Saints’ Marshon Lattimore turns in best performance of the season vs Cowboys

The New Orleans Saints’ Marshon Lattimore hasn’t had a great start to the season, but against the Cowboys, he was dominant.

Aside from matching up with DeAndre Hopkins in Week 1, the Cowboys’ Amari Cooper was Marshon Lattimore’s toughest matchup of the season. Unlike in Week 1, Lattimore turned in the exact performance New Orleans needed to win.

Cooper has been terrific to start the season as the Cowboys kicked off 2019 3-0. After playing the Giants, Redskins and Dolphins, the Cowboys got their first real test of the season, and they were stood up.

The pass rush, the coverage — it was all there for New Orleans.

As for Lattimore, his primary coverage was on Cooper. For starters, he drew two offensive calls on Cooper, although the second of the two was a big exaggerated. Overall, he held Cooper to just five receptions, a few of which were when the Saints dropped into a zone as well, even further bragging on Lattimore’s outing.

Cooper was the team’s third-leading receiver with 48 yards. This was also the first game of the season in which Cooper didn’t find the end zone. This was all thanks to Marshon Lattimore who was up and in on the star receiver throughout the majority of plays.

Lattimore finished with four tackles and two pass deflections. Sometimes, especially for defenders, their impact doesn’t shine through on the box score, and that’s certainly what happened to Lattimore.

While not directly impacting Dak Prescott’s decision-making, Lattimore’s coverage certainly forced him to look elsewhere on most plays. Lattimore was just one of the numerous Saints that positively impacted the game in front of millions on Sunday Night Football.

As a unit, the Saints were really only eaten up by tight ends. The Cowboys’ two leading receivers were tight ends, and it may’ve been because the defense was locked into stopping Zeke, oftentimes packing the box to limit his play.

That worked though as Ezekiel Elliott, who had been one of the league’s top rushers to start the season, notched just 35 yards on 18 attempts.

Payton’s defense absolutely locked up the former All-Pro runner and limited an offense that hadn’t scored under 30 points in a game through the first three weeks to just ten. New Orleans, after a 12-10 victory, have moved to 3-1 and 2-0 without Drew Brees.