Saints take care of business against depleted Broncos

  • November 29, 2020
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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Latavius Murray

It was an interesting day for the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos, to say the least.

The NFL forced the Broncos to play and the game truly did not resemble an NFL game.

For those who want to take issue with it, that is completely understandable.

Do not blame the New Orleans Saints.

They don’t make the rules. They simply went out, played by the rules and played plenty well enough to get the job done.

The Broncos were without all of their quarterbacks – starter Drew Lock, Brett Rypien, Blake Bortles and Jeff Driskel, the latter of whom was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list earlier in the week.

As a result of contact with Driskel, the other three were quarantined, not allowed to play despite not experiencing virus symptoms and testing negative more than once.

Many have asked why the game was not pushed back or postponed until a later date.

The league policy cleared that up.

Here is the one paragraph that mattered, issued by Commissioner Roger Goodell, on the issue.

“If a game is postponed due to one club’s inability to play because of COVID cases, the burden of any competitive, financial and other consequences will fall more heavily on that club, particularly if the club has not adhered to the health and safety protocols or has failed to cooperate in contact tracing or other reviews in response to positive tests among club players or staff.”

The Broncos were deemed to fit the criteria in negative fashion, thus, the game was played.

The Saints were without Terron Armstead, who tested positive for the virus.

As a result, New Orleans was without both starters on the left side of its offensive line, including Andrus Peat, who missed the game with a concussion.

Prior to the game, the Saints placed reserve guard Derrick Kelly on the COVID-19/reserve list and elevated center Cameron Tom of Catholic High to the gameday roster.

New Orleans also elevated former Brother Martin star Will Clapp and defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow from the practice squad in standard fashion and elevated veteran wide receiver Austin Carr from the practice squad for COVID-19 purposes.

The Saints got more bad news from its perceived adversary as Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL hierarchy decided to make the team an example by not only fining the organization $500,000 but also taking away a seventh-round draft choice.

The Broncos had beaten New Orleans five straight times, with the last Saints win coming in Denver in 1994.

When looking at the matchup prior to the season, who would have envisioned a starting quarterback matchup of Taysom Hill vs. Phillip Lindsay?

Here are my Quick Takes on the 31-3 New Orleans victory at Denver:

**The Saints caught a break with the weather, which was 39 degrees and sunny. It could have been a lot worse at this time of the year in Denver.

**Inactives for the Saints included Ken Crawley, Garrett Griffin, Deonte Harris, Ty Montgomery, Andrus Peat, Malcolm Roach and Trevor Siemian.

**The Saints won the toss and deferred, giving Denver the ball first.

**Lindsay took the first snap of the game. He ran it three straight times for 17 yards before Royce Freeman took the next snap and ran four yards.

**Then, Kendall Hinton – a practice squad wide receiver who played quarterback at Wake Forest and was promoted to the active roster on Sunday – entered the game and he was pressured by Cam Jordan and threw the ball away, forcing a punt.

**Nick Easton and James Hurst started at left guard and tackle for the Saints, respectively.

**Brothers Graham Glasgow of the Broncos and Ryan Glasgow of the Saints squared off. Graham is a guard for Denver while Glasgow is a defensive lineman for New Orleans.

**Both teams made a first down and punted on their first possession of the game. Hill took a delay of game penalty, not aware of the play clock before he was sacked as Hurst and Easton blocked the same defender and an unblocked DeMarcus Walker ran a stunt, unblocked.

**On the second offensive series for Denver, Marshon Lattimore looked like he had an interception of Hinton but he dropped it as he hit the ground on a pass intended for Jerry Jeudy.

**The Saints then went 3-and-out again. Once again, Denver pulled a successful stunt with Bradley Chubb sacking Hill on third down as the Saints again did not read or handle it with Cesar Ruiz chasing Chubb.

**It appeared that the Broncos had stopped the Saints again on three downs but on fourth down, the offense remained on the field. Hill went with a hard count and it worked, drawing Dre’Mont Jones offside, giving the Saints a first down, their first of the game.

**The first quarter ended scoreless, taking just 34 minutes as the two teams combined to throw five passes, three by Hill and two by Hinton. It was the fewest combined completions, attempts and passing yards in any first quarter of the NFL this season. Hill threw for five yards on his two completions in the quarter.

**New Orleans took advantage of the offside call on Denver, driving 75 yards in 13 plays, taking eight minutes off the clock with Hill scoring on a 1-yard run to give the Saints a 7-0 lead with 10:19 to play in the first half.

