happy"The Superdome crowd gave the Saints a game-clinching assist with just less than two minutes remaining in their 27-24 divisional playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
On fourth-and-15, with the Eagles needing a first down from their 44-yard line to stay alive, the noise level suddenly cracked a threshold that hadn't been reached.
The disruption helped force Philadelphia lineman Scott Young into a false-start penalty, nullifying a completed first-down pass. The Eagles then decided to punt on fourth-and-14, but they never got the ball back.
"They're the 12th man. You get a crowd loud like that, they had a young guard in there, and he just started moving," defensive tackle Hollis Thomas said.
Up until that point, which arrived just after the two-minute warning, the crowd had been loud. But a certain level of nervous energy kept the crowd just a notch below ear-shattering.
But the 70,001 fans in attendance knew the magnitude of that moment, and the Superdome became deafening."
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Pre-Game Hope |
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Pre-Game Jitters |
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Celebration |
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Jubilation |
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Championship Bound |