After a division win on Monday Night Football, the New Orleans Saints traveled up north to Green Bay, Wisconsin to play Jordan Love and the Packers. The defense of New Orleans kept the Packers’ offense at bay for the majority of the game. Derek Carr would go down and Green Bay would take the lead late as the Saints fell to the Packers 18-17.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
New Orleans got the ball first and went three-and-out after Derek Carr got sacked by Kenny Clark on third down. Green Bay on their first drive was flagged twice and went for it on fourth down. The Packers ran a toss to the right with the running back threw it backward, across the field to the quarterback. Jordan Love couldn’t coral the lateral and overthrew his receiver as he was falling backward.
Off the turnover on downs, the Saints started at the Packer 45-yard line. An unnecessary roughness call on Clark gave New Orleans momentum as Carr connected with three different receivers, including Jimmy Graham for an eight-yard touchdown.
A few drives later, the Packers would have to punt after Alontae Taylor and Marshon Lattimore broke up a pass on second and third down. On the Daniel Whelan punt, Rashid Shaheed turned on the turbo boosters and returned the ball 76 yards to the house to put the Saints up 14-0 at the 10:30 mark of the second quarter.
Green Bay would punt again and the Saints would start at their own 11-yard line. In 14 plays, Carr would lead the offense down the field for the next four minutes as they would get down to the seven-yard line and Blake Grupe would kick a 25-yard field goal to put New Orleans up 17-0 at the half.
The Packers received the ball to start the second half and Love looked deep for Romeo Doubs and was intercepted by Lonnie Johnson Jr. at the New Orleans 38-yard line. On the next drive, Carr was sacked on third down by Gary and would head to the locker room with a shoulder injury.
Jameis Winston would become the starting quarterback for the remainder of the game as Carr went into the locker room to get evaluated.
Love and the Packers’ offense threatened to score for the first time as they got down to the 13-yard line of New Orleans. Green Bay would go for it on 4th & 2 to begin the fourth quarter. The ball would fall incomplete as Love wasn’t on the same page with running back Patrick Taylor, who was lined up on the outside and ran the wrong route.
After another three-and-out by the Saints, Green Bay put up their first point of the game. Love completed passes to Jayden Reed and Doubs for a total of 40 yards. A couple of pass breakups by the Saints’ defense forced Anders Carlson to kick a 38-yard field goal to make it a 17-3 game with 11 minutes to go in the game.
Taylor and Isaac Yiadom were called for pass interference penalties that put the offense of the Packers to the 13-yard line of New Orleans. Tyrann Mathieu came up with a big hit on 2nd & GOAL and Taylor was stuffed on third down but Love took it in himself for the one-yard touchdown. The second-year quarterback bought time with his legs as he found Samori Toure for the two-point conversion to cut their deficit to six points.
Green Bay would take their first lead of the game with under three minutes to play as Love found Doubs for the eight-yard score. Love scrambled for 24 yards into Saints territory and then hit Jayden Reed for 30 yards before making the big throw late to put the Packers up by one.
Winston connected with Michael Thomas and Olave a couple of times to put the offense into field-goal range. Grupe would push the 46-yard field goal attempt right and Love would kneel the rest of the clock out as Green Bay completed the comeback in an 18-17 win over New Orleans.
BIG NUMBER: 192
The Packers were missing a lot of key starters and it showed as the team committed 11 penalties for 90 yards. Many of the flags came on the offensive side for Green Bay and were presnap penalties on the offensive line. New Orleans on the other hand was flagged seven times for 102 yards for the 192 penalty yards.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jordan Love
Love didn’t have a good first three quarters, but the Packers were able to tire out the defense of the Saints and the Green Bay quarterback took over in the fourth quarter. The second-year signal-caller threw for 259 yards, ran for a touchdown, and threw the game-winning score as New Orleans lost to the Packer 18-17.
UP NEXT: The New Orleans Saints will head back home to the Caesars Superdome and play their divisional foe Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kickoff will be Sunday, October 1st at noon.