NEW ORLEANS — The Saints escaped Jacksonville with a win and I have four takeaways from that win.
- Appreciate Cam: After six seasons, Cam Jordan has now played 142 games for the Saints and do you know how many games he’s missed because of injury? That would be zero. Sunday in Jacksonville, he had two sacks, two tackles for losses and two quarterback hits. As a team the Saints had 2, 2 and 3 in those categories. That means the big plays up front Sunday pretty much all came from Jordan. Appreciate Cam because those two sacks tied him for the third most sacks in team history. It was the 16th time in his career that Cam has had two or more sacks and the Saints are 14-2 in those games.
- Marshon Lattimore and company shine again: Lattimore was excellent in shutting down D. J. Chark and he has re-established himself as the team’s DB star. Heading into the game, the Jaguars’ Gardner Minshew was sixth in the NFL in quarterback rating with a 105.6. That was better than Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers or a bunch of really successful quarterbacks. Do you know what his rating was Sunday? 51.4. That’s horrible. Lattimore and company gave him no where to throw.
- Latavius Murray’s Share: Sunday was, by far, Latavius Murray’s best game as a Saint. His screen pass touchdown was called back, but he still got the ball 11 times for 79 yards. Those are his biggest as a Saint. It’s a long season and the goal is to be playing football in February. To do that, Alvin Kamara has to stay as fresh as possible and he is banged up right now. In the first 5 games, Kamara had 101 touches and Murray had 30, which means Kamara had 77 percent of the running back touches. Sunday, the split was a little more even – Murray got it 38 percent of the time and I think that type of split is better for the Saints long term.
- And my top takeaway from Sunday was that the offensive performance is the new norm. A week ago, against Tampa Bay, the Saints threw up 457 yards against the Bucs and we all thought “this offense is great without Drew Brees,” but the total yardage in the four games without Brees, the 326 yards against the Jaguars looks like the new norm, while the total against the Bucs looks like an anomaly. There’s a reason that Drew Brees is a first ballot Hall of Famer. It’s just not going to go as well without him, but the Saints can – and have won – with those smaller numbers. And, maybe the best thing that Teddy Bridgewater has done in his four starts is to protect the ball. He hasn’t fumbled and he’s thrown just two interceptions in four games. Of quarterbacks with at least four starts, Bridgewater is fifth in the NFL for fewest interceptions. Just don’t expect consistently large numbers until Brees returns.