Quick Takes: Saints jolly in England with shutout of Dolphins

Sean Payton had been there before, in 2008. Payton took his team there for the entire week while Adam Gase did not take his team there until Friday.

On Oct. 26. 2008 Payton’s Saints beat the San Diego Chargers 37-32 at Wembley Stadium as Drew Brees was 30-of-41 for 339 yards and three touchdowns. Jonathan Vilma had a big interception of Phillip Rivers with 1:09 left in the game to help secure the victory.

Clearly, Payton knew what he was doing. It is hard to understand traveling so far so close to game day as Miami did.

Clearly, no NFL team or coach likes making the ridiculously long trip to London in the middle of a season but perhaps the Saints might want to do it again soon, considering they are 2-0.

Drew Brees has not thrown an interception in his first three games for the first time in his career. Brees has 200 plus passing yards in 55 straight games. What else is new?

Despite their well noted struggles in September over the past several years, the Saints are 10-3 over the last three years in October.

After forcing three turnovers against Carolina, the Saints got another and won the turnover battle again in London.

While it was one of the first halves of NFL football I have seen in recent times, the Saints were good on defense and good in the second half on offense. The result was a convincing victory to get their season back on track at 2-2 heading into the bye week. It was the first shutout posted by the Saints since Dec. 16, 2012 when New Orleans blasted Tampa Bay 41-0.

Here are my Quick Takes from the 20-0 victory over Miami:

👋 #SaintsInLondon pic.twitter.com/hMqxLEbIVl

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 1, 2017

**Despite returning from suspension, Willie Snead did not play due to a hamstring injury.

**P.J. Williams did not start due to a disciplinary matter, according to Fox Sports sideline reporter Pam Oliver.

**Communication was down for both teams. Jay Cutler complained visibly about it and Chase Daniel was running out on the field to relay calls to Drew Brees. The Saints had to waste a timeout on their first offensive series due to the issue.

**A.J. Klein stuffed Jay Ajayi on the first play from scrimmage for no gain.

**Alex Anzalone was injured on the third play of the game and was replaced by Craig Robertson. It was a shoulder injury, the same issues he had at Florida.

**Former Saint Jermon Bushrod was flagged for holding Klein. Miami faced a first-and-25 but overcame it, due to a defensive holding call as Kenny Vaccaro was clearly holding former LSU and Lutcher star Jarvis Landry.

**The Dolphins had a 12-play drive which carried to the New Orleans four-yard line. On first-and-goal, Cutler tried a fade route for Julius Thomas and Ken Crawley read it, beat him to the spot, was more physical and picked it off to kill the drive, which took 8:32 off the clock to start the game and produced no points.

**New Orleans answered with a nice drive but Zach Strief was caught holding to kill the drive. Then, Wil Lutz missed a 41-yard field goal attempt badly to the right, ending a 14 play, 57-yard drive which took 7:13 off the clock.

**The first quarter ended with each team having just one possession.

**Rafael Bush killed the next Miami drive with a safety blitz off the corner. He was unblocked and got Cutler on the ground to force a punt. It was the first career sack as a Saint for Bush, the second of his career after he had recorded one for Detroit in 2016.

**On the next Saints possession, the Saints tried to throw two screens and they failed miserably. Then, Max Unger snapped the ball early and Brees was not ready for it and he took a nine yard loss, forcing a punt. On the play, Mark Ingram moved early, anyway.

**Former Saint Kenny Stills helped stall the next Miami drive with an offensive interference penalty, negating a first down completion from Cutler to Landry. Then, Klein blitzed and sacked Cutler to force a Dolphins punt.

**New Orleans was pinned back again at its own 12-yard line to start the next possession. Apparently, it was time to put Adrian Peterson on the field and give him the ball. He carried two times for minus two yards.

**New Orleans took advantage of a pair of penalties on the Dolphins to get a short field at midfield with 1:10 to play in the half. New Orleans drove 25 yards in eight plays with Lutz connecting on a 43-yard field goal as time expired to give the Saints a 3-0 lead at the half.
**It was one of the worst halves of NFL football in recent memory. Miami had just 121 yards while the Saints had just 117. There were 11 penalties, including seven on Miami and there were 16 flags thrown overall. Brees was 13-of-21 but for just 97 yards. The Saints rushed for a mere 22 yards in the half.

**The nearly scoreless first half would have been the first in the NFL since Dec. 11, 2011, when Denver and Chicago turned the trick.

**The Dolphins remain the only team in the league without a first half touchdown this season.

**Josh Hill left the game with apparent concussion symptoms.

**Devon Godchaux was flagged for defensive holding to extend the Saints first drive of the second half.

**On a fourth-and less than a yard from the Miami 17, Brees snuck it and after a long measurement where Miami thought it had a stop, the officials gave New Orleans the first down by a short fingernail as the Dolphins protested. Kamara then ran 12 yards to the three and on the next play, Brees connected with Michael Thomas on a three-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0 with 9:01 to play in the quarter. The drive was 11 plays, 77 yards, taking 5:59 off the clock.

**On the drive, Brees was 7-for-8 for 45 yards. Thomas now has touchdown catches in consecutive games.

**Alex Okafor then stuffed Ajayi for no gain on third-and-one, forcing a Miami punt.

**The Saints obviously saw something in scouting that led them to believe that screens would be huge against Miami. If it first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The Saints tried and tried but the screens never succeeded.

**Strief limped off early in the fourth quarter with another issue with his knee. Unfortunately, he was carted off the field.

**Cam Jordan came up with his third sack of the season and forced a Cutler fumble but Cutler was able to recover it.

**The drive was killed when Brees and Unger again missed connections on a shotgun snap, losing 10 yards but Lutz was able to knock through a 45-yard field goal to make it 13-0 with 12:32 to play in the game.

**New Orleans then put the game away, driving 87 yards in 11 plays with Brees hitting Kamara on a shovel pass for a 12-yard touchdown. Kamara simply exploded into the end zone.

**Is anyone questioning the move New Orleans made to trade up to get Kamara now? He is a difference maker. He rushed five times for 25 yards (5-yard avg.) and caught 10 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.

**Brees was solid, completing 29-of-41 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. In four games, Brees has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions. He has completed 69 percent of his passes (105-of-152).

**David Onyemata got his first sack on the final series of the game, the fourth by the Saints in the game.

**New Orleans held Miami to just 64 yards in the second half.

**New Orleans dominated possession in the second half with 40 snaps and had 69 in the game. Miami had just 43 snaps, just 20 in the second half.

While the Saints were not at their best on offense, they were efficient enough, particularly in the second half. In four games they have not committed a turnover, a remarkable statistic.

Following the bye, the Saints host a good Detroit Lions squad before traveling to Green Bay and hosting Chicago and Tampa Bay. With a defense starting to gain some confidence and hopefully jell, things could get interesting, if not fun. Of course, you have to put it in perspective. Miami is poor offensively and Carolina was poor without Ryan Kalil, Greg Olsen and Kelvin Benjamin.

With so many young players, there is hope. The downside is the knee injury to Strief, the shoulder injury to Anzalone and the apparent head injury incurred by Hill. Perhaps Terron Armstead returns in two weeks and maybe Snead is back. The Saints are due a little luck. They made their own luck Sunday in London.