The New Orleans Saints still have some first half kinks to work out with their offense, but they've become as exciting as any team in the NFL with their furious finishes.
Those late-game heroics have been headlined by second-year QB Tyler Shough, who currently leads the league in passing yards and has quickly caught the attention of Audacy NFL Insider Mark Schlereth, who shared his thoughts on SportsTalk this week.
"It was just one of those things for me where I was like, damn, this is good stuff," Schlereth told WWL Radio's Deuce McAllister and Steve Geller. "Even though it might not be big-time, over the top type plays and all that stuff. It was just kind of being efficient, especially in the underneath game. ... I think most people don’t have any real respect or understanding of how tough some of those throws are, and I think Tyler Shough … I just think he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite quarterbacks to watch."
Hear the full interview with Schlereth in the player above.
Shough finished that game 27-34 passing for 252 yards and a touchdown, while also adding 23 rushing yards and another TD.
Late rallies have been a theme for the Saints through two weeks. They fought out of a 21-0 hole in the season-opener before falling 31-30 to the Lions on a failed 2-point conversion. On the road in Baltimore they fell into a 14-3 hole before outscoring the Ravens 21-3 the rest of the way, taking the lead on a controversial ruling after Shough's 4th down sneak attempt was ruled a touchdown and officially missing a blatant facemask penalty that would've effectively sealed the result. Instead the Ravens got one final drive that ended on a Julian Blackmon interception.
The excitement around the team is apparent but they face a few big questions. How can they get off to better starts -- zero first quarter points through two games -- and how do they operate with Kelvin Banks expected to miss significant time after ankle surgery. Schlereth said he wants to see the Saints employ more up-tempo offense earlier in the game when they get the opportunity.
“Early in games you want to come out, establish yourself, establish the run and all that stuff, but it’s nice every now and then to go say, you know, if we get a first down on this drive, then let’s go into tempo and let’s just run it like it’s 2-minute," Schlereth said. "You can’t be that way the entirety of the game. I always hear people ask me, why don’t you just run uptempo the whole game. Well, it just doesn’t work that way, eventually the defense is going to crush you if you keep doing that. But all of a sudden, get a first down and then say hey, man, let’s go uptempo here and let’s have a couple of series where we’re just uptempo for a while, or at least 4 or 5 plays, and then we’ll get back into our regular stuff. It keeps the defense on their heels a little bit, so that’s some of the stuff you can do during the course of a game early to maybe create some opportunity, create a little bit of energy and to put the defense on their heels to some degree.”
The Saints' next chance to fix their slow starts issue will come at home in a matchup with a surprising Raiders squad that's started 2-0 with wins over the Dolphins and Chargers. That group is led by head coach Klint Kubiak, the OC with the Saints in 2024, as well as QB Kirk Cousins, who the Saints have extensive experience in facing during his time with the Vikings and Falcons.
"They have built their team from the inside out, both offensive line and defensive line, they have dominated the line of scrimmage," said Schlereth, who called the Raiders' Week 1 game. "Ashton Jeanty in that Week 1 matchup against Miami was incredible, not only running the ball but catching the ball out of the backfield. … They’ve become so much better of a football team. They are a heck of a lot better than they were a year ago."
Saints (1-1) vs Raiders (2-0) is scheduled to kick off at 3:25 p.m. inside the Caesars Superdome. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
