The New Orleans Saints are coming off yet another awful performance. They fell down to 5-5 after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 40-29 the other day. There were very few positives to take away from this outing, but we are going to dive into the entirety of the game down below and let you know out takeaways on the matter.
First off, I think that this team doesn’t try to play until the final quarter. They outscored the Eagles 22-7 in the fourth and yet still lost by double digits. Trevor Siemian threw for 214 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions while adding a rushing touchdown on top of that. His first pick wasn’t really his fault, it was a great read that just got jumped by a linebacker with crazy athleticism. The second one was his fault, and it was returned for a pick-six. Alvin Kamara was held out for another week with his knee injury and Mark Ingram filled in perfectly. He took 16 carries for 88 total yards and could have done a lot more if they stuck with the ground attack more than they did early on. In the passing game, nobody really stands out here. Adam Trautman scored a touchdown but he still needs to do a lot more to get out of the doghouse. Defensively they were just awful. The team is the top run defense in the league and got ran for over 250 yards this week. They were out on the field for way too long and they were likely exhausted by the end of the first quarter due to the offense being non-existent. Blake Gillikin is without a doubt the team MVP right now, that’s right, the punter is the MVP.
I got to give credit where credit is due though, the Eagles played a hell of a game. Jalen Hurts didn’t have to do much of anything through the air because everybody was running well. Miles Sanders returned and despite fumbling twice, he had 16 carries for 94 yards. Hurts rank 18 times for 69 yards and three touchdowns. Then Jordan Howard took ten carries for 63 yards. Darius Slay was the man who had the interception returned for a touchdown and T.J. Edwards snagged down the first interception. In terms of division rankings, the Eagles moved up into second place. They are half a game up on the Washington Football Team and two games behind the Dallas Cowboys who just lost.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play later tonight against the New York Giants, a game that is likely going to be incredibly interesting all the way through. If the Bucs win this game, they would move two games ahead of the Saints in the division with a 7-3 record. The Carolina Panthers are right under the Saints at 5-6, and the Atlanta Falcons round it out at 4-6. However, if the Buccaneers lose a third straight game, they would be 6-4 and would keep all four teams separated by one and a half games in total.