Saints Down Seahawks 34-19 Behind Colston’s Strong Performance
By Keith Null
The Saints are now 2-0 coming off the bye-week over the last two seasons with their latest win over the Pete Carroll led Seattle Seahawks and are now 7-3 overall.
Wide receiver Marques Colston sprang to life catching eight passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns matching his entire season total through nine games. He now has 705 receiving yards and four touchdowns so far in 2010.
Brees also connected with receiver Robert Meachem for two more touchdowns bringing his game total to four and season total to 22. He connected on 29 of 42 passes for 382 yards and overtook Archie Manning as the Saints all-time pass completions leader with his1,850th pass completion during the second quarter.
Rookie tight end Jimmy Graham, filling in for the injured Jeremy Shockey (ribs), caught five passes for 72 yards.
New Orleans was once again without the services of their top two running backs but still managed to total 112 yards on the ground primarily contributed by rookie running back Chris Ivory.
Ivory scored his first career touchdown while rushing for 99 yards on 23 carries averaging nearly five yards per carry. Meanwhile Julius Jones manged only four yards on four carries after being hyped as his “payback” game against his former team.
The Saints entered the contest with the number one pass defense in the NFL but struggled without Darren Sharper and Malcolm Jenkins who both were ruled out with lingering injuries suffered in week nine.
Matt Hasselbeck was 32 of 44 for 366 yards, the most allowed by New Orleans’ pass defense this season, but Seattle had trouble getting in the end zone.
The Seahawks lost two fumbles and had four drives end with field goals.
The defense was able to limit the Seahawks rushing attack however to 58 total yards. Marshawn Lynch was held to 36 yards on seven carries.
Ironically Seahawks kicker, and former Saints kicker, Olindo Mare was a perfect 4 of 4 on his field goal attempts. He lost his job in New Orleans because he was an inconsistent 10 of 17 in thirteen games with the Saints in 2007.
Inconsistency still plagues the Saints when it comes to the kicking game as young kicker Garrett Hartley missed his one lone field goal attempt from 27 yards wide left. Hartley is now 10 of 15 for the season and likely may be coming to the end of his tenure with the Saints.
Recently kicker Jeff Reed was released from the Pittsburgh Steelers so it may be a good time for the Saints to bring him in for a try-out regardless of what Hartley accomplished during the play-offs last season.
Next up for the Saints is a road game against the surging Dallas Cowboys who have rallied behind interim head coach Jason Garrett to win their last two games over the Giants and Lions.
Check out Keith Null’s weekly article about the Saints on NFL.com by clicking here.
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