Jimmy Graham's hustling heroics epitomize gritty New Orleans Saints win

Arlington, Texas - Moments after the New Orleans Saints' exhilarating 34-31 win against the Cowboys on Sunday, David Thomas found Jimmy Graham in the crowded intersection at midfield and emphatically embraced him in a hug.

Graham had just made perhaps the most significant play of his budding career and it had nothing to do with the skills that will make him a perennial Pro Bowler.
Normally, the 6-foot-6 wunderkind beats opponents with his extraordinary height and hands. This time he did it with his heart and hustle.

"That's why we hustle! That's what we do!" Thomas shouted at his friend and position mate. "You did this! You got this win for us!"

Graham's heroics were a fitting end to a fatiguing afternoon for the Saints. They symbolized the resolve of the entire Saints team, which outfought and outplayed the Cowboys in their pigskin palace in a game the home team had to have to keep pace in the NFC playoff race.

With nothing to play for other than pride, the Saints admirably battled as if there was no tomorrow for four quarters and four and a half minutes of overtime.

On a day when they ran an astonishing 91 offensive plays, none was more critical than their final one, when Graham ignored injury and exhaustion to run down Marques Colston's fumble and preserve a shot at Garrett Hartley's game-winning field goal.

Just two plays earlier, Graham had raced to the sideline in excruciating pain, the ring finger on his right hand dislocated and bent sideways at an anatomically incorrect angle.

But the swollen finger or the achy wrist that has hampered him all season were not on his mind when Graham watched Colston's fumble bound inexplicably toward the Cowboys' goal line in overtime.

"I didn't think about the finger," Graham said. "It felt like a loose ball on the basketball court, and I had to dive in and get it. I've been diving on hardwood since I was a little kid."

Indeed, if the Saints could have picked a player to run down a loose ball, they undoubtedly would have selected Graham, a former power forward who led the University of Miami in rebounding in his senior season.

"I was watching Jimmy and I said if there's one that can get this thing it's Jimmy," quarterback Drew Brees said. "He just reverted to being the enforcer on the basketball court in the paint, muscling guys around, boxing them out. ... Jimmy was not going to allow anybody to prevent him from jumping on that ball. When he came up with that ball, that's when I knew we had it."

The play shouldn't have surprised anyone in black and gold or blue and silver. Two years ago, safety Malcolm Jenkins exhibited similar drive to run down Roy Williams and desperately force a game-deciding fumble just before the Cowboys wide receiver crossed the Saints' goal line.

The Saints won that day 30-27. The circumstances and final score were nearly identical Sunday. The only difference was Graham's heroics came at the opposite end of the field as Jenkins'.

"That's just what this team does," Graham said. "We've got a lot of resolve. We've been through so much. We all give all we have."

That it came from Graham, one of the team's few true superstars, and against the Cowboys, a team known more for its style than its substance, made the play all the more satisfying and appropriate.

"That last play kind of exemplified the whole course of the game," center Brian de La Puente said. "We're never going to quit. This team has such good character. We're fighting every last play to get that win."

Indeed, if suspended Saints Coach Sean Payton was watching the game - and you know he most certainly was somewhere - then it's hard to imagine him walking away from this team after seeing their effort and attitude throughout this adversity-filled season.

After all, it was Payton who once described the NFL as a league made up of 10 to 12 solid, smart, functioning clubs and a bunch of others "just swimming in circles."

The Cowboys, winners of just one playoff game in the past 16 seasons, might qualify as one of those circle-swimmers, despite their hefty payroll and billion-dollar stadium. If they fail to beat Washington next week they will have missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season.

By contrast, the Saints have a chance to record the same 8-8 record despite the NFL's draconian Bountygate sanctions. As 8-8 records go, the Saints' would definitely qualify as  the glass half-full version compared to the Cowboys' half-empty. It'd have been easy to fold up the tent after the embarrassing loss to the Giants two weeks ago. Instead, the Saints fought and scratched their way to a pair of impressive wins against opponents with playoff aspirations.

As he left the locker room Sunday, Graham had the claw marks on his triceps and a taped-up right ring finger to prove it.


(nola.com)