Saints escape ugly night in Seattle with hard-fought win, 13-10

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Alvin Kamara
(Photo: William E. Anthony)

It was Monday Night Football, coming off a bye, in a tough, loud, lousy weather place to play at.

Going in, anyone would be happy with a win, despite the fact that the Saints were favored to win.

What ensued was an ugly display of offense on both sides.

To illustrate how ugly it was, on the only touchdown of the game for New Orleans, Jameis Winston actually dropped the snap, managed to pick it up and tossed a touchdown pass.

The New Orleans Saints overcame penalties, overcame a turnover and its own ineptitude on offense, outside of the brilliance of Alvin Kamara.

Ultimately, the Saints, who know how to win, found a way to escape with the victory.

Here are my Quick Takes on the 13-10 win at Seattle:

**The Saints activated Tre’Quan Smith, Kwon Alexander and Marcus Davenport for the game while elevating wide receiver Kevin White and defensive tackle Josiah Bronson from the practice squad. The team waived former Brother Martin and LSU star Will Clapp and defensive tackle Albert Huggins to make room for the moves.

**With Deonte Harris out, Marquez Callaway was the punt return man for New Orleans.

**Erik McCoy returned to start at center, moving Cesar Ruiz to right guard while Terron Armstead returned to start at left tackle.

**Seattle then had their longest play of the season as Geno Smith went deep to DK Metcalf, who appeared to pull Marshon Lattimore down, made the catch and then Marcus Williams just missed him and Metcalf raced 84 yards for a score to give the Seahawks a 7-0 lead with 10:08 to play in the opening quarter.

**Blake Gillikin continued his brilliant punting, hitting one which was downed at the Seattle 1-yard line.

**Lattimore’s rough night continued as he retaliated for a push by Metcalf after a run play and was flagged for a personal foul to get the Seahawks out of the hole.

**New Orleans punted on all three possessions in the first quarter, gaining just 40 yards.

**Andrus Peat went down early in the second quarter. It appeared to be his left ankle. Calvin Throckmorton replaced him. Peat returned later and then left after one play yet again, this time with a right arm or shoulder injury.

**The Saints staged the longest drive in the NFL this season, going 86 yards in 19 plays, taking 10:12 off the clock and reached the Seattle 1-yard line but Kamara lost a yard on second down and Winston had a pass batted down on third down and Brian Johnson had to kick a 21-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 7-3 with 4:23 to play in the half.

**New Orleans converted two fourth down plays on the drive.

**On the third-down play, Callaway was open in the back of the end zone but his pass was batted down. Winston may have waited a tad too long to throw it.

**Christian Ringo went down injured late in the second quarter.

**The Saints got a stop and then Winston staged perhaps his best drive of the season, driving the Saints 85 yards in seven plays, taking 1:46 off the clock with Winston hitting Kamara on a 13-yard touchdown pass to give the Saints a 10-7 lead with 46 seconds left in the half.

**Kamara had eight catches in the first half, a career high in a half. Those eight catches covered 109 yards with the score. Kamara added 13 carries for 29 yards to give him 138 of the 217 yards for the Saints in the half.

**Winston finished the first half 13-of-20 for 164 yards and a touchdown.

**Most of the third quarter was a succession of offensive failures by both teams before Adam Trautman continued his far less than impressive second season, fumbling the ball away after a reception on a hit by Ugo Amadi with Jordyn Brooks recovering at the New Orleans 32-yard line.

**The New Orleans gave up nothing but Jason Meyers, who earlier missed a 44-yard field goal, nailed a 50-yard attempt to tie the game 10-10 with 14 seconds left in the third quarter.

**The Seahawks then drove to the New Orleans 24-yard line but a sack by Tanoh Kpassagnon forced a 53-yard field goal attempt by Myers which went wide right.

**Seattle got a stop with a third-down sack but Marquise Blair was flagged for a personal foul on a hit on Winston, putting the ball at the Seattle 41-yard line.

**Seattle appeared to get another stop but as the Saints lined up for a field goal, Al Woods jumped offside, giving the Saints a new life with a first down.

**Despite the two gift penalties, the Saints could not capitalize and Johnson was called upon and he calmly nailed a 33-yard field goal to give the Saints a 13-10 lead with 1:56 to play in the game. The drive covered 42 yards in 13 plays, taking 4:45 off the clock.

**Then, the defense did its job, sacking Geno Smith twice on the final possession, once by Malcolm Jenkins and once by Demario Davis, who had a great game with 10 tackles, including four tackles for loss, two sacks and, appropriately, broke up the final pass of the game by Smith, nearly picking it off.

**This marked the first time in 29 years that the Seahawks have lost their first three home games.

New Orleans came in tied for last in the league in sacks with eight but the pass rush awakened with five sacks.

You can make the excuse that the rainy, windy conditions contributed to bad offensive play. That was certainly true but it was not a real excuse for a really poor offensive performance, outside of a few key runs by Winston and a great effort by Kamara.

The Saints had just 87 total yards of offense in the second half.

The Saints overcame four personal fouls.

The Saints ran 66 plays and Kamara touched it on 30 of those. Kamara finished with 179 total yards and the Saints had just 307 in the game.

The total lack of wide receivers was glaring. New Orleans wideouts had just four catches for 43 yards. Winston missed a couple of throws early and was late on a few other throws, in defense of the wide receivers.

The tight ends added little. Trautman had three catches for 36 yards but lost a key fumble. Juwan Johnson had one catch for eight yards.

The defense played great, giving up one play the entire game. Davis was simply superb.

It was great to see Cam Jordan get his first sack and Marcus Davenport returned to provide some pressure.

Of course, the Saints caught a huge break facing Smith and not Russell Wilson. Injuries are part of the game.

The Saints won with Teddy Bridgewater at Seattle in 2019. They won in Seattle with Winston in 2021.

If you are like me, you were expecting much more from this offense coming off a bye, with two weeks to prepare, with two starting offensive linemen back and with an opposing defense which had been poor.

Kudos to Johnson for coming through with a clutch field goal when it mattered.

Being 4-2 is huge, compared to being 3-3, particularly with what is to follow.

The World Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town next Sunday on Halloween. If the Saints want to provide a treat, they will have to trick themselves into thinking that they can do something on offense other than feed Kamara.

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Ken Trahan

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Born and raised in the New Orleans area, CCSE CEO Ken Trahan has been a sports media fixture in the community for nearly four decades. Ken started NewOrleans.com/Sports with Bill Hammack and Don Jones in 2008. In 2011, the site became SportsNOLA.com. On August 1, 2017, Ken helped launch CrescentCitySports.com. Having accumulated national awards/recognition (National Sports Media Association, National Football…

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