Best and worst from Taysom Hill in week 13 loss to Cowboys

For the first time this season, Taysom Hill made a start at quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. It didn’t necessarily go poorly but it didn’t go particularly well either. The black and gold fell 27-17 to the Cowboys and dropped to 5-7 on the year after a 5-2 start.

Hill finished the game with 264 passing yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions (yeah…) while dashing for 101 yards off 11 carries. It truly was a strong case of good followed up with a heaping case of bad.

Let’s check out the best and worst from Hill in this game.

Best from Taysom Hill

There was a time during the game where Hill was running the ball on every single play. This was when the Saints offense was looking its best and there was a point during this possession when Hill took things into his own hands and literally HURDLED over a grown man.

The Saints needed two yards on that play and Hill got four by taking the extra effort and leaping over another man. This is a great play to show how athletic Hill is and what he can bring to the table. As Maddy Hudak said, Hill made this look easy.

While the best from Hill was a blast to watch, the worst from him was not fun to watch. Let’s get to that.

Worst from Taysom Hill

Normally, I pick one particular play from the quarterback but Hill had three really bad plays. He threw four interceptions but the first one he threw, which came in the first half on a key drive, was a result of Kenny Stills not catching a ball he should have. Even Sean Payton put the blame on Stills, though he didn’t directly come out and say it.

The other three interceptions, however, were all on Hill. He was trying way too hard to make something happen in the fourth quarter and when you force the football, bad things tend to happen. He did this on three straight possessions too, for what it’s worth.

The second pick Hill threw (so the first in the fourth quarter), came right after Marshon Lattimore picked off Dak Prescott. The Saints were down 20-10 at that point and even just a field goal would have put New Orleans in prime position to win.

The third interception was after the NOLA defense forced a Cowboys punt and Hill once again squandered the opportunity to make it a closer game.

If I had to pick the worst of the worst, though, it’d be the fourth and final pick, which was a pick-six and put the Cowboys up 27-10. While the Saints ended up scoring a touchdown shortly after to make it 27-17, that pick-six iced the game.

Hill is a fun player to watch but he’s not someone the New Orleans Saints should hitch their wagon to as a franchise quarterback and those four picks are proof of just that.

Be that as it may, Taysom Hill did something we haven’t seen for a bit — He made the Saints’ offense fun to watch. The fourth quarter wasn’t so much fun but the first three quarters, despite just scoring 10 points, saw the offense move the ball and actually get the fans excited.