NEW ORLEANS -- Gutsy call or something else?

As the Oakland Raiders said in the locker room following their come-from-behind 35-34 victory over the New Orleans Saints, guts had little to do with coach Jack Del Rio going for a two-point conversion with 47 seconds remaining, rather than sticking with convention and kicking the extra point to tie.

“It is just that kind of belief and that kind of trust for a coach to believe in us like that,” said Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who connected with receiver Michael Crabtree in the left side of the end zone on a fade pass for the conversion and a one-point lead.

“It just gives us so much confidence to have him do that for us.”

Del Rio’s confidence, it turns out, was twofold: Not only did he feel the Raiders would convert, he told Carr before he started the winning 75-yard drive that they would go for two after they scored.

Again, chutzpah? Guts? Or, as Saints quarterback Drew Brees put it, “ballsy”?

“It ain’t that; it’s the trust in us,” said Raiders offensive tackle Donald Penn, who had to move from the left side to the right with linemen Menelik Watson (groin) and Matt McCants (left knee) leaving the game due to injuries. “You’ve got to have trust in your players to do that, because the trust in your players gives you the guts to do that.

“I think coach has a lot of trust in us, and I think we earned that trust over how hard we’ve been working the past two years with him. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re going to enjoy this one.”

Trailing by 14 points in the second half and unable to slow Brees -- who passed for 423 yards and four touchdowns -- it did not seem as though the Raiders would be in a position to gamble, let alone show faith.

Then came the rally and the platitudes. And the pass and the catch. And the win.

“He gave me a great ball there, and he did that the entire game,” Crabtree said of Carr. “That shows he trusts me. And it wasn’t a gutsy call at all, not at all. [Del Rio] has a lot of trust in us, and we have a lot of trust in him. I mean, when you put in so much work in camp and in the preseason, I feel like all we have to do as players is execute.”

And trust in the process ... and the call.