The New Orleans Saints played the New York Jets closer than many Saints fans would have wanted early in the game. That was primarily due to struggles in the red zone showing up again. Tyler Shough's touchdown to Chris Olave was the only touchdown on the day. Other than that, it was the Charlie Smyth show.
The Saints opened it up as the game went on. This isn't one of the games where the score is unrepresentative of the flow of the game though. The game was only close because of the Saints settling for field goals, but there was never a question of who was the better team on the day.
Shough finished the day with just under 50 passes. You'd think with that many attempts the Saints were playing from behind. Defensively, the Saints brought down Brady Cook eight times, by far a season high. The Saints put the Jets in comeback mode then took advantage of how often they had to drop back.
Injuries forced Taysom Hill into a much bigger role
The usage of Taysom Hill was one of the larger talking points at the beginning of Tyler Shough's time as the starting quarterback. Much of that conversation was negative. Fans were wondering why there was so much focus on Hill, opposed to players like Shough and Devin Neal.
Not only did it take opportunities away from younger players, Hill-centric plays just flat out weren't effective. It used to be a reliable source of offense, but it hadn't been this year. Kellen Moore learned and adjusted. Hill was a non-factor over the last couple of weeks, but that couldn't last forever.
The Saints came into this matchup with no Neal or Devaughn Vele. That's two offensive weapons out for the season, so it should come as no surprise that Hill had a higher workload against the Jets. Hill fumbled on his first touch, but that didn't discourage any further usage.
Coming into the game, Hill had a career high of 15 rushing and receiving attempts. He ended this game with 16 combined attempts and added a passing touchdown on top of that. Hill had his highest workload of his career, and capped off the day with an exclamation point.