Saints with Hill at QB down Falcons behind stout defense

  • November 22, 2020
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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Saints QB Taysom Hill
Derick E. Hingle/New Orleans Saints Pool Photo

Haven’t we seen this before?

The New Orleans Saints had won six straight games.

The Atlanta Falcons were 3-6 and had changed coaches in mid-season.

The Saints were at home and favored, even without Drew Brees.

A year ago, a 1-7 Atlanta team came to New Orleans as a double-digit underdog and whipped the Saints, who had won six straight games, 26-9. That was a Saints team with Brees.

Okay, the narrative was set.

The Falcons were a different team with Raheem Morris at the helm. They have a great passing game and the Saints did not have Marshon Lattimore.

It was going to be ugly for New Orleans right?

Think again.

On All Access and on The Three Tailgaters Show with Ed Danielsy, I stated that the big advantage for the Saints would be their defensive line against the Atlanta offensive line.

For once, I was prophetic, though it is not bragging. It was a simple evaluation of talent.

In the last two games against the Falcons, the Saints have recorded 17 sacks and had numerous other pressures on Matt Ryan.

Then, there was the much discussed, controversial decision (on some fronts) of Sean Payton to start Taysom Hill over Jameis Winston.

Perhaps all should have a little more faith in Payton. Perhaps he knows exactly what is doing, right?

Doubting Taysom Hill is a daily obsession for some.

It is also understandable.

Going into the game Sunday, Hill had attempted just 20 passes in his career.

Could he make good decisions?

Could he be accurate?

Could he resist taking off and running too much?

For one day, Hill answered all three questions in positive fashion.

The result was a convincing 24-9 victory which really was not that close.

Here are my quick takes on the contest:

**Saints inactives included Marshon Lattimore, along with Chase Hansen, Josh Hill, Derrick Kelly, Malcolm Roach and Dwayne Washington.

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

**Patrick Robinson got the start in place of Lattimore.

**Atlanta proceeded to drive 65 yards in seven plays. The drive stalled and Younghoe Koo kicked a 28-yard field goal to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead with 11:21 to play in the opening quarter.

**The big play of the drive was a 45-yard completion from Matt Ryan to Calvin Ridley against man coverage by Janoris Jenkins, who fell on the play. Ryan was 4-of-5 for 63 yards on the drive.

**Payton gave Taysom Hill a safe throw on his first play, a roll-out, 8-yard completion to Michael Thomas but the Saints failed to make a first down after Latavius Murray gained just one yard and Hill was sacked on third down.

**Alvin Kamara was not on the field on the first series. He entered on the first play of the second series.

**The Saints got it going, driving 66 yards in nine plays, getting to a first-and-goal at the Atlanta 4-yard line but failed to punch it in. Wil Lutz knocked home a 22-yard field goal to tie the game 3-3 with 2:47 to play in the opening quarter.

**The big plays of the drive were a 23-yard run by Deonte Harris on a speed sweep and a 19-yard completion from Hill to Adam Trautman.

**Atlanta then drove 42 yards in 10 plays, taking 3:51 off the clock and Koo drilled a 51-yard field goal to give the Falcons a 6-3 lead with 13:56 to play in the half. The field goal was set up by a very questionable pass interference call against Malcolm Jenkins. Replay showed that the call likely should not have been made.

**Harris left the game after the first quarter. Marquez Callaway replaced him returning kickoffs. Harris was able to return later in the second quarter but left again.

**Linebacker Mykal Walker went down for the Falcons midway through the second quarter.

**Hill engineered another nice drive to the Atlanta 32-yard line but then Michael Thomas, usually sure-handed, dropped a perfect pass from Hill and he was wide open for a big gain. Then, Hill was sacked and Lutz hit the upright on a 53-yard field goal attempt, a huge wasted possession by New Orleans.

**Julio Jones left the game early in the second quarter with tightness in his hamstring.

**Andrus Peat went out of the game with a concussion and did not return. Nick Easton replaced him at left guard.

**C.J. Gardner-Johnson left the game in the second quarter injured.

**Atlanta drove 36 yards in nine plays, taking 2:49 off the clock and Koo nailed a 52-yard field goal to give the Falcons a 9-3 lead with 4:31 to play in the half.

