Saints ground defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, 48-7

  • November 18, 2018
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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NEW ORLEANS – The Philadelphia Eagles arrived in town as the defending Super Bowl champion and with a ton of fans, clad in green, just like their team.

The Saints wore their color rush whiteout uniforms with gold numbers, thanks to a bet Sean Payton lost in the offseason with Doug Pederson.

That was the last thing Pederson and his outmanned team would win against the Saints.

As you watched this game, you could only wonder what could have been a year ago in Philadelphia in the NFC championship game were it not for the Minnesota Miracle.

That is the past. In the present, the New Orleans Saints are looking more and more like the best team in the NFL in 2018. The offense is off the charts. The defense is improving weekly. The kicking game is very good. The team is focused, motivated. This team is simply outstanding. The future looks bright. Make that very bright!

On this day, the Saints handed a defending Super Bowl champion the worst loss, by margin, in league history.

Here are my Quick Takes from the Saints’ 48-7 win over the Eagles:

**Manti Te’o was a healthy scratch for the third straight game while newly signed Brandon Marshall was inactive as well.

**The Saints won the toss and deferred.

**New Orleans got a three-and-out. The offense drove 57 yards in eight plays before stalling and Wil Lutz booted a 38-yard field goal to give the Saints a 3-0 lead with 9:10 to play in the opening quarter. The big play was the first play of the drive, a 38-yard run off the right side by Mark Ingram. Taysom Hill had an excellent block on the play.

**The Saints got another three-and-out on defense and the offense took over going 86 yards in 11 plays with Drew Brees connecting with Austin Carr on a three-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0 with 3:12 to play in the opening quarter. Brees completed a pair of passes to Keith Kirkwood on the drive.

**Avonte Maddox went down for Philadelphia late in the first quarter and the Eagles came into the game missing their two top corners.

**Marshon Lattimore then came up with his first interception on the next defensive series for New Orleans, picking off a deep ball attempt by Carson Wentz. He already had a pair of fumble recoveries on the season.

**Jason Kelce went out for the Eagles in the first quarter with an elbow injury and he was replaced at center by Stefen Winiewski.

**The Saints led 10-0 after one quarter and had 190 yards to just 15 for the Eagles.

**The carnage continued into the second quarter as the Saints finished off a 10 play, 84-yard drive, taking 5:32 off the clock with Ingram scoring on a 14-yard touchdown run to make it 17-0 with 12:07 to play in the half.

**Philadelphia finally awakened offensively, driving 75 yards in six plays, taking 3:25 off the clock with Josh Adams bursting through a huge hole for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 17-7 with 8:42 to play in the half. Wentz completed 4-of-4 passes for 46 yards on the drive.

**On the first play of the next possession, Taysom Hill was in the game at quarterback and overthrew a pass attempt and that led to a three-and-out and a punt.

**Sheldon Rankins came up with a bit sack on the next Philadelphia possession to get a big stop. It was the sixth sack of the season for Rankins, who is having a breakout season. He had six sacks total in his first two years in the league.

**The Saints then responded with an 84-yard drive in seven plays with Brees hitting Tre’Quan Smith on a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-7 with 39 seconds left in the half.

**Thomas became the first Saint in franchise history to reach 1,000 yards receiving in his first three seasons with a 30-yard reception in the second quarter.

**The Saints finished the first half with 321 yards to just 109 for the Eagles.

**Per Lenny Vangilder, in the last four weeks, the Saints have now scored seven touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half. In the previous 21 regular season games dating to the start of 2017, New Orleans had scored just five touchdowns inside the two-minute warning of the first half.

**The score before the half proved to be a make-it, take-it for the Saints as they took the second half kickoff and drove 70 plays in six plays with Brees connecting with Thomas on a 23-yard touchdown pass to make it 31-7 with 11:20 to play in the third quarter. Brees was 3-of-3 for 50 yards on the drive.

**In desperation, Philadelphia opted to go for it on fourth-and-five from their own 41-yard line and Wentz threw incomplete.

**New Orleans got the ball and drove 71 yards in four plays with Ingram scoring on a one-yard run to make it 38-7 with 5:34 to play in the third quarter.

**Brees completed deep long ball to Smith for 38 yards to end the third quarter. On the play, the Eagles lost another corner in Rasul Douglas, who was helped off the field.

**Larry Warford left the game to be evaluated for a possible concussion. He was replaced by Cameron Tom.

**New Orleans then drove 87 yards in seven plays, taking 3:18 off the clock. Brees connected with Alvin Kamara on a perfectly thrown 38-yard touchdown pass to make it 45-7 with 13:15 to play in the game. Kamara beat former Saint Malcolm Jenkins on the play.

**The Saints got the ball back and drove 33 yards in eight plays, reaching the one-yard line. After failing to punch it in from the one-yard line, Sean Payton elected to have Lutz kick a 19-yard field goal to make it 48-7 with 6:46 to play in the game.

**Chris Banjo put the cherry on top of the whip cream, picking off a deep ball from Wentz.

**For good measure, Banjo came up with another pick of Wentz to close it out. It was the third interception thrown by Wentz.

Ingram ran for over 100 yards for the second consecutive week. He rushed 16 times for 103 yards and two scores. The running game is hitting on all cylinders.

Smith had a breakout game with 10 catches for 157 yards and a touchdown. If you try to take Thomas away, Brees will find others. Eight players caught passes from Brees and none were named Ben Watson.

Give credit to Jermon Bushrod, who played for Terron Armstead and played well. Ditto for Tom, when he stepped in for Warford.

How good is Brees? That is a rhetorical question.

It should be how great is Brees?

He finished this game with a 153.2 passer rating. He completed 22-of-30 passes for 363 yards and four touchdowns.

How good is this Saints offense?

They finished with 547 yards to go with 48 points.

In their last three games, the Saints scored 45, 51 and 48 points for a total of 144, the most points in three consecutive games in franchise history. New Orleans has now scored 40 or more points in six straight games.

Payton was able to take starters out in the fourth quarter. That was advantageous, given the short week with the Falcons coming to town for Thanksgiving night.

Yes, Atlanta lost to Dallas and now has six losses but the Falcons hate the Saints and have not forgotten the 43-37 overtime loss to New Orleans in Atlanta on Sept. 23. There is also the matter of trying to keep the Saints from playing in Atlanta in February. They will be motivated. They will be tough.

The Saints are very tough. There is no way I would bet against them at this point.

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Ken Trahan

CEO/Owner

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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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