Recap: Saints add another ugly win to 9-2 NFC leading record

The New Orleans Saints added their eighth straight win in an ugly demolition of the broken down Denver Broncos to keep the lead in the NFC.

The New Orleans Saints walked into Denver knowing that this game could get out of hand quickly. The Denver Broncos were informed two days prior to gameday that they were going to be without any active quarterback against New Orleans on Sunday.

With Jeff Driskel testing positive for COVID-19, all other quarterbacks that were around him and deemed high-risk, close contacts without a mask were unable to play. That was all of them. The team resorted to starting a practice squad receiver Kendall Hanlin at quarterback.

The game went as you might have imagined, just uglier from New Orleans.

First Half

The first quarter started out ugly from the beginning. The Broncos punted following by the Saints punting. That happened two more times. There were five failed drives before we got the first points in this Sunday afternoon game.

On the black and gold’s third drive, they finally scored a touchdown. Between Taysom Hill, Alvin Kamara, and Latavius Murray, they took turns running down the field until Hill finally scored from one yard out to make the score 7-0.

After four more punts, two from each team, the Broncos fumbled. New team member Kwon Alexander recovered the fumble and it led to another Taysom Hill rushing touchdown, this time from two yards out. That made the score 14-0.

On the very next drive, Kendall Hinton threw an interception to Janoris Jenkins that led to a Wil Lutz field goal to end the half 17-0, New Orleans.

Second Half

If you thought that the first half was ugly, you are right, but the second doesn’t get much better. The Saints started out punting on the first drive. Following that, both teams traded interceptions — Hanlin to Gardner-Johnson and Hill to Bassey.

That led to the Broncos’ first points of the game scoring a field goal on the next drive. Latavius Murray broke away for a 36-yard and 7-yard touchdown on the next two consecutive Saints’ drives bringing the score to 31-3.

After two more punts, the game ended in the hands of the Broncos. A valiant effort for not having a single quarterback on their roster. The Saints, on the other hand, go and add an eighth straight win to their 9-2 record.