New Orleans Saints players and coaches were consistent even through a 1-8 start: Things were being done the right way.
The energy was still high, the locker room hadn't fractured, it was only a matter of time before that showed on the field. That was the case in Week 10, a 17-7 victory over the Panthers that saw the Saints win in all three phases, offense defense and special teams, which head coach Kellen Moore spoke to on WWL Radio this week.
"I was excited for our guys, our guys deserved that," Moore told Bobby Hebert and Mike Hoss. "They’ve been battling for the last few weeks and I really just appreciate how our guys come to work each and every week, through adversity, certainly the last few weeks and I thought all three phases – it was just a good example, just playing complementary football, all three phases battling."
Hear the full interview with Saints head coach Kellen Moore in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
There were positives to point to on both sides of the ball, but none more impressive than a Saints front seven that effectively bottled up what had been a potent Panthers run game. New Orleans held Rico Dowdle to 53 yards on 18 attempts, a player who had come in averaging 130 yards rushing over his past five games.
"I thought physicality was gonna be an important part of that game, just play style, from a run game perspective on both sides of the football," Moore continued. "It showed up and we were able to make plays when we needed to.”
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The Saints, behind an impressive day from rookie QB Tyler Shough, found a host of chunk plays in big moments. That included a 52-yard catch by Juwan Johnson, a 62-yard touchdown to Chris Olave and a 30-yard TD to Johnson, with all three plays coming in third and long situations.
Third downs are hard downs. There’s hard downs in football. They’re not easy," Moore said. "Third downs are certainly a big part of this. I just commend our guys. I think they made big-time plays."
The Saints now get a week off before returning for a Week 12 showdown against the Atlanta Falcons in the Caesars Superdome. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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More from Moore
On explosive plays on offense
“Our guys executed really well and created some big-time plays and that’s what you need in this league. This league is really challenging, there’s a lot of good players on each team. It’s hard to go 12-14 play drives without creating explosives. That’s really, really hard, you’ve got to be perfect on every single down and so to create explosives has a huge impact on games. I thought it was awesome for us to be able to create them in the pass game and the run game, and then defensively, really, they had two explosive plays and that was it in the game and that had a big impact as well.”
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On defense forcing turnovers
“Yea, I thought we really attacked the football on defense in a positive manner, created two turnovers, really had a third on the first drive, you know, obviously the unfortunate roughing the passer, but Demario is right there, makes a big-time interception there and we had more shots at it and the more opportunities you have at it, we’ve just got to keep attacking the football and we’re going to get our chance. The one turnover is really … Cam’s goofy field goal situation, that’s our one turnover on offense, or I guess our team in general, I thought, you know, Tyler did an excellent job protecting the football while playing fairly aggressive. Runners ran really, really physical, protecting the football still and definitely some progress there and hopefully we can continue that.”
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On the game-ending drive
“I think there’s no better feeling in the world than, you know, to finish a game that way. Like, that’s the way you want to finish games is under your terms, controlling the football, just some big-time plays. You know, Chris [Olave] has that spectacular one-handed catch on the sideline, him and Tyler hooked up, we get the first downs in there and then we’re able to grind it out, between Taysom [Hill] and the runners and the physicality, our O-line battled, our tight ends battled, Vele is in there doing a bunch of dirty work, blocking. That was just a cool drive to see it play itself out.”