New Orleans Saints: Three Keys to Victory on Monday Night Football

Saints key number one: Protect the Quarterback

The biggest issue the Saints had against the Tennessee Titans in Week One was protecting quarterback Derek Carr. The Saints allowed four sacks and Carr seemed to be under pressure for practically the entire game. Granted, the Titans do have a very good defensive line, but we still need to see better production from an offensive line that has three first round picks and a second round pick anchoring it.

Carr was still able to post a respectable stat line of 305 passing yards and a touchdown, but there's no doubt he would have connected on more big throws had he had time to do so. Second-year offensive tackle Trevor Penning really struggled and finished as PFF's number 29 offensive tackle for week one. That's flat out not going to cut it.

While there was a lot of ugly up front for the Saints in week one, it wasn't all bad. James Hurst graded out as the 11th best guard. The Saints have endless potential up front, however, as most of this unit has at least three years of playing time with each other and should be able to iron out the kinks rather easily.

If the Saints can solve their issues up front, the offense will explode to a whole extra level.