Saints Outrun the Seahawks on Monster Performance from Taysom Hill
The Saints came home Sunday to play in the second game of the Bird Gauntlet. They faced a Seahawks team led by NFC Offensive Player of the Week Geno Smith. The Saints needed a win to reverse their fortunes and climb back to 2-3.
The Saints started on offense and ran the ball well. Only two passes were thrown on the drive, one a completion to Chris Olave and the other an incompletion. The Saints were able to get into Wil Lutz's generous field goal range and he put them up by 3 early on.
The Saints defense saw the field for the first time. They started off playing pretty well and eventually forced a 3rd down. But unfortunately, DK Metcalf was able to get behind Paulson Adebo and the Seahawks scored quickly.
The Saints got the ball back, but not before a muffed kick by Deonte Harty pinned the Saints in a bad spot. A few good plays got the Saints out from the shadow of their end zone but they were still forced to punt.
Geno Smith lead his offense back onto the field. A big run by Rashaad Penny put the Seahawks into field goal range but the Saints defense stiffened. They got no further and Jason Myers put the Seahawks up by 7.
The Saints opened up the second quarter on offense and were moving the ball pretty effectively on the legs of Kamara and Hill. And Touchdown Taysom came out to play once the Saints got inside the 10.
The Saints held onto the momentum on defense and a big sack by Cam Jordan killed the Seahawks drive.
The Saints couldn't quite get marching on offense, and Gillikin put the ball back in the Seahawks hands. The Saints defense continued their good performance by forcing a three-and-out. Then Seahawks punter Michael Dickson tried possibly the worst fake punt ever.
The Saints capitalized immediately as the Stormin' Mormon got right back into the endzone.
The Seahawks weren't ready to just roll over, though. Geno Smith made a few great throws, but a dropped touchdown by Metcalf forced the Seahawks to kick a field goal.
With under two minutes to go in the half, Andy Dalton was leading an effective drive to close out the half until an Alvin Kamara fumble gave the ball back to the Seahawks, which allowed a long touchdown to Tyler Lockett from Smith. Myers did miss the extra point, but the Saints were still down to end the half.
Coming out of the half, the Seahawks got the ball. But the Saints were able to steal it away after Pete Werner forced a fumble from DK Metcalf.
Now Dalton needed to pilot the offense to another score. He got the ball to Chris Olave on a ball that unfortunately caused a concussion for the rook. The Saints got back on top, but Olave's injury was a heavy price to pay.
The teams slowed down on offense for the next few drives, but the momentum shifted strongly in the Seahawks direction when Andy Dalton threw a misguided pass and the Seahawks intercepted it.
A key holding call undid a potential Seahawks interception, and forced a punt.
And then Alvin Kamara did Alvin Kamara things.
And then Taysom Hill started stat-padding.
That electric drive ended the third quarter and the Saints were finally looking like what they were supposed to be looking like from the get-go. Saints fans were starting to, dare I say, have fun.
The Seahawks would get a big gain off of penalty yards after a Marshon Lattimore pass interference call. They capitalized on the yardage with a touchdown pass to Lockett over some poor coverage by the Saints defensive backs. The Seahawks failed on the two point conversion however, keeping the lead at 6 for the Saints.
The Saints would get movement on their next drive, but be forced to punt.
And then things started to go bad. The Saints gave up their 6th play of 30+ yards when Rookie Kenneth Walker busted a huge run to put the Seahawks in the lead.
The Saints needed some points. They went back to their most consistent source.
Mark Ingram went in for two to make the lead 7.
And on defense, Cam Jordan turned into a lion, and Geno Smith was a gazelle with a bum leg.
The Saints needed to start salting away the clock. They succeeded. Alvin Kamara peppered the Seahawks defense with runs and the Andy Dalton knelt down a few times.
And that was it. The Saints took down the Seahawks to complete the second game of the Bird Gauntlet.
The 2-3 New Orleans Saints take on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in the Superdome on October 16th at noon.