The New Orleans Saints finished Week Eight with a 3-4 record after defeating the Seattle Seahawks at home in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. They played in a gruelling showdown between their top-ranked offense and Seattle’s top-ranked defense, and their hard work and efforts paid off. The Saints came out on top, finishing the game with a 25-20 win.
New Orleans Saints Week Eight Takeaways
On Offense
The Saints once again played a very balanced game offensively. With 375 yards of total offense, they managed 123 yards and 35 plays rushing, one passing and one rushing touchdown. New Orleans dominated the time of possession, allowing Seattle only 19 offensive plays in the first half. However, the Saints normally unstoppable offense was held to only six points in the first 29 minutes of the game. Despite Seattle’s defense limiting the Saints yardage and ability to score touchdowns, the Saints offense still found ways of putting up enough points to win the game. They scored on six straight possessions for the first time in 80 games. Although they faced the toughest defense they have seen all season, New Orleans still managed to shine.
Drew Brees targeted nine players today and showed no despondency for the loss of tight end Jimmy Graham. The former Saints tight end’s return to the Superdome proved lackluster. He had three catches for 34 yards. While New Orleans misses their former star, they clearly do not regret the decision to trade Graham for Max Unger. Unger has solidified their offensive line, and offered better protection for Brees. Ironically, in today’s game, Brees was sacked twice (and only nine times this season).
Ball security has been an issue for the Saints the last couple of games. Last week, their number one running back Mark Ingram fumbled the ball, allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to score a touchdown. This week against the Seahawks, Ingram made exactly the same mistake in the first quarter of the game. His lack of ball security cost the Saints, allowing an already menacing Seattle defense to score seven points early in the game. This could be problematic for Ingram going forward, as there is a clear lack of trust. Tim Hightower stepped in for Ingram for the rest of the game. Given his chance to shine, Hightower showed the Saints he is up to the job. He had 26 carries for 102 yards. Ingram only had three carries for five yards prior to being replaced on the field today.
On Defense
The Saints defense played very well against the Seahawks in Week Eight. They were able to stop some big plays and keep the Seattle offense from running up the scoreboard. This was particularly important in today’s game, knowing that Brees and company would have trouble putting up points against such a tough defense.
Paul Kruger had an early sack on Russell Wilson in the first quarter which was the tenth sack of the year for New Orleans. Later in the first half, Saints linebacker Nate Stupar intercepted Wilson. This was even more notable, given that it was Wilson’s first interception in his last 203 plays. Cameron Jordan played very well today. In particular, his tipped pass forced Seattle off the field. Finally, Ken Crawley stopped a potential touchdown by receiver Tyler Lockett on the Saints three-yard line which forced a field goal and kept the Saints in a position to win the game.
On Special Teams
Rookie kicker Will Lutz had a great day today, making all four of his field goal attempts. He even weathered a false start penalty in the final minutes of the game which forced him to re-kick after already making his first attempt. A loss of five yards did not phase Lutz, and his second attempt was also successful. He added three points to the Saints lead, forcing Seattle to score a touchdown for the win in the final minute of the game – which they were unable to do.
Penalties
The Saints have had issues with penalties the last two weeks in a row. In Week Six, they incurred ten penalties for a loss of 126 yards and another ten penalties again in Week Seven. This week they seem to have patched up their problems, incurring only two penalties for ten yards, both of which were false starts. Seattle on the other hand had some difficulty in this department. They had a season high of 11 penalties for 76 yards. The noise factor in the Superdome was partially to blame. Perhaps it was payback from the teams previous encounter, when the Saints lost in Seattle’s even louder CenturyLink Field.
Conclusion
Today’s win puts New Orleans back in a viable position to compete for the division championship. With the Atlanta Falcons (who are set to play this afternoon) on a two game losing streak, the Saints are quickly catching up. Depending on the outcome of Atlanta’s game today, the Saints are currently only one game behind first place in the NFC South.
