TAMPA, Fla. -- Tim Hightower said he was trying to hold back the tears in the postgame locker room Sunday because he didn't want to give his New Orleans Saints teammates any ammo to tease him with.

"But I'm sure when I call my wife and my son on FaceTime, they'll get a couple," admitted Hightower, whose performance highlighted his remarkable comeback after more than three years out of the NFL.

Hightower, 29, carried the ball a career-high 28 times for 85 yards and a touchdown Sunday to help lead the Saints to a 24-17 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Afterward, he couldn't hide all of his emotion. Hightower hugged each of his teammates as they walked into the locker room, according to Cox Sports Television.

"Very emotional," said Hightower, who explained that he felt a connection between the adversity he had overcome in his career and the adversity the Saints (5-8) had overcome by finally winning their first game in six weeks.

"I've been on a team where you're starting to get to the end of the season and, 'Ahh, we didn't make the playoffs,' and guys just folded it in," Hightower said. "We didn't do that, man. To come out here on the road and get this win against a team that's been playing pretty well, we didn't do it.

"Man, I'm a fighter. And it just resonated with me, this team. And I just wanted to embrace these guys. They fought, we fought. And hopefully we can take something from this ... carry it over into the next game and the next game and finish it out strong."

The Saints couldn't dream up a better inspirational story than Hightower's.

The former Arizona Cardinals and Washington Redskins running back tore his ACL in 2011. He tried to come back in 2012 but missed the Redskins' cut. It wasn't until the fall of 2013 that doctors discovered that an infection was stunting Hightower's recovery.

He finally got his chance with the Saints when they signed him this past January. But he was cut by New Orleans in Week 1, too, because their backfield was overcrowded.

The Saints re-signed him last month because of an injury to backup Khiry Robinson. He became their leading man this week after Mark Ingram suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

When asked Sunday if he ever considered giving up on the dream, Hightower didn't hesitate.

"No. No. And maybe that's why I'm a little crazy," Hightower said. "But I've dreamed about this since I was a kid. And I really felt like the days that I did want to kind of stop, I had a great support system. My wife or different people challenging me, 'No, this is not what you said you were gonna do. You're gonna see this thing through.'"

Saints quarterback Drew Brees said there is no player on the team that people were happier for than Hightower on Sunday.

"As much as Mark Ingram meant to this team ... somebody needed to step up," Brees said. "Tim has traveled a really interesting road. ... He continued to fight and believe and battle his way back.

"And 28 carries, 85 yards, they were 'hard yards.' He had to earn every bit of that."

Hightower's performance was fitting because it relied on chipping away, time and time again.

His 3.0 yards per carry weren't all that impressive. But he came up with key gains on several of his runs, including his 3-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and his 4-yard run on third-and-3 with 1 minute, 23 seconds remaining that allowed Brees to take a knee and finish the victory.

Hightower had seven carries on the final drive as the Saints ran out the final 4:13.

"I don't take that for granted, either," Hightower said of the trust that coach Sean Payton showed in him. "You've got a pretty good guy in 9 [Brees' jersey number] back there that he could've done some things with. But he decided to trust the O-line and trust myself with the security of the ball, and I'm thankful for that."

On the flip side, fellow veteran running back C.J. Spiller wound up with only six touches -- the unspoken implication being that he has not earned that same trust from Payton.

The two running backs were splitting time early in the game, with Spiller catching three passes in the first half and playing in some packages near the goal line. But it became all Hightower when the Saints went into ground-control mode to protect their lead in the second half.

Hightower was surprised when he was told after the game that he had 28 carries.

"That's a huge number. OK, I'm sure I'll feel that tomorrow," Hightower said. "At this point in my life, I can't predict what's gonna happen. I just know I wanted to be as prepared as I could when the opportunity presented itself."