NEW ORLEANS — I know the first half was rough and clunky, but when it was over Taysom Hill was cruising into the end zone and the Saints were firmly back in the playoff hunt.
Look, I know this season hasn’t been balls of fun lately, but imagine you’re a Jets fan. The fact is, modern Who Dats don’t understand the pain of Jets fans.
In the past decade, the Saints have won five division titles while the Jets have zero. Meanwhile, in that same decade, the Jets have lost ten games or more six times. That hasn’t happened to the Saints at all.
Don’t tell these guys it’s been a rough season, they’re having a rough 21st century.
#4 Kick Six
Let’s start our four takeaways with the most amazing development: Brett Maher’s kick six.
Sunday represented the Saints’ best kicking effort of the season — three field goals, three extra points, six for six.
Remember, Maher was the original Wil Lutz replaced, but he got hurt so Sean Payton went through Aldrick Rosas, Cody Parkey and Brian Johnson before coming back to Maher.
Right now, as a team, the Saints are 28th in field goal percentage and 28th in extra point percentage. Those numbers have to get better for the Saints to be a playoff team.
Maybe, six-for-six means Maher can get the job done.
#3 92 returns
We’ve talked for weeks about the Saints getting some of their elite guys back. This week, Marcus Davenport came back and the defensive line was instantly more destructive.
Davenport put up virtually no stats in the game, but the eyeball test will tell you he created chaos.
The only knock on Davenport is that he’s been unable in his career to stay health. But when he is, he is an elite force and on Sunday, he made Zach Wilson’s day a nightmare.
At this point in his career, Wilson is a long way away from being a good NFL quarterback, his QBR is the worst of any starting quarterback in the NFL, but Sunday against the Saints his numbers were even worse than his season average.
And in fairness, getting CJ Gardner-Johnson back helped too.
The defense is playoff worthy if the offense can get there.
#2 Alvin Kamara
As bad as it’s been offensively this season, how amazing was Alvin Kamara?
Kamara said this week that he thought he was healthy enough to play against Dallas, but Sean Payton opted to give him more rest for the stretch run and Sunday, it worked.
On his 16-yard touchdown run, what he did to Jets cornerback Bryce Hall was just unfair. Hall had a clean shot at Kamara in the open field and barely touched him!
And the thing about Alvin is he makes it look so effortless that sometimes you don’t realize how spectacular he is. In the four games Kamara missed, the Saints were 0-and-4.
His 31 touches against the Jets are tied for the most in his career with a 2018 game against the Falcons and it’s his third 30-touch game. The other was two months ago in Seattle. The Saints are 3-0 in those games.
At this point in the season, 30 touches is not too many. It’s just necessary. And as spectacular as Kamara was Sunday, he wasn’t better than Terron Armstead.
Kamara ran 18 times to the left behind Armstead. I know Armstead has missed a lot of games in his career, but when he plays he’s as good as it gets — and he was definitely that good on Sunday.
#1 It’s not over yet
I said this last week: It’s not over yet.
The Saints have four games to go, but throw out Tampa Bay. If they can get three wins against three teams with losing records, the Saints would get to 9-8.
The bottom line is the Saints went to New Jersey and took care of business. With a quarterback still trying to figure out how to throw with a mallet finger on his throwing hand, they beat a bad team by three touchdowns. 2021 has been a fight, but the fight isn’t over yet.