The New Orleans Saints packed their bags for the first time this season as they traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to play the Panthers in an early NFC South showdown on Monday Night Football. Points were at a premium in this game as the Saints scored a couple of touchdowns on the ground in the second half in a 20-17 victory to move to 2-0 on the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
New Orleans got the ball to start the game. Quarterback Derek Carr found Michael Thomas for a six-yard catch on 3rd & 2. Carr would get sacked by Frankie Luvu on third down and Lou Hedley came on to punt. The ball would only travel 29 yards to the Panthers’ 35-yard line.
Rookie signal-caller Bryce Young got his first snaps in Carolina and the Panthers’ offense would go 31 yards down the field in nine plays. Eddy Peniero put up the first points of the game with a successful 52-yard field goal. Carolina was up 3-0 with 7:04 left in the first quarter.
The Saints on their second drive moved down the field methodically as Carr connected with three different receivers and Taysom Hill got involved in the run game with a couple of rush attempts. The pressure got to the Black and Gold on third down and Blake Grupe kicked a 28-yard field goal to tie the game with 36 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Alontae Taylor forced the three-and-out after nearly having an interception on third down. The following possession, New Orleans moved down the field, including a 19-yard catch by Thomas on 3rd & 9 to the Panther’s four-yard line. The Saints couldn’t find pay dirt the next few plays and Grupe would knock through another chip-shot kick to take the three-point lead.
A couple of drives later, Carr was pressured on third down and forced the ball to a double-covered Chris Olave, and former Saints safety Vonn Bell intercepted the veteran quarterback and returned to the New Orleans 37-yard line.
Carolina threatened to score as they got to the New Orleans 18 but on third down Carl Granderson stripped Young as he rolled out and the ball got kicked around. Paulson Adebo would recover the ball and give the Saints the ball back at their own 41-yard line.
Carr would get sacked twice the next drive and both teams would head into halftime as New Orleans was up 6-3.
Young and the Carolina offense started their second drive of the second half at the New Orleans 41-yard line but would quickly bring on Peniero to kick a 54-yard field goal as the Panthers would tie the game midway through the third quarter.
After that kick, Olave made a great one-handed catch on 3rd & 7 while being held for a 42-yard catch to the Carolina 30. Tony Jones Jr. would carry the ball on five of the next seven plays and get into the endzone from two yards out to put the Saints back up 13-6 with 2:56 left in the third quarter.
The Panthers would have their longest drive of the night as cut their deficit down to four late in the game. Peneiro made his third field goal of the night, this time from 36 yards out to make it a 13-9 game with 5:30 left on the clock.
Carr had another clutch drive in him as he found Rashid Shaheed down the right sideline on a double move that would eventually set up another two-yard touchdown by Jones Jr. with put New Orleans back up by two scores with under four minutes to play.
The Carolina offense came alive late as Young moved the chains multiple times with his arm. The rookie would find Adam Thielen on 1st & GOAL from three yards out and connect with him for the two-point conversion to make it a three-point game with 1:16 left to play.
Carolina would go for the onside kick but couldn’t recover it as New Orleans gained possession and drained the rest of the clock to secure a 20-17 win.
BIG NUMBER: 8
Both defenses were able to put plenty of pressure on the quarterbacks tonight as there were eight total sacks in the game, four from each side. New Orleans got the edge as they kept Bryce Young and the offense of the Panthers out of the endzone for almost the entirety of the game in a 20-17 win.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Derek Carr
It wasn’t the prettiest game offensively for anyone. Carr however was able to connect on some big throws to Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed late in the game. The veteran QB completed 21 out of 36 passes for 228 yards and set up both Tony Jones Jr. touchdowns as New Orleans escaped with another hard-fought win.
UP NEXT: The New Orleans Saints will travel up to Green Bay, Wisconsin to take on Jordan Love and the Packers. Kickoff will be Sunday, September 24th at 12:00 p.m.