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Strong Saints Defensive Effort Helps Power Past Pats

After such a disappointing showing last week against the Panthers, the Saints rebound in a big way in Gillette Stadium.

John Hendrix

FOXBOROUGH -- The New Orleans Saints are 2-1 after knocking off the Patriots 28-13 on the road in Week 3. The defense had a strong showing in an overall rebound effort for the team, and offensively the team got things going and dominated the first half. New England would make it close, but a vintage Sean Payton offensive drive gave the Saints what they needed to make it out of Gillette Stadium.

Game Recap

The Saints lost the opening coin toss, while the Patriots elected to defer to the second half. New Orleans' offense didn't find a groove on their first series, as back-to-back rush attempts with Alvin Kamara went for a total of a yard. On the 3rd-and-9 play, Jameis Winston had Chris Hogan for a sure first down, but it could not be hauled in and forced the Saints to punt.

On the first Patriots possession, they got a good chunk of yardage on their first play, a 7-yard run to Damien Harris. The next two plays saw Mac Jones try deep balls, but the Saints defense did a nice job providing coverage, and on the 3rd-and-3 play got a big pressure from Tanoh Kpassagnon to help force the throw.

New Orleans was able to get into the end zone on their ensuing possession, which started after a strong Deonte Harris punt return despite a 64-yard Jake Bailey punt. The Saints went 69 yards in 11 plays that took 4:58 off the clock. A key 3rd Down hookup to Deonte Harris and big conversion to Kenny Stills helped the offense tremendously on the drive. Several plays later, Winston would find Kamara on an easy angle route to get the first score of the game from 7 yards out. It did come with a cost, as Terron Armstead would go out due to an apparent friendly fire block from Tony Jones Jr.

The Saints defense would hold strong on their next series, getting a first down sack from C.J. Gardner-Johnson followed up by Demario Davis blowing up a screen play. On 3rd-and-16, Jones would find Kendrick Bourne for a gain of 14, and the Patriots settled on punting.

The next offensive drive for New Orleans once again looked good, with some good hookups to Marquez Callaway on the drive. However, the 10-play, 51-yard drive would end in a 52-yard missed field goal from Aldrick Rosas as the first quarter came to a close. 

The two teams would trade three-and-outs on their next drives, although it came with some interesting drama on a 4th-and-5 punt from the Pats. They appeared to have drawn the Saints offsides, and pick up the first down, but John Hussey called it a false start and backed up New England. The Saints offense came out trying to be aggressive, but Winston missed on a deep connection to Juwan Johnson.

The Patriots offense put together a small drive, getting their first first downs of the game on a 9-play, 30-yard drive. However, they would have to punt and it ended up getting blocked by Andrew Dowell, setting the Saints up with a shorter field to work with. However, the drive would stall out after Winston was sacked on a 2nd Down play by Matt Judon and the Saints couldn't pick up the lost yardage on the ensuing 3rd Down play to set up a 36-yard field goal attempt by Rosas, who missed again to keep it at 7-0 Saints.

The next Patriots drive saw them get a big 17-yard hookup from Jones to Jakobi Meyers, but that was about all she wrote on that offensive series, as Jones would be pressured by the Saints defense and hit by Kaden Elliss that forced a bad throw into the hands of P.J. Williams, who ended up returning it to the Patriots' 9-yard-line. Originally, the ball was fumbled into the end zone and recovered by Elliss and was ruled a touchdown, but further review put him down by contact.

This time, the Saints were able to cash in a few plays later. A sack on Winston put the offense in a 3rd-and-Goal situation from the 7-yard-line, and somehow he was able to hang in with a defender bringing him to the ground to find Marquez Callaway in the back of the end zone for the score. Callaway made an excellent play, and the flag on the field was for defensive holding. New Orleans went up 14-0 with 1:50 left in the half.

New England struck quickly on their first play in the two-minute drill, driving down the length of the field to get them into position to put points on the board before the half. On a 4th-and-1 play, they lined up to go for it, but a false start pushed them back. They'd get a 45-yard field goal from Nick Folk to get on the board, making it 14-3 Saints going into halftime after they kneeled out the clock.

Second Half

We started the second half out with an immediate score, as Jonnu Smith would bobble the Jones catch and have it land gracefully into the arms of Malcolm Jenkins for a 34-yard interception return for the score to put the Saints up 21-3 at the 14:51 mark of the third quarter.

After stopping the Patriots on their next possession, New Orleans would run several plays and find themselves in a punting situation after lining up to run a play on a 4th-and-1 call. It appeared New England jumped, but Calvin Throckmorton was guilty of the false start.

The Patriots put together their best drive of the game, a 16-play, 72-yard drive that took over 9 minutes. However, it would only result in a 26-yard Nick Folk field goal. New Orleans would go three-and-out on their next series to give it right back to New England as the third quarter ended.

New England couldn't do much with their next offensive possession after getting a first down, mainly because of Tanoh Kpassagnon having a big sack on Mac Jones resulting in a 13-yard loss to force a 3rd-and-19. Jones took off on the next play, but wasn't anywhere close to getting a first down.

The Saints offense officially went ice cold on their next series, going three-and-out yet again. Winston was sacked again by Matt Judon on a 3rd-and-12 play. From the first looks of it, he had Deonte Harris on a curl route for the first down. Regardless, the Saints punted, which set the Patriots up in good field position with 10:38 to play. It took New England three plays to get into the end zone, as they marched 44 yards. Jones found Kendrick Bourne for the touchdown from 22 yards out after he made a great play working against Paulson Adebo, staying inbounds to get the score to cut the Saints lead to 21-13 with 9:22 left in the game.

With the pressure on the Saints offense to deliver, they were able to get a couple things going. It started on a big 3rd-and-7 play in which Winston found Deonte Harris for a 12-yard pickup to move the chains. That was followed up by a Kamara 11-yard pickup on the ground. 

A couple plays later, the Saints got a 14-yard pickup with Taysom Hill. They kept it going with another big 3rd Down pickup, and eventually they'd get into a position to score, which Hill did on the ground from 4 yards out to make it 28-13 Saints with 2:37 to go. It concluded a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took 6:45 off the clock.

Jones and the Patriots had one more shot at things, but it didn't matter. Marshon Lattimore ended up getting a very late interception with just 5 seconds left. The Saints had seized all momentum when it counted most and put together a strong showing. The team finally gets to return home to New Orleans, and will take on the Giants in the first game at the Superdome this season. It goes without saying that the energy will be electric. Credit this team for having a strong bounce back performance after last week. 

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John Hendrix
JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net

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