Saints beat Eagles Week 11: Observations from the cheap seats

Observations part two

Brandon Marshall was on the Saints sidelines, occasionally checking in with Teddy Bridgewater on play calls.

Sometimes you can see teams are out of sorts (or just poor) in the way they handle situations. The Eagles got the ball with 39 seconds to go in the first half on their own seven-yard line. Even though the Saints were getting the ball to start the second half, that’s not the ideal time to try and run plays. One kneel and you’re in for halftime.

You’re down by 17 at that point and the Eagles offense hadn’t done much. Instead, Philly runs a play gaining seven yards and calls a timeout. Odd because it would have taken such a herculean effort just to get into field goal range. On second down, the Saints sacked Wentz and called their own time out. Now, if Philly was going to be dumb and run plays, it made sense for the Saints to either try to get a turnover or play to possibly get the ball back with a few seconds to at least kick a field goal. However, the Saints ran out of time outs and finally Philadelphia got wise and simply ran a running play to go into the half.

The Eagles later doubled down on their odd calls, leaving Carson Wentz in the game when it was well out of reach. Any late injury might have had the fans screaming for Pederson’s head.

One way to gauge how the offense was playing was watching the play calls. Once it was established that the offensive line was dominant, the Saints took a few more deeper shots. These plays take a little longer to develop and the routes a little longer to run. There could be a double move involved for the receiver. It’s a great sign to see those run because it means that your offense can do most things it wants to.

Later in the game, we saw offensive linemen go out. First, Andrus Peat went to the tent with an injury. He’s actually been playing hurt, fighting injury. He came out of the blue tent and looked to possibly sit the rest of the game. However on the next series Warford came out hurt too. For a few plays, Peat returned to the game, while backup guard Cameron Tom came in for Warford. In the end, Tom and Michael Ola played in the two guard spots. They did fine, but we’re still hoping for health on a short week.

The Saints have much to be proud of with such a win. It’s not every season you get to soundly defeat the defending Super Bowl champions. Unfortunately, they don’t get to rest and enjoy this victory even as long as normal, as we get to square off with our division rival Atlanta Falcons on Thanksgiving night.