The Sports Xchange

METAIRIE, La. — After losing Khiry Robinson to a tibia fracture during the second quarter of Sunday’s wild win over the New York Giants, the New Orleans Saints had to bring in some running backs on Monday.

They brought in two backs they’re quite familiar with — Travaris Cadet and Tim Hightower — as well as Trent Richardson in an attempt to fill the void left by Robinson’s season-ending injury.

The team eventually settled on Hightower, a former Arizona Cardinals and Washington Redskins player who was in camp with the Saints this summer. They chose him over Cadet, who was with the Saints from 2012-14.

Hightower made the initial 53-man roster with the Saints in September, but was cut prior to the season opener against the Cardinals. He was re-signed the day after the game and released the next day with an injury designation.

Hightower, who has not played in a regular-season game since suffering a knee injury in 2011, had 96 rushing yards on 29 carries in the preseason.

He’ll likely be listed as the third back on the depth chart behind Mark Ingram and C.J. Spiller although head coach Sean Payton said he would not be opposed to getting rookie Marcus Murphy, who’s excelled on kick returns, some carries.

–Saints quarterback Drew Brees had one of the slowest starts of his NFL career with only eight touchdown passes in the six games he played in this season — before Sunday’s 52-49 win over the Giants.

Brees, who missed one game early in the season because of a bruised rotator cuff, threw an NFL record-tying seven scoring passes against the Giants to lead his team to a satisfying win.

So, Brees, who was the subject of trade talk by ESPN late last week, nearly matched his output of his first six games in trashing the Giants.

The Giants went into the game allowing just four scoring passes in their first seven games, but gave up that many in the first two quarters alone when Brees connected with Willie Snead twice, Marques Colston and Brandin Cooks.

–Brees lost what he thought was a personal record for passing yards in a single game when the NFL corrected the game summary on Monday, giving him an interception on a ball that was coughed up by Snead in the fourth quarter.

Brees threw a pass that Snead tried to pull in while being hit by Giants safety Craig Dahl, and cornerback Trumaine McBride snatched the ball out of the air and raced 63 yards to the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.

The play was ruled a fumble, but was changed Monday to an interception. That took the six yards that Snead had gained before the ball was jarred loose away from Brees’ total.

The interception left him with 39 completions in 50 attempts for 505 yards and seven touchdowns.

–Despite his big day, Brees didn’t even get a game ball.

It went to kicker Kai Forbath, who calmly knocked through a 50-yard field goal as time expired to give the Saints a three-point win in the wild affair. Forbath has been with the Saints for only 1 1/2 weeks.

“I mean, (Drew) had seven touchdowns and we told him the game ball is going to the kicker,” Payton said with a laugh.

Forbath appeared more than happy to pass the ball along to Brees, saying, “He deserves the game ball. … I got one kick to help the team out. It was a heck of a game by the whole team.”

“That’s fine,” Brees said of Forbath receiving the game ball honor. “That was a big kick for him. That was awesome. I said, ‘Don’t get cocky. There will be more.'”