The New Orleans Saints got the win, but Australian punter Matthew Hayball drew the ire of his coach.

Meanwhile, NFL fans have used a tactic not seen in New York since the 1970s to vent their frustration at the struggling Giants.

These are the five quick hits from the action on Monday morning.

Giants fan flies over stadium with a message to the owner

A small plane circled the New York Giants stadium roughly 90 minutes before New York was to play host to the New Orleans Saints, asking Giants co-owner John Mara to overhaul the team that has made the play-offs twice since winning the Super Bowl in February 2012.

“Mr. Mara, enough. Please fix this dumpster fire!” the message read as it was towed behind the aircraft.

The Giants entered the game with a 2-10 record and were riding a seven-game losing streak that has put coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen in the hot seat. New York was 6-11 in 2023 after making the play-offs in Daboll’s first season in 2022 with a 9-7-1 record.

The only other season it went to the post-season since winning Super Bowl 46 was in 2016.

The 2022 season was encouraging because the Giants won a play-off game against Minnesota, the first time they had done that since the play-offs after the 2011 season.

This season the organisation released quarterback Daniel Jones less than halfway into a four-year, $US160 million ($250 million) contract.

He was released on November 22 after the Giants told him he was not going to play again this season, and he asked Mara to release him. The quarterback signed with the Minnesota Vikings practice squad the following week.

There was a similar incident in the late 70s when a plane hired by fans flew over Giants Stadium with a trailing banner that read “15 Years of Lousy Football … We’ve Had Enough”.

Between 1973 and 1979, the Giants won no more than six games in a season, with the six wins coming in 1978 and 1979 when the NFL expanded from a 14-game to a 16-game regular season.

Aussie punter cops massive spray from coach

Australian punter Matthew Hayball has been the recipient of a massive spay from New Orleans interim head coach Darren Rizzi, in the Saints’ win over the Giants.

Bryan Bresee leapt over the Giants’ line to block a potential tying field goal with 11 seconds left, sinking New York to a franchise record eight-consecutive defeat.

But all was not rosy for the Saints’ punter who was blasted for what his coach deemed as a string of poor punts.

The punt which led to the heated exchange was returned by the Giants for a touchdown. The play was called back for holding, taking those six points off the board for New York.

But Rizzi still felt the need to express his displeasure at the Aussie.

“I’m a big accountability guy and that was a big part of our gameplan today and he wasn’t executing the gameplan,” he said.

“His last punt was outstanding and it really helped us — actually his last two punts. His second-to-last punt in particular was really good, it pinned them back and they didn’t get any return yards. That was what we were trying to do all day.

“Our first three punts weren’t good enough so I let him know that’s exactly how I felt. It probably came across a little bit more than that but me and Matt are fine.”

Panther drops potential game-winning touchdown

For the third week in a row, the Carolina Panthers have come so close to knocking off a Super Bowl contender.

A fortnight earlier they were pipped by the defending champions Kansas City, then last week went down to NFC South leaders Tampa Bay in overtime.

On Monday, AEDT, the Panthers went toe-to-toe with the Philadelphia Eagles who currently occupy the second seed in the NFC.

Down by six with less than a minute left on the clock, quarterback Bryce Young thought he had completed a mammoth fourth-quarter drive with a potential game-winning touchdown to receive Xavier Legette.

Legette had the ball in the endzone, but the pass was correctly ruled incomplete as the receiver had dropped it when he went to ground.

The Eagles were able to hold on and improve their record to 11-2.

Star running back recruit Saquon Barkley continued to mount a case for MVP, rushing for 124 yards in the win.

Barkley surpassed LeSean McCoy’s Eagles record of 1,607 yards, set in 2013. Barkley now has 1,623 yards with four games left.

Darnold throws for five touchdowns to sink the Vikings

Sam Darnold threw for 347 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs, as Minnesota pulled away from Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons 42-21.

Darnold added another highlight to his brilliant first season in Minnesota following the departure of Cousins in a free agency to Atlanta with a 22-for-28 performance and no turnover-worthy plays despite heavy first-half pressure.

Darnold passed for 250 yards after half-time to help the Vikings (11-2) break a 21-all tie early in the fourth quarter and stay one game behind NFC North-leading Detroit with a final-week match-up looming with the Lions.

Cousins threw two more interceptions without a touchdown in his return to Minnesota, where he was greeted by loud boos and left with Atlanta’s fourth consecutive loss to tumble out of first place in the NFC South and fall one game behind Tampa Bay.

Cousins has eight interceptions and no passing scores for the Falcons (6-7) over their four-game losing streak, which was extended by a wide array of errors that stretched beyond their 35-year-old quarterback who’s coming back this season from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon that ended his six-year tenure with the Vikings midway last season.

Jets horror season continues as overtime loss ends play-off chances

Tua Tagovailoa threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith in overtime and the Miami Dolphins overcame Aaron Rodgers’ first 300-yard passing game in nearly three years to beat the New York Jets 32-26 on Sunday.

After Jason Sanders tied it with seven seconds left in regulation with a 42-yard field goal, Tagovailoa quickly moved the Dolphins (6-7) down the field and they beat the Jets for the ninth straight time in Miami.

That came after Anders Carlson gave the struggling Jets (3-10) — who were eliminated from post-season contention for the 14th straight year — the lead with a 42-yarder with 52 seconds remaining. But Malik Washington put the Dolphins in a great position to help set up Sanders’ field goal with a 45-yard kick-off return to Miami’s 46-yard line.

Tagovailoa was 33 of 47 for 331 yards and two TDs. He had just one incompletion on Miami’s eight-play, 70-yard scoring drive that was capped by Smith’s fourth touchdown of the season.

Smith didn’t have a reception before catching three for 44 yards on the winning drive.

Rodgers was 27 of 39 for 339 yards, ending a drought of 34 regular-season games without a 300-yard passing game — dating to December 12, 2021, while with Green Bay — and had a TD pass to Davante Adams.

But Rodgers could only watch from the sideline in overtime as the Jets never got the ball after blowing a second straight second-half lead.

The Jets were considered Super Bowl contenders at the start of the season, but have imploded as the year progressed.

AP/ABC