The New Orleans Saints didn’t get their preseason started off on the right foot with their 17-14 loss at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. It was an ugly game from start to finish, with turnovers happening on what seemed like every other possession. New Orleans chose to rest most of their starters including Alvin Kamara and Cameron Jordan, a wise choice so early into the preseason. However, nobody tuned into this game to keep an eye on those guys. Everybody wanted to get a bigger look at both Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston. With the retirement of the legendary Drew Brees, the Saints biggest concern is who will fill in the void left behind?
Taysom Hill led a strong opening drive but unfortunately it ended up wasted due to a turnover. He came back out on the field a second time and threw a very ugly interception that could have entirely been avoided. Winston stepped in after Hill was pulled from the game and look much better. He led the team down the field for two touchdowns, the only two that they scored throughout the game mind you. One of those drives was a dominant two-minute drill where he looked perfectly comfortable in the pocket the entire time. Unfortunately, he ended up throwing an interception himself, but it wasn’t his fault. A deep ball bounced off the hands of a receiver and fell into a safety’s hands before it hit the ground. Both guys had their flashes of brilliance in this matchup. Though they will likely get a massive boost when Michael Thomas can make a return. Speaking of the troubled wide receiver…
Saints fans were able to breath a little bit after getting to see Thomas out on the sidelines for this contest. While he wasn’t playing, he was huge of him to show up and support his teammates despite being caught up in some controversy with the organization. He was seen in a walking boot and smiling the entire time. We also got to see him help Winston get warmed up by catching some passes. Terrific news for a franchise that didn’t want to lose their fantastic wideout.
Now we get to the bad news of this matchup. We got to mention the turnovers earlier, but we didn’t say that New Orleans coughed it up SIX times. They saw three running backs fumble the football, Latavius Murray, Devonta Freeman and Tony Jones. Jones by the way was having a fantastic showing before that fumble, including a nice touchdown run earlier. Then obviously we have the two interceptions by Hill and Winston. Finally, their rookie quarterback Ian Book threw a costly interception with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. Not at all what you would like to see out of your offense regardless of it being the first preseason affair.
Also, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their first preseason game as well. They were stonewalled by the Cincinnati Bengals and lost by a score of 19-14. Though, that is to be expected as their starters really only played one drive. I will say that it was very surprising to see Tom Brady out on the field at all. Given his insane resume and time in the league I would imagine that playing in the first preseason game wouldn’t even be a thought this year. I was impressed by their backups ability to take the ball away but their offense showed very little once the starters left the field. It’ll be interesting to see who they give reps too next week.
