the offence dried up again as well.

NEW ORLEANS -- Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford may be separated only by age and career accomplishments, but two of the NFLs best quarterbacks are primed to ignite an impressive fireworks show Sunday when it counts -- in the fourth quarter.Staffords 7-4 Detroit Lions have won five of their past six games to move to the top of the NFC North, and Brees 5-6 New Orleans Saints, coming off a 49-point, 555-yard shellacking of the Los Angeles Rams last week, need a victory at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome (1 p.m. ET, FOX) to climb back to .500 for the second time this season and into the NFC playoff picture.But what makes this chess match so intriguing is what each quarterback is doing this season with the game on the line.Despite trailing at some point of the fourth quarter in all 11 games, the Lions came back to win seven times, a tribute to Staffords gunslinger arm and efficiency under pressure.Stafford, 28, has a 70-percent completion rate with five touchdowns and two interceptions in the fourth quarter, good enough for a fourth-quarter passer rating of 102.2.Brees, who at 37 is having one of the greatest seasons of a stellar career, has been even more on point in the fourth quarter. Brees leads the NFC with a 113.4 fourth-quarter passer rating, throwing for 11 touchdowns and completing 72 percent of his passes.Brees has completed at least 70 percent of his passes in each of the past six games -- a career-best streak -- and his uncanny accuracy prompted Lions head coach Jim Caldwell earlier this week to reference the incredible Sports Science clip on ESPN (available on YouTube) of Brees throwing a football more accurately than an Olympic archer hitting the bulls-eye at 30 yards.You better be able to play defense well across the board because he spreads it around quite a bit, Caldwell said. You can tell by his numbers hes difficult to handle, difficult to manage. ... He was 32 of 39 against us (the Indianapolis Colts) in the Super Bowl (XLIV in February 2010), and hes still obviously performing great. Every single game, hes going to put numbers up. Hes as good as they come.Brees said Stafford, a fellow Texan, has some of the best arm talent in the league -- top three for sure.He can make some throws that most guys cant or certainly couldnt even attempt to make, Brees added. He has got some moxie and savvy to him. He just has that playmaking ability in critical situations. I feel like hes always had that.That ability is even more apparent this season as Stafford -- with a strong assist from the powerful right leg of kicker Matt Prater -- repeatedly led the Lions back from the brink of defeat.Stafford is doing it despite the retirement of star wide receiver Calvin Johnson.You evaluate a quarterback often when you want to see how he does when hes behind, Saints head coach Sean Payton said of Stafford. He has had an outstanding season. His numbers are fantastic. I think hes playing as well as he has in his career. Hes found different ways to win, and everyones involved.Brees is the master at spreading the ball around, although there was a rare -- for the Saints -- mini-soap opera after their 49-21 rout of the Rams last week. Wide receiver Brandin Cooks went to Instagram seemingly to bemoan Brees not targeting him once in his 49 snaps.Cooks, who has the longest scoring reception in the NFL this year (98 yards), was used twice as a decoy on jet sweeps that resulted in huge running plays. Brees tried to quell any sense of discontent.We talked about it after the game, Brees said. If we can go out and score 49 points, play like that and win every week, then I think everyone will be OK with it. The statement it makes is that we can win games in a lot of different ways. Just because Brandin Cooks didnt catch a ball doesnt mean that he didnt have a huge role and responsibility in the game.Both teams are relatively healthy. Detroit could be on the verge of welcoming back linebacker DeAndre Levy (knee), who practiced the past two weeks. Tight end Brandon Pettigrew also is working his way back from the physically unable to perform list.Saints running back Mark Ingram, selected the NFC offensive player of the week for amassing 167 yards from scrimmage and two TDs against the Rams, is bothered by a lingering toe injury and is questionable. Starting left tackle Terron Armstead is battling knee and quad injuries.The Lions won the last two against the Saints (24-23 in Detroit in 2014 and 35-27 last season in New Orleans). Detroit faces the Saints, the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys on the road in the next four weeks. Ultra Boost Cheap Canada . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. 