The New Orleans Saints were able to get the second win of their season during Week 3. They went up against the New England Patriots and walked away with a 28-13 win on the road. It was incredibly surprising to see them come out and play the way that they did.
Offensively, they weren’t incredibly but were able to march down the field on numerous occasions. Jameis Winston had 128 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions on the day. Though he did make a bad ready at the goal line which resulted in a touchdown, one that Sean Payton believes they got lucky on. Alvin Kamara took 24 carries for 89 yards and Taysom Hill ran six times for 32 yards. It was another game this season that saw the Saints do everything in their power to establish a strong run game and it worked out for them. Marquez Callaway finally showed up as well, snagging four passes for 41 yards and that lucky touchdown we mentioned earlier.
This game was truly won defensively though. They only sacked Mac Jones twice in this game but they were constantly pressuring him to rush his reads and make errant throws. I give Jones credit though; he remained calm in the pocket and threw some incredible passes. At the end of the day the mistakes just caught up to them. New Orleans blocked a punt early in the game, then Jonnu Smith dropped four passes which was stalling what seemed to be good drives. New Orleans picked Jones off three times, with one returned for a touchdown. Marshon Lattimore, P.J. Williams and Malcolm Jenkins all got in on the action, with Jenkins being the one with the touchdown. They even stifled the Patriots rushing attack, limiting their backfield to 11 rushes for 21 total yards.
I do want to take a second and talk about their kicking game. Wil Lutz is still out after getting core muscle surgery and they are clearly hurting at the position without him. Aldrick Rosas looked to be solid at the kicking position coming out of the preseason but missed both of the attempts that he had in this game against New England. You can’t leave points out on the field consistently and he shanked two field goals that would have blown this game open much sooner. With Lutz possibly coming back next week, there shouldn’t be any reason to worry. But Rosas has to get a handle on these misses if he continues to be the starter.
Lastly, I want to take a second to briefly mention the rest of the division. The Panthers walked away with a Thursday Night Football victory over the Houston Texans. They are still undefeated on the year and actually lead the division with a 3-0 record. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Los Angeles Rams on the road and fell to 2-1. The Saints are also 2-1 with their recent win. The Atlanta Falcons won their game also, moving up to 1-2 after defeating the New York Giants on a last second field goal.