Canal Street Chronicles
New Orleans loses an ugly game at home.
The New Orleans Saints defense held the Philadelphia Eagles scoreless for the first three quarters on Sunday. The first six Eagles drives ended with a 3-and-out, interception, sack fumble, a stop on 4th and 1, a sack on 4th and 3, and a blocked punt. They did give up 460 total yards but made plays when they needed to for most of the day to get off the field. The Saint defense sacked Jalen Hurts 4 times, 2 from Bryan Bresee, 1.5 from Carl Granderson, and 0.5 from Alontae Taylor. The defense was the only reason they were in the game yesterday, as they played lights out for all but two plays on Sunday. Unfortunately, a 65-yard TD run by Saquon Barkley and a 61-yard catch and run by Dallas Goedert were all the Eagles needed to win given the setbacks on the offense.
The Saints offense that scored 40+ points each of their first two games was held to 3 points through the first three quarters and 12 points total on Sunday. The Eagles held them to 142 yards passing and 89 yards rushing as they looked much more like the offense, we saw last year as opposed to the one we saw the first two weeks of the year. I am not ready to give up on them yet, as losing Erik McCoy on the first drive killed the run game and pass protection, and not having Taysom Hill available hurt them in short yardage situations and led to Alvin Kamara having the most carries he has had in a game since 2021.
Players not named Olave or Kamara combined to gain just 18 total yards, as they were unable to get any balls to Rashid Shaheed. This game exposed the Saint’s lack of depth that has been an underlying problem for them for a while, as losing one offensive lineman and one weapon derailed the whole offense. The Eagles on the other hand were missing two offensive linemen and their top weapon in A.J. Brown and were still able to do enough to win. For the Saints offense to keep thriving this year it looks like they will have to stay as healthy as possible or even make some trades to build up their depth.
The Saints shot themselves in the foot plenty on Sunday, something you just cannot do if you expect to win in the NFL, especially against one of the better teams in the NFC in the Eagles. On their first drive, the Saints had a 2nd and 6 from the Eagles 8-yard line, but a false start put them behind the sticks, and they had to settle for a field goal. The second drive Derek Carr was sacked for a 12-yard loss by Jalen Carter (who would have been Erik McCoy’s primary responsibility). The next three drives the Saints only...
