The New Orleans Saints won their season opener for the fifth year in a row, setting a new franchise record in a win over the Titans.
The score was 16-15 and it was anything but pretty on both sides, and that's perfectly OK with the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert.
“Just a great start," he said, "because listen, I always say this: Give me an ugly win, versus ‘man, we played pretty damn good. How did we lose the game?’ “
There was a bad interception thrown by Derek Carr before halftime. Rashid Shaheed fumbled the opening kickoff. Pass protection was a problem more often than it was the solution. But all those things are correctable.
“When we’re gonna look at this come late November, December," Hebert said, "the fans really just look at whether you won or lost.”
Listen to Bobby's full rant in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
But there were clear bright spots, too. After getting bullied for more than 100 yards by Titans star Derrick Henry, he was bottled up for just 12 yards in the second half. That was due in large part to Demario Davis who led the team with 10 tackles, 9 of which were solo stops.
“I don’t think he’s too old," he said. "That’s kind of a tackling machine.”
Finally, there was one other standout group: The defensive backs, and in large part because they cashed in on interceptions that were so difficult to find last season. In total they came down with three, one each for Marshon Lattimore, Paulson Adebo and Marcus Maye, with an assist from Isaac Yiadom.
It took the Saints until Week 13 to record their third interception a year ago.
“I just think it was an outstanding win," Hebert said. "Now, we’d want it to be more comfortable that we wouldn’t have to sweat it out at the end. But like Dennis Allen said, we made big plays when we had to. When we had to make big plays, we made it.”
