The New Orleans Saints[2-0] defeat the Carolina Panthers[0-2] 20-17. Next week, the Saints travel to play the Green Bay Packers while the Panthers travel to play the Seattle Seahawks.
1st Quarter: Panthers Kicker Eddy Piñeiro makes a 52-yard field goal. Saints Kicker Blake Grupe makes a 28-yard field goal.
2nd Quarter: Blake Grupe makes a 23-yard field goal for the Saints. Saints Quarterback Derek Carr throws an interception to Safety Vonn Bell, who gives the Panthers the ball at the New Orleans 37-yard line. Saints Defensive End Carl Granderson forces a strip sack on Panthers Quarterback Bryce Young, and Saints Cornerback Paulson Adebo recovers at the Saints own 41-yard line. Saints lead 6-3 at halftime.
3rd Quarter: Eddy Piñeiro makes a 54-yard field goal for the Panthers. Saints Running Back Tony Jones Jr. runs in a 2-yard touchdown.
4th Quarter: Eddy Piñeiro makes a 36-yard field goal for the Panthers. Tony Jones Jr. runs in a 2-yard touchdown for the Saints. Bryce Young throws a 3-yard touchdown to Wide Receiver Adam Thielen(2-point conversion is successful with a completion to Adam Thielen). The Saints defeat the Panthers 20-17.
Saints Notes:
Derek Carr-Very pedestrian game for Carr. An awful throw on the interception which he did the week before. Not much improvement and we need him to take a leap over the next couple weeks.
Running Backs-Jamaal Williams left the game early with an injury and Tony Jones Jr. became the only healthy Running Back on the team. Jones did very well in relief and occasionally Taysom Hill lined up at Running Back. Jones got into the endzone twice which was more than enough to help the run game. If Jamaal’s injury is severe, I would look to sign former LSU Running Back Leonard Fournette for the Offense.
Wide Receivers-Another excellent game from Michael Thomas who is still at that elite level of receivers. Chris Olave made one of the best catches of the year in a clutch moment to eventually give the Saints the lead. Olave continues to be such a consistently good weapon for this Offense. Rashid Shaheed is proving to be one of the best deep threats in the league with a clutch catch of his own that set up another Saints score.
Taysom Hill-The more he plays, the more I think about how great he is. If someone told me he is the best player on the Saints, I do not know how much I would argue with that person. In this game, he was running routes, passed the ball, ran the ball on a direct snap, ran the ball in single-back formation, blocked as a running back in shotgun, and played special teams. He is everywhere and doing everything. I have no idea what this offense or this team would be like without his explosiveness on the field.
Offensive Line-Awful blocking today. Trevor Penning was not fantastic but the rest of the line was not good either. If this team wants to be a threat to the rest of the league then they need to step it up, give Carr a little bit more time, and give the backs more room to run.
Defense-Exceptional play once again. Did not allow a touchdown all season until under 2 minutes left in the game. The only issue to work on for the rest of the year is the prevent defense because that is how the Panthers were able to score the touchdown late.
Penalties-Another game with inexcusable penalties. Some of the players need to be more disciplined. Penalties forced points and turnovers to be taken off that could have made this game a bigger deficit. Especially on a strip sack in Panthers territory which was called back due to a pass interference.
-Jordan Burden