It was a slog featuring two teams that routinely failed to capitalize on opportunities — and then things got wild at the end.

The New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns each scored 10 points in the final six minutes of regulation after combining for 12 points in the first 54 minutes. The game went to overtime, where both teams scored touchdowns and the Saints needed to survive a 2-point conversion attempt in order to secure a 23-22 win.

New Orleans received the opening kick of the extra period and put together an impressive 11-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, culminating in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Shough to tight end Juwan Johnson.

Cleveland had one chance to answer, taking over at its own 33-yard line with 4:12 remaining. The Browns pushed the ball into Saints territory and then, on a third and 7, Browns tight end Harold Fannin caught a pass in the flat and broke multiple tackles on his way to a 39-yard touchdown.

The game came down to a 2-point conversion, and quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ pass for Denzel Boston near the pylon fell incomplete.

The win was the Saints’ first in the Caesars Superdome this season, and pushed their season record to 3-5 — good enough for a mome

The Saints appeared poised for a dramatic win in the closing minutes when running back Audric Estime, claimed off waivers this week from the Cleveland Browns, plunged into the end zone from 2 yards out to give the Saints a 16-13 lead against his former team.

But the Saints gave the Browns 53 seconds and two timeouts to work with. Sanders, in the lineup because of a concussion to regular starter Deshaun Watson, absorbed a huge hit by Chase Young and completed a 30-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy on third and 6 to push the ball to the Saints’ 40-yard line, setting up a 51-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining that sent the game to overtime.

Estime’s touchdown was the first of the day for a Saints team that spent most of the game threatening and doing little with it.

New Orleans pushed the ball inside Cleveland’s 35-yard line on five of its first eight possessions. But once it got into scoring position, things began to unravel, and those five possessions resulted in three field goals, a missed field goal and a lost fumble.

It was the Saints defense that kept answering the bell when the offense would come up short. The Browns mustered just six points in the first three-plus quarters, as the Saints regularly forced Sanders to beat a ferocious pass rush.

Young and Carl Granderson recorded three of the Saints five sacks, while the Saints’ maligned run defense limited Cleveland to 2.8 yards per carry.

It looked like that may have been enough. The Saints took a 9-6 lead with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter when kicker Charlie Smyth, playing for the first time this season after the team released veteran Daniel Carlson earlier this week, drilled a field goal from 48 yards out.

The kick was notable because it was Smyth’s third make in the game, and because he made it from the left hash — an area that plagued him in training camp and forced New Orleans to seek out a veteran like Carlson.

But the Saints couldn’t keep it up defensively for 60 minutes. Sanders finally connected on a game-swining play late in the fourth quarter, hitting a wide open K.C. Concepcion for a 64-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage after the Saints took the lead. It was one of three Sanders passes that gained more than 30 yards in Sunday’s game.

New Orleans outperformed Cleveland in nearly every area in the first half, but the Saints’ own critical mistakes mostly kept them off the scoreboard. Though the Saints outgained Cleveland 176-80 in the first half, they went to the locker room with a disappointing 3-3 tie.

Each of the Saints’ first three drives reached scoring territory, but only one of them resulted in points — and even that offered frustration, with quarterback Tyler Shough being dropped for a sack on third down to bring on Smyth for a 30-yard field goal.

The next two were worse, though. The Browns dropped Shough again on third down to end the Saints’ second possession, and this time Smyth missed wide to the right from 52 yards out. It was the Saints’ fifth missed field goal this season.

Then, with New Orleans finally looking like it was about to crack through, Jordyn Tyson’s first career catch finished with Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger punching the ball out of his hands inside the Cleveland 5-yard line. The Browns recovered to end the scoring threat.

It looked like bad shifted to disaster territory when rookie Barion Brown fielded a punt, reversed field twice, and also fumbled the ball away. Cleveland took over inside the Saints’ 20-yard line, but the Saints defense came to the rescue, stuffing a Quinshon Judkins run on fourth and goal from the 1-yard line to end the threat.