Saints tie team’s best start, beat Falcons, 35-27

NEW ORLEANS —  The Saints have tied their best start to a season.

Drew Brees had 308 yards passing, Pierre Thomas scored two touchdowns and Jabari Greer returned an interception for a score to help the Saints improve to 7-0 with a 35-27 victory against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. Only the 1991 Saints began a season with as many wins.

Greer’s touchdown was the Saints’ fifth score on an interception this season, tying a single-season franchise mark set in 1998. Tracy Porter also had an interception on the Saints one-yard line on a pass tipped by Jonathan Vilma in the fourth quarter, preserving a 28-24 lead.

Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan was intercepted three times.

Still, the Falcons stayed in it until the end, getting a 40-yard field goal from Jason Elam with 28 seconds left, then recovering an onside kick. Ryan had time only for a desperation heave in the final seconds, and Darren Sharper turned it into his seventh interception.

Sharper’s interception also was the Saints’ 16th overall this season, surpassing New Orleans’ total of 15 from last season.

Brees hit Marques Colston for an 18-yard score. Thomas scored on a 22-yard run in the first quarter and a one-yard catch out of the backfield with 3:03 to go, flipping backward over a tackler and into the end zone. That touchdown made it 35-24 and ignited the entire Superdome into chants of “Who dat say they gonna’ beat them Saints?”

Reggie Bush added a one-yard touchdown late in the first half, giving the Saints a lead they would not relinquish.

Roddy White beat Greer on a 68-yard scoring pass from Ryan early in the third quarter, and the Falcons pulled to 28-24 on Elam’s 25-yard field goal with 11:33 to go in the game.

That field goal, however, came only after Saints Coach Sean Payton sprinted down the sideline and launched his red flag about 20 yards just in time to challenge what had been ruled a score-tying touchdown catch by White in the back of the end zone. Replays showed the ball touched the turf as White bobbled it.