Look at Andy Dalton making some New Orleans Saints history. The veteran quarterback helped his team defeat the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday with an efficient performance that the numbers say was better than it looked — as observed by Nola.com’s Luke Johnson, Dalton’s 149.6 passer rating from this win is the highest single-game performance from any quarterback in the league this year (minimum 20 attempts). He completed 21 of 25 attempts for 260 yards with 3 touchdown passes.
For context, a perfect passer rating is 158.3. The only quarterback in Saints history to accomplish that is Drew Brees, per Stathead, who went 18-of-23 for 371 yards with 5 touchdown passes and no interceptions against the New England Patriots back in 2009. Dalton’s passer rating on Sunday was the highest of all Saints quarterbacks dating back to Brees’ game with the Indianapolis Colts in 2019, when he completed 29 of 30 passes for 307 yards with 4 touchdown passes and no interceptions (resulting in a passer rating of 148.9).
Dalton’s big game is just the fifth time this season a quarterback has posted a passer rating over 140, per Stathead. The others to come close are Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (140.6 in Week 8), Baltimore Ravens MVP Lamar Jackson (142.6 in Week 2), Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes (144.2 in Week 1), and Green Bay Packers passer Aaron Rodgers (146.7 in Week 10). So, yeah, Dalton is in rare company.
That’s not to say Dalton was perfect. He was off-target on a few throws and too often settled for unambitious passes well short of the first down marker. He took several sacks in which he could have thrown the ball away instead to preserve field positioning. When watching the game play out, it didn’t feel like we were watching a quarterback take over the way Brees once did. The point is that he could have been better.
But we shouldn’t diminish his accomplishments too much. Dalton stepped up in a big spot on his 53-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave with Aaron Donald barreling down on him, and he had a couple of other big-time throws under pressure. He deserves credit for his role in the win.
Now, is it sustainable? It’s telling that the Saints rotated Dalton in and out of the game with Taysom Hill taking snaps at quarterback (Hill attempted three passes, completing one of them for 14 yards while taking a sack; he logged 9 carries for 52 rushing yards). They had a good game plan to try and get the most out of each players’ skill sets and minimize their vulnerabilities. It worked out this time, and they’ll likely try and ride that formula as far as it’ll take them. Their next big test comes next Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.
