Winners and losers from Saints' Week 17 upset win vs Eagles

Not many people gave the New Orleans Saints a legitimate shot of beating the Philadelphia Eagles even with backup quarterback Gardner Minshew at the helm. The Saints didn't care what other people thought though and defeated Philly by a score of 20-10.

With the game in the books, let's check out the winners and losers from win No. 7 for the 2022 New Orleans Saints, who started 2023 off with a win.

Losers

Offensive Line

The banged-up offensive line allowed Andy Dalton to be sacked a whopping six times while also allowing another sack on Taysom Hill. Andrus Peat, Cesar Ruiz, and Ryan Ramczyk weren't playing in this game (Ramczyk left early on due to a hip injury) so that meant the team was without three of its five starters. The backups didn't fare well.

Landon Young had a really rough series when Ramczyk first exited the field, allowing Brandon Graham to pretty much shove him into Dalton. He then got flagged for holding.

It's hard to overcome injuries on the offensive line but this unit most definitely belongs in the loser category.

Paulson Adebo

Adebo hasn't had a great sophomore season in the pros and his worst play of the game this week came on the Eagles' lone touchdown of the game. Minshew was able to get the ball to A.J. Brown who skated past Adebo into the end zone.

The Saints defense was pretty good for the most part but I had to call Adebo out for the poor effort on this play.

Winners

Cam Jordan

The biggest winner of the day had to be Cam Jordan, who set the all-time record for sacks for the franchise. He had three of the team's six sacks on Minshew and the third one of the day got him the record.

Alvin Kamara

This hasn't been a great season for Alvin Kamara but he's looked good during this win streak. It's probably not a coincidence that the Saints are winning when Kamara is being utilized and hopefully the team keeps at it in the final game of the season.

Kamara finished this matchup with 16 carries for 74 yards and had one catch for seven yards. The fumbles were an issue for him earlier in the season but it looks like Kamara is back to the guy we all know and love on the field.

Marshon Lattimore

Welcome back, Marshon Lattimore! In the cornerback's first game back since Week 5, he picked off Minshew and took it the other way for six points. This is what pretty much iced the game and it's what was missing from the Saints defense.

Taysom Hill

The Saints have finally figured out how to effectively use Taysom Hill and it's gotten them three straight wins. Hill continued to be used in multiple departments for this game, rushing for 46 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries while throwing for 24 yards and catching one pass for nine yards. When Hill gets going, he's hard to stop.

Wil Lutz

After a somewhat shaky season, Wil Lutz did his part in Week 7, nailing down all four attempts (two field goals and two extra points) asked of him. His long field goal attempt of 54 yards was the longest field goal the team has attempted since Week 5, per Luke Johnson.

Even with this exciting win, the Saints' playoff hopes are dead due to the Buccaneers locking up the NFC South. With NOLA not getting to use their first-round pick, I'm fine with them continuing to win to ensure that the Eagles don't get a top-10 pick.

The Saints close the 2022 regular-season out with a home game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

All stats courtesy of ESPN