints were the surprise of last season, advancing to the NFC Championship game and establishing themselves as a team on the rise. They had not fulfilled that promise to start this season, especially on offense.

New Orleans (1-4) hadn't scored more than 14 points in a game this season, but that changed Sunday night. The offense scored 21 points in the second quarter and the Saints picked up their first win despite being shut out in the second half.

"We had a chance, I felt, in the second half to break this game wide open," New Orleans coach Sean Payton said. "I kind of backed off a little bit and was being smart with the lead, maybe a little too conservative, but I wanted the clock to move." Pierre Thomas gave the Saints a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when he recovered a fumbled punt snap and returned it five yards for a touchdown.

"Our special teams came up with a big play, and that was an important win for us, right now," Payton said. "We certainly needed one."

In the second quarter, Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdown passes and Lance Moore rushed for a score to give the Saints a 28-10 lead at the half.

Brees completed 25-of-36 passes for 246 yards. He was not intercepted or sacked and did most of his damage in the first half. Brees was 15-of-20 passes for 163 yards in the first two quarters.

"It feels very good. Obviously we had a big first half, second half we were a little disappointed with our performance offensively," Brees said. "We should have won that thing going away, kind of made it interesting at the end. But I am going to enjoy this. Our whole team is going to enjoy this. It's a great feeling to get that first one and now we can move on."

Reggie Bush also had a big game, adding 97 yards rushing on 22 carries and catching six passes for 44 more yards.

"You can't start the game like we did against anybody and expect to have really good results, I don't think," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said. "The touchdown we handed them on the bad snap. We couldn't get pressure on Drew.

"I thought Drew Brees had a fine football game, and we couldn't get pressure on him, in my opinion. then Reggie Bush, in the first half in particular, he showed us his speed and his quickness."

Matt Hasselbeck threw a 22-yard TD pass to Nate Burleson with 6:39 to play to pull Seattle (3-3) within 28-17. The Seahawks had chances to get even closer in the final minutes but came up empty.

Hasselbeck threw an interception in New Orleans territory with 3:49 to go and after the Saints went three and out, Seattle's next possession ended on downs at the Saints 14.

"I think they had a pretty good plan for us," Hasselbeck said. "They broke some tendencies tonight. They weren't really a blitz team, but they brought it tonight, and we didn't handle it very well.

"We came to this came not expecting to be down 21-0. Still, we had opportunities, and we didn't handle their looks very well, we didn't handle their pressure very well, and we didn't make plays that we needed to make at the right time. That's why we lost."