The New Orleans Saints learned some hard lessons from the Green Bay Packers.
Lesson No. 1: Turnovers don't help. The Packers turned three by the Saints into scores.Lesson No. 2: The presence of Morten Andersen doesn't mean you can't get outkicked.
Lesson No. 3: In a close game, one scrambling pass by an interception-prone quarterback can make all the difference.
With 52 seconds and no timeouts left, Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre hit Sterling Sharpe with a 54-yard pass. That set up Chris Jacke's 36-yard field goal with 3 seconds left Sunday that gave the Packers (5-4) a 19-17 victory over the Saints (6-3).
"We kept our poise and finally won a big one," said Green Bay defensive end Reggie White, reflecting on the Packers' losses to Philadelphia, Minnesota and Kansas City by a total of 12 points. "This may be the big one of the year. If we had lost it, we would have been in a very big hole."
A very big hole is what the Saints are trying to avoid after winning their first five games.
The Saints saw an interception by LeRoy Butler turned into one of Jacke's four field goals, and a fumble recovery by George Teague and an interception by Johnny Holland set up other Green Bay scores.
"It's very difficult when you turn the ball over as many times and we did to win football games," said Saints coach Jim Mora. "Turning the ball over hurt us more than anything."
Despite the miscues, the Saints took a 17-16 lead when Andersen kicked his only field goal of the day, a 27-yarder with 3:32 left.
Favre, whose interceptions increased this season after defenses began pressing him, went without a pickoff despite another day of scrambling and six sacks. He completed 18 of 32 passes for 150 yards and one touchdown.
In the end, the scramble probably enabled Sharpe to get loose, Favre said.
"Sterling got behind them and you know what happened then," he said.
New Orleans cornerback Toi Cook said the play was due to "a bust back there. I just know the guy ran a post and we were supposed to have four people open and he got loose. I think it was ad-libbed."
The Saints led 14-10 at the half after Rickey Jackson sacked Favre and forced a fumble. Wayne Martin recovered on the Packers' 26 with 42 seconds remaining and Wade Wilson, who completed 20 of 29 for 197 yards, threw an 11-yard pass to Marcus Dowdell for the touchdown.
Wilson also hit Quinn Early for a 24-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.
Jacke also kicked field goals of 38, 20 and 44 yards.
"Hey, hey," Butler said when asked how Jacke compared to Andersen. "When Morten's long gone, he (Jacke) will still be kicking them through."