Just like that, the Saints are back at .500. Their dominating victory in Oakland today brought their record to 5-5 for the season. The Saints have won three games in a row since their Sunday night loss to Denver in October. Meanwhile, the Raiders drop to 3-7 for the season with their third straight loss.
Mark Ingram taunts former Saint Matt Giordano as he crosses the goal line on his 27 yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter.
The Saints took an early lead and never looked back. Oakland had early success running the ball, but frequently stalled around mid-field. The Saints wasted no time, taking their first possession down field and cashing in on a 1 yard touchdown from Drew Brees. Once New Orleans took the 7-0 lead, the game was never in question for who was in control.
“Jimmy Freaking Graham! He cannot be covered!”
The teams traded three and outs before Carson Palmer through an interception to Malcolm Jenkins late in the first quarter. Jenkins broke a few tackles and returned the interception 55 yards to extend the Saints lead. The INT from Jenkins was his first of the season.
Oakland’s next possession was probably their best possession of the game, regardless of coming out of it without any points. They put together a 16 play 87 yard drive that took 8:59 off of the clock. On a 3rd and goal, Brandon Myers let a potential touchdown pass go right through his hands and in to the waiting arms of Roman Harper. That play was an early indication of how things would go all day for both teams.
The Saints ended up not getting any points out of the turnover, but it was already a 3 or possibly 7 point swing considering the turnover came deep in the red-zone. Oakland did go on to get themselves on the board with their next possession, as Myers held on to the ball this time for a 1 yard touchdown from Carson Palmer. It was an incredibly frustrating touchdown to watch the Saints give up. Palmer was scrambling towards the sideline and running out of time. New Orleans covered his receivers for about 95% of the play, but just at the last second Patrick Robinson apparently must’ve spotted a child in the stands with a shiny balloon or something of that sort, because he literally just stopped and looked to his left and Palmer took advantage. It was literally baffling to try and figure out exactly what he was doing. Regardless, Oakland closed the lead to 14-7, but that would be the nearest they’d come for the rest of the day.
On their next drive, New Orleans got down inside the Oakland 30 yard line, when Brees was called for an intentional grounding on 2nd and 3. They faced a 3rd and 13 with under 2 minutes left in the first half and were possibly looking at a long field goal attempt to get a few points before halftime. Fortunately for anyone associated with the black and gold, Drew Brees doesn’t settle for many field goals and he found Lance Moore for a 38 yard touchdown pass to re-extend the lead going in to halftime.
The Saints received the ball to start the 2nd half and they surely made it count. First, Travaris Cadet continued to act like a Darren Sproles clone, as he returned the opening kick 75 yards to the Oakland 27 yard line. Next, Mark Ingram bounced a 1st down run outside to the left corner and went untouched for a 27 yard touchdown run. I joked while watching the game that the score happened so quick after the 2nd half started, that many fans whether in the stadium or watching at home that might’ve been a couple minutes late back to their seats probably saw the score and got confused to whether the score was 21-7 or 28-7 at halftime. Without any exaggeration that’s literally how fast they scored. Another wonderful perk of being a Saints fan!
On the Saints next drive, they went three and out just as quickly as they scored on their previous drive. It’s becoming a very frustrating staple of the Saints offense, that they squeeze one or more fast three and outs in the second half when they have the chance to put an early nail in the coffin. Thankfully, they only did that once today, because the next time they got the ball the Brees to Moore connection struck again, this time from 15 yards out. That extended the lead to 35-10 late in the 3rd quarter.
After that score, things slowed down for the most part for the rest of the day. Garret Hartley hit a nice 47 yard field goal early in the 4th quarter to close out the New Orleans scoring. With just over four minutes left, Carson Palmer dropped a beautiful touchdown pass in to the hands of Juron Criner to make the score 38-17.
After a Jimmy Graham recovery on an onside kick, Chase Daniel ran the rest of the clock out and the Saints were headed home with their first even record of the season.
Game Notes
-Drew Brees extended his record streak of consecutive games with a passing touchdown to 53, on a 1st quarter touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham.
-He also extended his streak of games with 20 or more completions to 46.
-Brees had an impressive quarter back rating of 134.6, despite of only throwing for 219 yards.
-Saints running backs had 25 carries for 134 yards and a touchdown.
-Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, and Tom Johnson each recorded a sack today, giving the team 3 total for the day.
-The Saints were better on 3rd down efficiency on both sides of the ball today, going 6-11 on offense and only allowing 4-12 on defense.
-Mark Ingram continues to lead the Saints backfield in carries and he looks very good doing so. Today, he had 12 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown. That’s good for a very impressive 5.6 yards per rush.
-Other than a 25 yard rush, Chris Ivory had a quiet day with a total of 8 carries for 37 yards.
-Pierre Thomas received the least amount of carries of the three once again, but did better with them this week. He’s received 5 carries in each of the last two games, but today he ran for 30 yards compared to last week’s 10.
-New Orleans’ safeties continue to be play makers this season as they each recorded an interception and they led the team in tackles with 11 by Harper and 6 by Jenkins.
-Despite winning by 21 points, New Orleans still lost the time of possession 31:24-28:36. That goes to show the importance of offensive efficiency and making every possession count.
-The Saints win extended their November winning streak to 14 games.
Stats
Drew Brees – 20-27 / 219 yards / 3 TDs
Mark Ingram – 12 carries / 67 yards / 1 TD
Chris Ivory – 8 carries / 37 yards
Lance Moore – 2 receptions / 53 yards / 2 TDs
Jimmy Graham – 6 receptions / 29 yards / 1 TD
Marques Colston – 4 receptions / 69 yards
Week 12
New Orleans (5-5) returns home to face the San Francisco 49ers (6-2-1, playing tonight on MNF) in a rematch of last year’s epic Divisional Round playoff game. The game will be on FOX for America’s game of the week on Sunday, November 25th at 3:25 CT in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Who Dat?!
