Horn Sounds Off for Saints

Joe Horn didn’t have any penalties Sunday. He still had trouble with the officials.

Horn, who caught a 17-yard scoring pass from Aaron Brooks with 1:31 remaining to give the New Orleans Saints a 27-23 victory over Carolina, missed another one when he collided with an official at the goal line in the first quarter.

It was only one of several strange occurrences that left the Saints (6-5) in need of a rally despite holding the Panthers (1-11) to 150 total yards.

“We shouldn’t have been in that position,” Horn said. “We should have put up more points early on.”

The Panthers, losers of 11 in a row after a season-opening victory, scored 10 consecutive points to take a 23-20 lead on John Kasay’s 51-yard field goal with 2:40 remaining.

“It’s kind of been the story of this club,” Carolina Coach George Seifert said. “We haven’t been consistent enough offensively. Probably, if we were a little bit more consistent offensively, we wouldn’t be in these positions.”

Horn, who caught 13 passes for 150 yards, and the Saints needed just over a minute to get the game-winning touchdown.

Horn lost what could have been another touchdown on the Saints’ first possession.

With New Orleans on the Carolina 46, Brooks took a return handoff from Ricky Williams and threw deep to Horn. It appeared Horn would catch it just steps from the end zone, but he collided with back judge Phil Luckett and dropped the ball.

Willie Jackson later caught a 60-yard scoring pass from Brooks, only to have it called back by a holding penalty against the Saints.

Williams rushed 27 times for 102 yards, putting him over the 1,000-yard mark and making him the only Saint player ever to rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons.

Brooks completed 26 of 40 passes for 330 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted once and sacked three times.