**New Orleans took its first lead with 1:56 to play in the half when Alvin Kamara rushed three yards for a score for the 50th touchdown of his career. The drive covered 80 yards in seven plays, taking 2:46 off the clock.

**The big play was a 45-yard completion from Hill to Emmanuel Sanders. The throw was a bit of a wounded duck, underthrown. With man coverage, Sanders adjusted nicely to catch it. He tried to get up and run after hitting the ground and fumbled with Atlanta recovering but after a review, it was ruled that Sanders had been touched and was down before the fumble occurred.

**With that score, the Saints have now scored in nine of the 10 games this season inside of two minutes in the second quarter this season. New Orleans has scored touchdowns seven times and field goals twice.

**Cam Jordan got his second sack of the game at the end of the first half, the 20th of his career against the Falcons. It was a very poor play by Matt Ryan as it took the Falcons out of field goal range and a chance to take the lead. Jordan finished the game with three sacks while Trey Hendrickson had two.

**Atlanta tried a Hail Mary pass with Ryan on the final play of the half and Marcus Williams picked it off.

**Hill was 9-of-13 for 127 yards in the half. Hill had a 100.5 quarterback rating while Ryan had just a 58.2 rating in the half. The Saints had 175 yards to 161 for the Falcons in the first half.

**New Orleans took the second half kickoff and promptly drove 80 yards for a touchdown again, doing so in 10 plays, taking 5:49 off the clock. Hill finished the drive as Sean Payton was both daring and wise to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line.

**Payton went with the jumbo package, with James Hurst and fullback Michael Burton both in. Using 10 blockers, Hill cut off of Burton’s block over the right side and scored easily to give the Saints a 17-9 lead with 9:11 to play in the third quarter.

**It was an attitude play and a smart play. Another field goal would have made it just a 4-point game. Payton plays to win. He always has.

**Hill then hit Sanders on a 57-yard touchdown pass but the play was negated on a holding call by Erik McCoy, a huge penalty when the Saints were taking control of the game.

**Undaunted, Hill took the Saints 53 yards on six plays, taking four minutes off the clock and he outraced defenders to the end zone on a 10-yard touchdown run to give New Orleans a 24-9 lead with 12:41 to play in the game.

**The Saints were set to put the game away but for the second straight week, Hill fumbled on a running play, an 18-yard run, when stripped by A.J. Terrell and Foysade Oluokun recovering at the Atlanta 18-yard line to keep the Falcons in the game. Olouokun later was injured and left the game.

**The Saints then put it away when Janoris Jenkins, who dropped an interception earlier, came up with the 25th interception of his outstanding career.

How good was the New Orleans defense? Very good and improving weekly.

The Falcons, by all measurables, have a good offense. They had just 248 yards of offense. Atlanta was a miserable 2-of-14 on third down conversion attempts.

Janoris Jenkins finished with five tackles, five pass breakups and an interception.

Demario Davis had seven tackles, including a sack, defended a pass and had another tackle for loss.

The Saints had 378 yards of offense and should have had more, much more.

The Saints had the ball for 33:41 to just 26:19 for Atlanta. The Saints won the turnover battle two to one.

The sample size is small.

It was just one game for Hill but he passed with flying colors, going 18-of-23 for 233 yards with two drops and he rushed 10 times for 51 yards and two scores. The only blemish was the lost fumble.

The haters are still going to doubt, saying it was one game and that future opponents will now adjust and prepare for Hill. The lovers are going to coronate Hill as the second coming of Steve Young.

Let’s not get carried away.

Hill was good, make that very good much of the day.

Payton and Pete Carmichael are good, make that very good, at calling plays and scheming.

The Saints head to Denver and potential cold weather next week.

Maybe the cold weather can stop a hot team. With the way the New Orleans defense is playing and the way Hill passed his first test with flying colors, I doubt that.

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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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