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NMD R1 Canada Sale . -- Arizona raced out to a big lead and did not back off, hitting the accelerator instead. EDMONTON -- Their offensive output was awfully watered down to start the game, but the B.C. Lions found a way to fight through it. Quarterback Travis Lulay passed for a pair of third-quarter touchdowns as the Lions came away with a 17-3 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos on a rain-soaked Saturday night. The Lions, who trailed 3-1 at the half, won their second game in a row to improve to 2-1. "We just slugged it out and stayed patient," Lulay said. "We had two well-executed drives in the third quarter, and that was the difference. It wasnt easy in those conditions. The first half was just ugly. It was tough to get things going. Its easy to get frustrated after a one-point half. But we stuck to it and showed a lot of will. The defence played lights out. It was a good character win, especially on the road." Lions receiver Andrew Harris, who scored B.C.s second touchdown, said the heavy thunderstorm was a hard thing to overcome. "It was a monsoon out there," he said. "It was tough to focus on what was going on in the game because you were so worried about ball security and trying to stay dry. We just stuck at it. Were a mature team and we kept composed. It was just about executing when the opportunities were there." The Eskimos (1-2) sit four points behind the undefeated Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFLs West Division. "It felt like things were going pretty positive in the first half, but we lost our edge in the second half," said Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly, who served as Lulays backup in B.C. last season. "We still have a lot to work on. When you lose like this, you have a lot of tape of things to work on." There was a very slow start to the game as both teams struggled to gain any ground during a torrential downpour rivalling the intensity of the storm that plagued the Eskimos game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Guelph, Ont., last weekend. Edmonton finally got on the board with four minutes to play in the opening quarter on a 32-yard field goal by Grant Shaw. It took another full quarter for another play of note to occur as the rain continued unabated throughout the first half. The Eskimos Rennie Curran was able to block a Hugh ONeill punt with four minutes left in the second frame and Edmonton took over on downs at the B.C. 32-yard line. However, holder Kerry Joseph had the ball slip through his hands on the resulting field goal snap and it remained a 3-0 game.dddddddddddd The Lions put together their best drive to that point in the game in the final couple minutes of the first half, setting up a 31-yard field goal attempt by ONeill. The wet weather would strike again, though, as the snap was bobbled and ONeill was forced to punt it into the end zone for a single to make it seem more like a hockey score at 3-1 before both teams gratefully scurried into the dressing rooms at the half. Edmonton had just four first downs and 71 yards in net offence in the first half, while B.C. had five first downs and 99 yards net. Even though the downpour continued, the Lions put up the first significant points of the match just under five minutes into the third quarter as Lulay hit Emmanuel Arceneaux for a 12-yard touchdown pass to surge ahead 8-3. B.C. continued to take control of the game with another TD drive that was capped off when Eskimo defenders T.J Hill and Joe Burnett collided, allowing Harris to take a Lulay pass 16 yards into the end zone for a 15-3 advantage. The rain let up significantly for the start of the fourth quarter, but the offence dried up again as well. The only scoring in the final frame came when Edmonton conceded a safety with five minutes left. The two teams will meet again next Saturday in Vancouver. Notes: The Lions have been the dominant team in the series between the two teams of late, now winners of six of the last seven meetings with the Eskimos. a Edmonton running back Hugh Charles was coming off a game in Hamilton where he scored two touchdowns and ran for 119 yards on just 11 carries to earn CFL Offensive Player of the Week statusa Lions linebacker Solomon Elimimian was also hot entering the game, with a league-high nine tackles in Week 2a The Esks were without star receiver Fred Stamps, who missed the game with a leg injurya Edmonton centre Brian Ramsay played his 100th CFL gamea The Eskimos are the most penalized team in the league, having been flagged 30 times for a loss of 227 yards overall in their first two outingsa The Lions entered the game with a league-best 20 points off opponent turnoversa The official attendance for the Lions-Eskimos game was 31,310, however there were nowhere near that many at the game due to the conditions. ' ' '