ARLINGTON, Texas — Four days after New Orleans signed him, Daniel Carlson came on for fourth-and-1 from the Dallas 36 and made a 53-yard field goal with 1:55 left. The New Orleans Saints beat the Dallas Cowboys 27-24 on Friday night at AT&T Stadium. The roof was closed against a 100-degree evening. Paid attendance was 81,295, and the game ran 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Sam Howell threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and ran in the tying 2-point conversion. Dallas trailed by 15 in the third quarter, never led at any point, and finished the preseason 2-1. New Orleans finished 1-2 and took its only win of the exhibition schedule.
Klayton Adams Calls the Game
Klayton Adams called the game. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer handed the play sheet to his offensive coordinator for the finale and spent the night on the defensive sideline. Dallas did not run a play inside the New Orleans 20.
Schottenheimer met with reporters at AT&T Stadium afterward.
“I want to share with you guys what I said to the team. I got after them pretty good at halftime,” Schottenheimer said. “It wasn’t our standard in the first half. I think we were giving up 6.8 yards of rush in the first half. And we had three penalties on offense, and I basically told them, third preseason game, my ass. And I said it a little bit more colorfully than that.”
Dallas took 4 penalties for 25 yards in the first half and 6 for 45 on the night. New Orleans took 4 for 39. Two of the Cowboys’ first-half holding calls wiped out a 10-yard Joe Milton III scramble to the New Orleans 16 and a 10-yard Howell completion to Jordan Hudson.
“I know he was a little nervous and anxious going in, and that’s all part of it,” Schottenheimer explained. “But I thought he really settled in. We didn’t help him a lot in the first half. We committed a bunch of penalties and put ourselves behind the sticks, and holding penalties just kill drives.”
Schottenheimer said he gave Adams his thoughts before the game and then stayed out of it.
“It really was weird not calling the game. I don’t like it,” Schottenheimer said. “I feel like I’m not in control as much as I like to be.”
The arrangement freed Schottenheimer to work the personnel side with cutdowns due.
“It really gave me a good chance to really be more involved on defense and special teams,” Schottenheimer said. “I was truly trying to watch a lot of the matchups and truly dive into the personnel side of this thing because, again, these are the big decisions.”
First Half: New Orleans Runs for 119 Yards
New Orleans won the toss, took the ball, and moved 47 yards in 7 plays to Carlson’s 38-yard field goal at 11:47 of the first quarter. Barion Brown opened the game with a 12-yard run around left end. Spencer Rattler hit Kendre Miller for 15 and Bralen Lance for 15 on the same drive.
A 15-yard unnecessary roughness call on the Saints moved Dallas to the New Orleans 46 on the next possession. The Cowboys ran 8 plays for 34 yards. Brandon Aubrey tied it at 3 from 49 yards.
The Saints then went 71 yards in 10 plays. Miller ran 13 yards to the Dallas 14. An illegal contact call gave New Orleans first-and-goal at the 7, and Barion Brown scored around right end from there at 3:06. Tanner Brown kicked the extra point.
Milton answered with a 27-yard throw to Camden Brown on third-and-10, and Phil Mafah picked up 10 more on third-and-2. Then, at the New Orleans 26 with 20 seconds left in the quarter, the exchange between Milton and center Nick Leverett came loose. Israel Abanikanda recovered at the New Orleans 38, 12 yards behind the spot, and Dallas faced second-and-22. Aubrey salvaged the drive from 51 yards on the first snap of the second quarter.
Aubrey pushed a 57-yarder wide right with 5:16 left in the half. New Orleans took over at its own 47 and went 53 yards in 6 plays, the last 33 of them on an Audric Estimé run to the Dallas 8. Rattler scored on the next snap on an 8-yard keeper around right end, and replay upheld the call. Charlie Smyth kicked that extra point.
Dallas got the ball back at 2:01 and moved 25 yards in 6 plays despite an offensive holding penalty, and Aubrey made from 58 with 28 seconds left. New Orleans led 17-9 at the break with 119 rushing yards on 18 carries.
Joe Milton III and Sam Howell Split the Halves
Rosters cut to 53 players at 5 p.m. CT Sunday.
Milton drew the first half and went 8-of-15 for 92 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, a 72.1 passer rating. He was not sacked and ran twice for 2 yards.
Howell’s first two possessions after halftime ended in punts, the first after Isaiah Stalbird sacked him for 10 yards on third down. Bryan Anger punted 45 and then 59, the second downed for a fair catch at the New Orleans 14. Anger finished with a 52.0 average and a 50.0 net on 2 punts.
With 1:15 left in the third quarter, Howell hit Hudson down the left sideline for 52 yards to the New Orleans 28. On the first snap of the fourth, from the 26, he found Hudson again in the back right corner of the end zone. Howell finished 12-of-18 for 155 yards with 2 touchdowns and a 130.6 rating, and he was sacked twice for 10 yards.
“Sam Howell just did a really good job moving the football team,” Schottenheimer said. “I thought Jordan Hudson was terrific. It was cool to see Mitch get that touchdown pass. We missed one earlier in the game to him, actually. Same exact coverage. Cover two, bender down the middle field, and Joe just barely overthrew it.”
