Breaking down how the New Orleans Saints ended first quarter at 2-2
By Tony Twillie
Detroit
The Black and Gold team we expected to see this season arrived. They didn’t show up until midway through the first quarter but staying up all night with a coronavirus scare might help that to happen.
After spotting Detroit a TD on their first possession and then turning the ball over on our first offensive play, leading to another TD, the Saints went into business mode.
It was impressive that Sean Payton did not do what he typically does and go straight to the passing game. He still relied on the run heavily and the Saints basically imposed their will on the Detroit defensive front.
The offensive line, even through some injuries, should be commended for a great game.
The Saints scored 35 unanswered points and took a solid 35-14 lead with just under nine minutes to play. Detroit did stage a mini-rally, but that large Saints lead was too much to overcome that late in the game.
The biggest takeaways from this game were the reduced penalty yards, going 10-14 on third down, and only allowing 7-14 defensively on third downs.
The Saints possessed the ball 13 more minutes than Detroit, which is tremendously important as well. It was a good time to have a lot of things go well.