Another Sunday afternoon, another dominant performance for the New Orleans Saints (9-1) as they made the defending Super Bowl champions look silly with a 48-7 win over the Philadelphia Eagles (4-6).
After forcing the Eagles to punt on their opening drive, the Saints struck first with a Mark Ingram taking it to the Philadelphia on the first play from scrimmage. Wil Lutz gave them the first points of the game with a 38-yard field goal attempt. After a three-and-out, Drew Brees carved up the defense for an 11-play drive that resulted in a three-yard touchdown pass to of all people Austin Carr, making it 10-0.
After Marshon Lattimore picked off Carson Wentz, Ingram found paydirt early in the second quarter with a 14-yard run to make it 17-0. However, Josh Adams responded on the next drive with a 28-yard run to finally get the Eagles on the board. The first half wrapped up with Brees connecting with rookie wideout Tre’Quan Smith right at the goal line to make it 24-7 at the break.
Even though the Saints were up by 17 points, they started off the second half looking for the knockout punch and that was delivered by Brees to Michael Thomas to put the Saints in front 31-7. Towards the end of the third quarter, Ingram got his third touchdown of the afternoon from one-yard out to put the game out of reach.
That didn’t stop the Saints from pouring it on in the fourth quarter with Brees connecting with Alvin Kamara on a 4th-and-6 to make it 45-7.
The Saints will have a quick turnaround when they host the Atlanta Falcons (4-6) on Thanksgiving night with kickoff slated for 7:20 pm.
-Clint Domingue