Through some great seasons over the last 10 years, the Saints have never started fast. This 2-0 start is the Saints first in a decade.
Tony Jones, Jr. is the most unlikely Saints hero getting his first and second NFL touchdowns in the win.
The Saints won despite a poor effort overall from their quarterback, and let's start our four takeaways there.
No. 4: Saints won despite of themselves offensively
Derek Carr’s numbers overall were terrible – for the game a 65.5 passer rating.
No starting quarterback in the NFL was this bad over the course of last season.
In two games, Carr is 22nd in the league – not great.
But here's what's truly weird about this game. All three of the Saints starting wide receivers did really good things in this game.
Mike Thomas was a force in the first half with seven catches – four of which for first downs. He also drew a pass interference, so that’s five first downs for lucky No. 13.
This is exactly who Thomas must be for the Saints to win.
Rashid Shaheed must be the home run hitter and he was again with a critical 45-yard catch in the fourth. He caught four passes for 63 yards.
And Chris Olave must be the star, and he was with six catches for 86 yards.
All three of the Saints’ “Big 3” had effective performances in a game in which their quarterback didn't. Although for the second straight week, Derek Carr was way better in the second half.
His first-half passing rating was a 44.1, and in the second half – 118.8. Now, he only threw 10 passes in the last two quarters, so his overall numbers are still bad. But like last week, there was a bigtime second-half improvement.
#3: O-line struggles – again
But there are some positive signs. Carr struggled largely because of Carolina’s pressure. The Panthers sacked Carr four times. That’s eight sacks allowed in two games.
From a pass-protection standpoint, that’s just not good enough. That’s in the bottom 10 in the NFL in protecting the quarterback. This has to improve.
But the Saints ran the ball fairly effectively, and to offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael’s credit, on a day their quarterback wasn’t great, the Saints kept beating that drum for a total of 33 carries for 134 yards (4.1 average) on a night neither team had much offense.
Taysom Hill also put up really good numbers.
The O-line has to be better, but on Monday night they did enough.
#2: You Blake ‘groupie’ yet?
It sure looks like the Saints are gonna play a lot of close games, and for the second week in a row, Blake Grupe was perfect – two field goals and two extra points. Two weeks in, 16 teams haven’t missed a kick yet. But 16 teams have.
The Saints are on the good-end of that with a rookie kicker that hasn’t missed yet.
#1 Can’t get enough of that ‘D’
You know what this is, the Saints’ defense was tenacious.
They only allowed 239 total yards Monday night.
Two weeks in, the Saints are fourth in total defense.
The Saints have not played an elite offense yet. My guess is both the Titans and the Panthers will finish this season in the bottom half of the league in total offense.
But, Top 5 for the defense is absolutely achievable.
They’re getting off the field third in the NFL right now in third down-conversion defense.
Among the reasons, Marshon Lattimore continues to be crazy good.
Carl Granderson has taken a major step forward, and Cam Jordan is far from done.
This unit will give the Saints a chance to win a lot of games.
The wins have not been pretty, but the Saints are 2-0.
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