It didn’t take long for the absence of Kelvin Banks Jr to rear its ugly head, and it couldn’t have picked a worse time to show up. The New Orleans Saints did a great job protecting Tyler Shough for three quarters, but a pair pressures allowed by Asim Richard’s in the fourth quarter turned this game on its head.
The pass rush of the Raiders against Saints offensive line was always going to be a major story, and it only became amplified by the loss of a starting left tackle. With or without Banks, the Saints would have been facing the league leaders in sacks going into Week 3.
The Raiders may have ended with just two sacks on the day, but they won the matchup with big plays in critical moments. The two biggest plays came against Richards, the one lineman we had our eyes glued to.
How Asim Richards holds up will greatly determine the Saints’ fortunes
Banks is out for likely the next 9 weeks, which means it's going to be on Richards to fill that void well for a large majority of the year. The left tackle position is much too important and the Saints' expectations are too high to go in walk in with uncertainty every week
It’s unfair to write off Richards due to his late struggles. He didn’t have an overall terrible game, but once it started, everything just snowballed from there. That quarter of struggles was enough to question what happens if Richards isn’t ready for the moment.
A strip sack and a pressure leading to an interception on back to back drives is the worst case scenario. That shouldn’t happen many times, if ever again, but either one of those can happen at any given moment.
It can be a deadly gamble, and the Saints saw that first hand on Sunday. While turnovers and sacks are the most visible and tangible forms of impact, pressures are just as impactful, especially on Shough's blind side. Errant throws, rushed progressions, missed wide receivers. It's all on the table.
That's what makes Richards so important. The blind side won't be as secure as it would have been with Banks, but the Saints can't afford for it to be a liability either. In the fourth quarter, that's exactly what it was, so it's something to watch with greater focus.
If Richards can just be steady, the team has the talent at the skill position to take off. We've seen it in spurts this season. It doesn't matter how talented the skill players are if there isn't enough time to get the ball to them.
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