Canal Street Chronicles
The New Orleans Saints are heading to the Emerald City still in search of their first victory of the 2025 regular season. They will face off against a stout Seattle Seahawks defense that has not given up more than 17 points in a game through the first two weeks of the year.
Spencer Rattler had the best game of his young NFL career last week against the San Francisco 49ers. He finished with more than 200 yards through the air while tossing three touchdowns and avoiding any interceptions. He has sneakily been one of the top passers across the league early on.
Unfortunately, his performance was not enough to carry the Saints to their first win in a 26-21 loss. Although New Orleans possessed the football twice with an opportunity to drive the field for the go-ahead score late in the game, it could not garner enough offensive production to come out on top.
Guard Trevor Penning was out for the Saints’ first two games of the season, but he recently began practicing with the team again on Wednesday. However, the Saints are now dealing with another injury along the offensive line, with tackle Taliese Fuaga being held out and listed as questionable due to a back issue.
Seattle’s injury report looked a lot like a CVS receipt in the middle of the week. Several members of the Seahawks’ defense were limited participants in practice or did not participate at all. In particular, Seattle’s secondary is very thin, which provides a good opportunity to open up the passing game with speed at wide receiver, like the Saints have.hgb
The Seahawks finished 2024 with a total defense that ranked in the top half of the league after giving up just over 330 yds/gm. Everything starts within the trenches, and Seattle has a talented group of defensive linemen that includes Jarran Reed, Leonard Williams, and last year’s first-round pick, Byron Murphy II.
While I do believe Kellen Moore and the Saints can continue building momentum on the offensive side of the ball, I think they’re going to have a tough time getting things rolling in a raucous environment like Lumen Field with the 12th man having an effect on the game. I think that there have been a lot of positives on the offensive side of the ball, especially earlier in the season than most would have thought. I think the first win of the year is going to come soon, but I just don’t know if New Orleans will have enough swing their way in Week 3.
