Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #4Downs where I break down what went right and what went wrong for the New Orleans Saints! This week, we look at the Saints win over the Arizona Cardinals.
1st Down: Saints Find Offensive Groove
The last two weeks have been a proverbial snoozefest on offense with only one touchdown coming from the Saints, a rushing touchdown from fullback John Kuhn. It seemed like this team was destined to fall victim to what has been a tough defense in Arizona featuring former LSU Tigers Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu. That wasn’t the case as we saw Drew Brees wake up from his nightmare and throw for almost 400 yards and 4 TDs. It was your typical fare for the veteran QB where he gave the ball to everybody, connecting with nine different receivers. Even the run game found some success with over 130 yards on the ground including two short TDs from Tim Hightower, who delivered an inspiring speech the night before. That may have been the rallying cry for a team that still has a shot at the playoffs, albeit the chances are slim.
2nd Down: Capitalizing on Turnovers
If there was one thing the Saints needed to do on Sunday afternoon, it was get points off of turnovers. There’s been too many times where they won the turnover battle, but couldn’t get anything out of those opportunities. Having the defense get two turnovers and the offense getting the points for them was a crucial statistic in the victory. Just look at what happened after the first field goal by Will Lutz; two plays later you saw the defense force a fumble from one of the better wideouts in the last decade. That led to the Saints taking an early 10-7 lead and that momentum stayed with them throughout the game.
3rd Down: Lucky Day
Sometimes the Saints are just plain lucky and early in the fourth quarter, that was never more evident. The Cardinals had held the Saints inside the redzone for what looked to be a field goal to take a 30-27 lead. However, the defense jumped offsides which nullified a field goal and turned into seven points for the Saints. For much of the last three seasons, it was the little mistakes that wound up costing this team games so it was somewhat refreshing to see it happen to an opponent.
4th Down: More Players Upset?
Even when the Saints win games, there’s someone on this team upset with how they’re being used. Look at Cooks after the Rams game how he was complaining about not getting a catch. He has seen a resurgence in the last couple of weeks in what seems to be a way to appease one of the stars of the offense and this was a great game for him. The latest Saints player to seem upset is none other than Mark Ingram. After the second touchdown by Hightower, the cameras on the Fox broadcast moved over towards the sideline and it showed a visibly upset Ingram yell at Sean Payton and other people before being calmed down by Luke McCown and others. The initial speculation was that he was upset on potentially missing out on a touchdown bonus. However, there is no touchdown bonus in his contract; there’s only a yardage bonus if he pushes past 1,000 yards and he is currently about 200 yards shy of that mark. According to postgame talk, he got a little too competitive according to Payton and he said he will try to keep it under control going forward. It wasn’t a good look for the organization seeing a player upset about not getting the ball even though the team won the game.
-Clint Domingue