New Orleans Saints quarterly report: Status at the first quarter pole

Dallas Cowboys

Word was people were jumping ship, selling their tickets to the game to Dallas fans. They weren’t interested in seeing this team. They felt like the game was different. Didn’t give us a chance against the Cowboys. Heck, the Cowboys were favored against the Saints with the Saints at home. In the last two seasons, that hasn’t happened often.  Nice to feed people some humble pie.

No, the Saints didn’t pick up offensively. Some of the same problems from day one plagued them: false starts and holding penalties. While Brees’ presence allows the line to perform a bit better, these guys need to understand the needs of this QB, as he’s doing what he can to understand their needs and the needs of this offense.

So we ended up with seven offensive penalties and played too much behind the chains. Our offense was get the ball down the field as much as we can and count on Wil Lutz.

But our defense, our defense, stupendous. This game reminded me most of the 2009 game against the New England Patriots in the Superdome when the Patriots quit. The Saints were up 38-17 with over 7:45 left in the game and the Patriots just began to run out the clock. It was one of the more outstanding defensive games of our Super Bowl-winning season.

The defense against the Cowboys in Week 4 was better than that one. The Saints D held a Dallas offense that had beaten up on lesser opponents to only 257 total yards.

The Saints laid Dak Prescott down with five sacks. That is a total of 12 sacks in the last two seasons against an offensive line said to be one of the best in the game. Credit Dennis Allen and the defensive coaching staff for getting the guys geared up for this game.