Howell took the second half in all three preseason games.
“It was fun to get back in the game in the fourth quarter. I hate we didn’t end it the right way,” Howell said. “It was fun to be in a competitive game like that and have a chance to win at the end. I hate we didn’t pull it out, but it was some good stuff to learn from for sure.”
“We have a cool group of guys here. The bond here is different than any other place I’ve been,” Howell continued. “A lot of people don’t care about the preseason, but you can tell by the energy on the sideline that no matter if it’s the preseason or regular season, we want to win.”
Tyler Shough did not take a snap for New Orleans. Rattler played the first half and finished 8-of-10 for 79 yards with a 99.6 rating. Zach Wilson played the second and went 9-of-12 for 93 yards with a 96.9 rating.
The Tying Drive and the Answer
Wilson opened the second half with a 23-yard throw. New Orleans went 64 yards in 8 plays from there. Zamir White ran the last 11 up the left side at 9:41 of the third quarter, and the Saints led by 15.
After Hudson’s touchdown cut it to 24-16, Sam Williams sacked Wilson for 7 yards on third down and New Orleans punted after 3 plays for minus-2 yards.
Dallas took over at its own 33 with 13:15 left and ran 12 plays for 67 yards, eating 7:04. Howell completed all 5 of his throws on the drive for 47 yards and ran for a first down at the New Orleans 46 on third-and-1. Mitch Van Vooren caught a 6-yarder to open it and the 21-yard touchdown to close it. Howell then ran right guard for the 2-point conversion, and Isaac Yiadom drew 15 yards for unnecessary roughness after the play, enforced between downs.
New Orleans answered with an eight-play drive that ran 4:16 off the clock. Wilson hit Ronnie Bell three times on it, for 6, 13, and 7 yards. The drive stalled at the Dallas 36, and Carlson kicked on fourth-and-1.
Dallas got the ball at its own 25 with 1:55 left. Howell hit Hudson for 9 yards and a first down at the Dallas 39, then threw four straight incompletions, the last on fourth-and-10 with Yiadom in coverage.
Hudson caught 4 passes for 97 yards on 5 targets. He also made the tackle on the ensuing kickoff after his touchdown, stopping White at the New Orleans 32. Asked which of the two plays mattered more to the coaching staff, Hudson said:
“Probably making the stop on coverage, most definitely,” Hudson said. “I think they know I can score touchdowns.”
Van Vooren caught 2 passes for 27 yards. Marquez Valdes-Scantling, signed in April, caught 2 for 31. Camden Brown finished with the one 27-yard catch. Mafah led Dallas with 46 yards on 12 carries, and Abanikanda added 16 rushing yards, 16 receiving yards, and 54 yards on 2 kickoff returns.
New Orleans Uses Three Kickers in One Game
Carlson opened the scoring from 38 yards and closed it from 53. The three extra points in between belonged to three different kickers.
Tanner Brown made the first, Smyth the second, Carlson the third. Smyth and Tanner Brown split the six kickoffs three apiece.
Smyth, an International Player Pathway signing out of Gaelic football in Northern Ireland, inherited the job last November. Tanner Brown signed in June after winning United Football League Special Teams Player of the Year for the Louisville Kings. Carlson signed Aug. 24, following eight seasons split between Minnesota and the Raiders.
Aubrey did the whole job by himself on the other side and scored 10 of the Cowboys’ 24 points.
New Orleans ran 32 times for 169 yards and scored all 3 of its touchdowns on the ground. Estimé, playing through the ankle injury that cost him practice time this month, led the Saints with 46 yards on 4 carries. Miller added 42 on 9. Dallas ran 26 times for 91 yards and did not score on the ground.
The Saints held the ball 30:17 to the Cowboys’ 29:43 and picked up 23 first downs to Dallas’ 18. Dallas converted 6 of 14 third downs to New Orleans’ 3 of 9 and outgained the Saints 328 yards to 326.
Marist Liufau Fractures His Forearm
Marist Liufau was hurt at 3:56 of the first quarter making a tackle on a 2-yard Kendre Miller run to the Dallas 12. He did not return.
“Fractured his forearm, so I think he’s going to have surgery as early as Monday,” Schottenheimer said. “What a great competitor, and he’ll be back.”
Schottenheimer said the recovery will run weeks and declined to set a timetable.
Liufau was a third-round pick in 2024 and played all 17 games last season, when nobody on the roster took more special teams snaps than he did.
Schottenheimer continued: “He was a critical, critical part of not just two or three special teams. Really, all four. He’s a four-core guy that you just rely on. He plays the game with violence.”
Trikweze Bridges and Williams led Dallas with 6 combined tackles apiece. Williams had one of the Cowboys’ 2 sacks. Stalbird led all players with 8 combined tackles and had one of the Saints’ 2 sacks.
Friday’s meeting came 10 days after the joint practice between these teams in Oxnard, California, which produced repeated fights. The NFL fined each club $500,000, and Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he would appeal.
Dallas opens at the New York Giants on Sept. 13, with kickoff at 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC. New Orleans opens at the Detroit Lions at noon CT that day.
