Whew — that was a fun one. The New Orleans Saints (7-7) took care of business against the New York Giants (5-9), and then some. The Saints won by a margin of 24-6 for their second lopsided victory in as many weeks. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was awfully close.
How did we get here? Let’s break it down by asking and answering three questions:
- What went right?
- What went wrong?
- And what’s the bottom line?
What went right?
Derek Carr played his best game as the Saints’ quarterback. He spread the ball around well and attacked the Giants defense from a variety of angles, hitting plays underneath coverage and leading his receivers into the catch so they could keep running with the ball in their hands. He also went over the top when the play was there. He didn’t turn the ball over and his three touchdown passes were a season-high. These kinds of performances are why the Saints signed him.
Defensively, where do we start? Dennis Allen’s unit finally looked like itself after falling off over the last month. They limited the Giants to just 60 rushing yards as a team. They sacked Tommy DeVito seven times for loss of 57 yards. The defense didn’t create any takeaways, but they consistently limited the Giants to meager games. Seven of the Giants’ nine drives ended with punts or turnovers on downs. They were dominant in both phases against the pass and against the run.
What went wrong?
It’s almost nitpicking to look at any negatives after such an uneven win, but this wasn’t a perfect game for New Orleans. Penalties were a problem Outside of one bogus call on Alontae Taylor for allegedly committing unnecessary roughness on a routine tackle, costing them 15 yards and helping to set up a Giants field goal, the Saints were fouled five times for a loss of 43 yards.
Veteran left tackle Andrus Peat was twice penalized for holding. Special teams ace J.T. Gray had a costly foul for running into the New York punter, which was uncharacteristic of him as one of the league’s best specialists in the kicking game. And Carr was fouled for intentional grounding in one notable gaffe.
These individual mistakes can snowball and develop into a critical flaw against a better team than the Giants. The Saints were able to overcome it on Sunday but that won’t be the case every week. Allen’s squad must play with more discipline.
And what's the bottom line?
The Saints proved their critics wrong this week — including some of us here at Saints Wire. They didn’t play down to their competition. They didn’t let DeVito run all over them, and they didn’t let the Giants’ blitz-heavy defense rattle Carr. They overcame some adversity with all of the injuries stacking up (starting wideout Chris Olave and right tackle Ryan Ramczyk were among the players out this week) to stay alive in the heated NFC South title race.
This was a quality win. Good on Carr, Allen, and this Saints team for rising to the occasion to see it through.
So what comes next?
The final leg of the regular season is here. The Saints must go on the road the next two weeks and return home to close out their schedule against their oldest rival. First, they’ll travel to face the red-hot Los Angeles Rams on a short week at SoFi Stadium this Thursday night. They’ll return home for a mini-bye before flying out again to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium, and that’s going to be a tough out; the Bucs beat the Saints 26-9 at the Caesars Superdome earlier this year. That game might be the final battle for the NFC South crown.
But whether the Saints are still in the hunt for the playoffs or not after that is moot: they’ll close out the regular season against the Atlanta Falcons at home after the New Year. Forget about tanking, draft positioning, or playoff implications — this is a must-win game against the Saints’ biggest rivals. Hopefully they can go into it with the NFC South locked up tight. Either way, they’ve got to play hard and take care of business with the Dirty Birds. But before they can worry about Atlanta or Tampa Bay, all eyes must focus on L.A.
