The New Orleans Saints haven't found it often, but it was on the field in Week 10: Winning football.
The Saints found it behind a stifling defense and a rookie quarterback in Tyler Shough who put together as impressive a performance as you'll find in his second NFL start. In the end it was a 17-7 victory to give the Saints positive vibes heading into a bye week, and positive reviews from the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert.
"We finally got to talk about what winning football. ... We finally had a bunch of chunk plays, splash plays," Hebert said in his postgame rant. "We had like a 62-yard gain by Olave, a 52-yard gain by Juwan Johnson, I don’t know, we ran a screen by Kamara, plus-26, boy, what is that, Drew Brees and Sean Payton back there. No, Kellen Moore and the Shoughster, Shough and jive, he was jiving today.”
Hear the full postgame rant from Bobby Hebert in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It wasn't all about Shough's day, but it's hard not to come away talking about the rookie's performance. He finished the day 19-27 for 282 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His performance on third down was possibly the biggest feather in his cap, particularly third and long. The Saints converted 8 of 17 third down situations, but those 8 included a 3rd and 12 that Shough escaped pressure and found Juwan Johnson for a 52-yard catch and run, a 3rd and 8 where he found Chris Olave down the sideline for a 62-yard touchdown, and another 3rd and 12 where he extended and again found Johnson for a 30-yard TD that gave the Saints its first extended margin of the day.
This is a Saints offense that at one point this season was 1-for-27 in terms of converting 3rd and 7 or longer situations. The Saints also ran the ball in this game, with Alvin Kamara accounting for 115 total yards, 83 on the ground. Rookie Devin Neal also accounted for a career high 22 yards on 4 carries. Taysom Hill added 20 yards on 7 carries, a large chunk of which came on a game-ending drive that churned the final 7:35.
"If Shough keeps playing like this, we’re not drafting a quarterback, I can tell you this right now, coming in the spring," Hebert continued. "If he builds upon this and finishes, because the season is basically halfway over, but what if he plays like this level, because oh no, we found our quarterback. It’s our poor man’s version of Drake Maye."
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But the Saints defense was equally impressive, allowing an extended drive for a touchdown aided by an ill-time roughing the passer penalty that negated a Demario Davis interception, then holding the Panthers scoreless for the rest of the game. That was despite another unfortunate drive where they forced a field goal that Nathan Shepherd blocked, only for the ball to go back to the Panthers after a bizarre play that included a deflection off a Carolina player's helmet that touched Cam Jordan before it was recovered by the Panthers. The Saints ultimately got the ball back a few plays later when Pete Werner recovered a fumble on a failed toss play.
The Saints also held Rico Dowdle in check, with the Panthers RB coming into the day as hot as anybody and averaging 130 yards over his past five games. He finished the day with 53 yards and a touchdown on 18 careers, an average of 2.9 per attempt. The Saints now enter the bye week with positivity before another NFC South clash with the Atlanta Falcons.
"This was more of a convincing win where you feel so good about yourself. I’ve been there, going into a bye week with a win, you feel like going to restaurants in New Orleans and people tell you oh, man, that was a good game y’all had," Hebert said. "Now, so yea, you tell them we’re gonna build on that. We’re staying in the NFC South with four of the next five games, all NFC South games, and people might say well, Bobby, what does that really mean in the big picture, we’re about championships. Man, we’ve got to take baby steps right now."