The New Orleans Saints are back in the win column as they go on the road to shut out the New England Patriots. The offense finally looked alive as the defense puts together an incredible game.
So we’ve got some important questions to answer while analyzing the 34-0 win: What went right? What went wrong? And what’s the bottom line?
What went right?
A lot went right for the Saints in this one, but we can start with the defense as they pitched a shutout and set the offense up for a lot of their success. It was the first shutout since they beat the Raiders 24-0 last season. It’s not something that happens often against Bill Belichick, just the second time since he joined the coaching staff and first since 2003.
The Saints had two interceptions. The first came from the hands of Tyrann Mathieu and ended with a touchdown to open up scoring on the day. The second was grabbed by Pete Werner, the first of his career, off of a pass broken up by Jordan Howden. The defense has matched last year’s total of seven interceptions already.
The Patriots were held to just 1-14 on third downs and averaged 3.1 yards per play.
On offense, the Saints answered some of the questions heading into the week before retreating back to the conservative play when they realized that the Patriots offense wasn’t going to do anything.
Pete Carmichael took a lot of blame heading into this week and opened up the playbook a bit more by finally adding some motion pre-snap to bring a more modern look.
Derek Carr made a few nice throws to Michael Thomas and Rashid Shaheed, with his shoulder healing up nicely. His two passing touchdowns was a season-high and doubled his season total.
Alvin Kamara had a very nice day on the ground, highlighted by a rushing touchdown that broke the franchise’s touchdown scorer record previously held by Marques Colston. Rookie Kendre Miller also had his best day as a Saint, with 37 yards on the ground and 53 yards through the air.
What went wrong?
While there was a lot to like in this one for the Saints, it wasn’t all perfect.
The big issue in this one was penalties, specifically procedural penalties on offense. The Saints got flagged for four false starts as well as a delay of game at the New England 30-yard line.
Along with normal issues, when Taysom Hill comes in, it seems as though the offense has trouble adjusting to cadence and it has led to a couple of false starts.
As a whole, the Saints got flagged 12 times for 86 penalty yards. It didn’t matter today, but it’s something that must get cleaned up. 12 is a high this season for the Saints, as they previously had 7 penalties in three different games.
Olave had a touchdown reception today, but has not been a big part of the offense in the past two weeks. It was reported by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill that he was dealing with a toe injury which likely played a key part. Still, Olave has just 3 catches for 16 yards in the last two weeks. The Saints need to get their young star more involved.
And what's the bottom line?
It might not have been a perfect performance, but it’s hard to complain after a 34-0 victory. It was a big step in the right direction for almost everyone and should provide a lot of confidence in the coming weeks of what looks like will be a tight NFC South race.
Pete Carmichael showed at least a bit of a willingness to adapt the offense which might have been the biggest takeaway of the day. If the offense can put together a full game of what we saw out of the gates against a team that isn’t having a historically bad season for their franchise, we can really start to celebrate.
Until then, more pats on the back for this incredible defensive group.