**On the drive, the Saints accumulated 70 yards rushing on 11 rushes.

**Then, former LSU star Lloyd Cushenberry III made a bad snap, on the ground to Lindsay. Kwon Alexander recovered and returned it to the Denver 13-yard line as tackle Garrett Bolles saved a touchdown by tripping him up from behind.

**New Orleans took advantage, taking five plays to score as Hill ran it in from the 2-yard line to make it 14-0 with 1:03 to play in the half. Adam Trautman had an important 8-yard reception on third down to keep the drive alive and set up the score.

**Janoris Jenkins picked off Hinton at the Denver 41 but he injured his knee on the play and did not return. That is a definite concern moving forward. It was the 26th interception in his career.

**Hill then finally connected on a pass down the field, hitting Michael Thomas for 24 yards to the Denver 22-yard line.

**On the next play, Wil Lutz drilled a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the half to give the Saints a 17-0 lead.

**Denver finished the first half with one first down and 37 total yards in the half. The Saints had just 123 yards, only 25 passing in the half.

**Hill finished the half 6-of-11 for 38 yards passing but Hill rushed five times for 15 yards and two touchdowns.

**In the third quarter, Hill did what you cannot do, throwing a bad interception to set up the Broncos.

**It gave Denver three points as Brandon McManus drilled a career long 58-yard field goal to make it 17-3 with 6:56 to play in the third quarter.

**The Saints erased any thoughts the Broncos had of coming back by driving 82 yards in eight plays, taking 4:42 off the clock with Latavius Murray scoring on a 36-yard run up the middle. He made one sharp cut and found daylight, racing untouched into the end zone to make it 24-3 with 2:14 to play in the third quarter.

**Marques Callaway was injured and did not return.

**The Saints then went 77 yards in 11 plays, taking 6:54 off the clock with Murray scoring on a 7-yard run to make it 31-3 with 6:03 to play in the game.

**Jameis Winston got in at quarterback late in the game on the final offensive series of the game for New Orleans.

**Dwayne Washington also got in on the final series and had three rushes for six yards.

Defensively, the Saints did what you would expect against a depleted offense. They Saints set or tied four franchise single-game records on defense, most notably for fewest yards allowed (112). They also had all-time lows for completions allowed (1) and the completion percentage allowed (11.1) and tied the franchise mark for first downs allowed (6).

In his second start, Hill was not very good.

While Denver has a good defense, Hill made poor decisions, did not see the field well and threw the interception which cost his team points.

We told you last week not to reach a rash conclusion based on one performance. Now, Hill has had one good performance and one poor one.

He had two delay of game penalties and both were clearly on him, as he was totally unaware of the play clock in both instances.

Still, Hill ran it well. Of course, we know that about him.

He became just the second quarterback in NFL history to have multiple rushing touchdowns in each of his first two starts, joining Eric Hipple of Detroit in that category.

Hill finished 9-of-16 for just 78 yards with an interception for a passer rating of 43.2. He rushed 10 times for 44 yards and two scores.

Hinton finished 1-of-9 for 13 yards passing and two interceptions, for a passer rating of 0.0. Denver was held to just 112 total yards.

With the win, Sean Payton has now posted at least one win against every team in the NFL as head coach of the Saints.

The Saints have now held two consecutive opponents without a touchdown. The last time that occurred was in the NFC West championship season of 1991, with the vaunted Dome Patrol in control.

In the last four games, the Saints have allowed just one touchdown.

This New Orleans defense has now forced 14 turnovers in its last four games.

In that season, the Saints held three straight opponents without a touchdown early in the season and two straight opponents without a touchdown late in the season.

According to Pro Football Reference, the last game where a team combined for 75 passing yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions was the famous New England “Snow Plow” game where New England won 3-0 after a hometown move by a snow plow operator came in, cleared snow off the field in the perfect spot and that allowed John Smith to kick a 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter for the win.

The last game with just 75 yards passing combined was in 2010, when the Jets beat the Bengals 26-10.

Offensively, Murray was the star with 19 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

Now winners of eight straight games, the Saints face a rematch at Atlanta with the Falcons next week. While the Saints handled the Falcons 24-9 last week, this will not be easy. Atlanta dismantled a good Las Vegas squad 43-6 today.

Fortunately, Payton did not have to dig deep into his playbook on this afternoon. It will need to be utilized next week.

Then, the Drew Brees watch will officially be on.

 

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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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