Canal Street Chronicles
Where do the Saints rank after an impressive win?
The New Orleans Saints opened up their 2024 NFL season with a dominant win over the Carolina Panthers. A lot of people had the Saints low-ranked to start the season, but how let’s see where the team is ranked now.
“My decision to pre-emptively drop the Saints to the 28th spot prior to Week 1 was ... regrettable. This was something an experienced Power Rankings man should have spotted ahead of time. They were facing the Panthers in Week 1, and I actually thought it might be a possible trap game. The trap was for Carolina, apparently. Derek Carr hit Rashid Shaheed on a 59-yard bomb five plays in, and that was about it. Seriously, the drama kind of crested right there. The Saints dominated en route to their biggest blowout since the Sean Payton days, but what do we make of this? Klint Kubiak’s offense enjoyed a grand entrance, with nine straight scoring drives to open the contest; the stakes will be raised in the next two matchups against the Cowboys (road) and Eagles (home). Ace those tests, and then we’ll start talking about even bigger moves up the rankings.”
“The Saints came out and walloped the Carolina Panthers. They put 47 on the scoreboard. Are they this good or are the Panthers that putrid? The guess is the Saints are solid, but don’t think they were as good as the final score. They put together a complete game.”
Raise your hand if you thought the New Orleans Saints would post the most impressive game of Week 1.
Now put your hand down. Lying is wrong.
Granted, it came against a Panthers team that won just two games last year. But the Saints dominated every facet of Sunday’s contest. Offensively, Derek Carr threw three touchdown passes and running back Alvin Kamara logged 110 yards from scrimmage and a score. Defensively, the Saints held Carolina under 200 yards of offense and forced three turnovers.
Carr lauded the effort on both sides of the ball while speaking to reporters after the game.
“Everyone’s going to want to talk about how exciting it was for your offense. But our defense gave us a lot of short fields,” Carr said. “Them setting us up with short fields and us executing allows a day like that to happen. That was a fun way to start the season. They (the fans) liked us a lot today. That was nice.”
Knox isn’t reading too much into this lone game, but even he admitted that Klint Kubiak’s debut as offensive coordinator was an impressive one.
“I probably had the Saints ranked too low coming into the season, but I had serious questions about Derek Carr’s ability to return to Pro Bowl form,” he said. “However, Carr...
