The New Orleans Saints played one of their most complete games of the season as they dominated the New York Giants 24-6 on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.
The Saints' second consecutive victory improved their record to 7-7 and kept them tied for first in the NFC South with Tampa Bay with three games to play.
Quarterback Derek Carr played his best game as a Saint, throwing three touchdown passes in an efficient outing (23 of 28 for 218 yards). Running back Alvin Kamara hurt the Giants on the ground (66 yards) and in the air (44 yards on five receptions)
The Saints clearly noticed, and they had some fun with that. Defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon did it after sacks. Special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, a new Jersey native who went to Bergen Catholic High School, a rival of DeVito's Don Bosco Prep, wore a T-shirt from his alma mater pregame.
Rizzi also copied DeVito's celebration after punter Lou Hedley pinned the Giants at the 8-yard line in the fourth quarter (and got Hedley to do it, too).
Saints rookie DT Bryan Bresee, who had a career-best two sacks, came up with the idea for the celebration.
"I can't take credit for it," Kpassagnon said. "I'll give it to our rookie, he definitely had the idea of putting the Italian fingers up and I think it definitely worked out."
DeVito noticed Kpassagnon. He had three sacks in the game. The Saints had seven as a team. But DeVito didn't notice the Saints using his pinched-fingers celebration while lying on his backside.
New Orleans pulled away with Carr’s touchdown passes in the third and fourth quarter, along with Blake Gruppe’s 50-yard field goal.
Giants tight end Darren Waller, who missed five games because of a hamstring injury, was activated from injured reserve and was one of DeVito’s top targets, catching four passes for 40 yards.
But the Giants’ offense largely struggled, finishing with 193 total yards and converting just two of 16 third downs.
“Collectively it was just not good enough,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “You can pretty much take any area. Nothing was where it needed to be.”
The Giants had feasted on takeaways with 12 during their three-game winning streak. They had none on Sunday.
The Giants waived safety Bobby McCain on Saturday.
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