One of the areas Taysom Hill excelled in last week’s win against the Atlanta Falcons was on third down.
“I thought last week was impressive,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I thought it was a good step for him and seeing him function on third down, a few third and long's actually, and so that was encouraging."
This season, Hill has completed 22 of 26 passes on third down and picked up 13 first downs in the process.
He’s also rushed for 10 first downs and caught all three passes thrown to him on third down.
“There has been a big emphasis on that, making sure that as a quarterback, I am comfortable with what we are trying to do, my reads and thought process, each individual play is clean and they've done a really good job about that, to where as I get the call, on third down, I know exactly what my thought process is,” Hill said. “So part of it is coaches have done a great job. And then it's nice when you have guys like Mike (Thomas) and Emmanuel (Sanders), Alvin (Kamara) and Jared (Cook) to get the ball to."
The Saints are hoping Hill is able to continue posting those impressive numbers this Sunday when the Saints face the Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia’s defense currently ranks seventh in the NFL allowing just 37.3 percent on conversations.
Despite the opponent’s solid play in third down situations, Saints offensive coordinator Pete Campbell said play on the down is a point of emphasis every week for the Saints.
Related
“But what’s (also) a point of emphasis is every week is making sure that we are getting ourselves into the third and manageable situations, where we are having some efficiency on first and second down were we are trying to avoid third and extra long,” Campbell said.
Campbell said there’s a lot of credit to be thrown around for the Saints success on third down recently including at Hill.
“He’s made some nice throws and some plays the last week where it was third and longer situations where he really made some nice decisions and located the ball very well,” Campbell said.
Related
Saints quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi said Hill’s play has been what coaches expected from him.
“He’s a confident guy, but when your having your first start there’s always that nervousness,” Lombardi said. “You know the expectations people have, the expectations he has for himself.
“And confidence is there but the more success you have, that confidence is evidence behind it. So he’s definitely more comfortable taking charge… and it’s been fun to watch him grow.”