NEW ORLEANS — Let's start with a thank you to Darren Rizzi. Rizzi has re-energized Saints football
His mom was there Sunday and had a pregame chat with Alvin Kamara.
With a Bye Week coming we get to enjoy this one for two weeks.
Rizzi has his team playing loose and with gradually returning confidence. Can the Saints get back into the playoff race?
It's certainly mathematically possible, but honestly, who cares? Let's just enjoy this one for the next two weeks.
Here are my Four Takeaways:
#4 Electric Carr
Derek Carr was excellent on Sunday. I know New Orleans has had a difficult time loving Derek Carr.. and I'm not sure I totally understand it.
The fact is Carr was brilliant on Sunday. His passer rating was the 4th best among all quarterbacks this weekend.
On the season, he's the NFL's 4th highest-rated passer.
Right now Derek Carr is having the best season of his NFL career.
Whatever issues the Saints have had this season, Derek Carr is not the problem. And that's the truth whether people want to admit it or not.
#3 Positive Signs on D
At number three, it was far from perfect, but the Saints' defense is showing positive signs.
They shut down the Cleveland running game giving up just 66 yards on the ground.
For the second game in a row, they were good in the fourth quarter. In two games under Darren Rizzi, the Falcons and Browns had seven fourth-quarter possessions and a grand total of zero points on those seven possessions.
I said it last week and there's more evidence this week.
The Saints are playing loose and free in the fourth quarter under Rizzi. Both games could have gone either way after three quarters but the Saints defense made plays.
#2 King of the Hill
At number two Taysom Hill was unreal.
Just so we're all on the same page, let me give you Taysom Hill's history.
He was a big, athletic quarterback at BYU and older because after high school, he served a two-year Mormon mission in Australia.
At BYU, injuries shortened four different seasons. He was there for five years, which means that in 2017, he entered the draft as a 26-year-old.
Hill went undrafted, and the Green Bay Packers signed him as an undrafted free agent. But even after a good preseason, he didn't make their 53-man roster.
The Packers wanted him for their practice squad, but to do that, you have to cut a player and then pick them up the next day.
When the Packers cut him, Sean Payton and the Saints scooped him up.
That was in 2017 in December of that year... the saints had so many injuries to their special team's guys. That Payton had his rookie quarterback filling in.
And as it turns out Hiill was really good at it. That was the beginning of the ever-expanding Taysom Hill experience.
The more he did, the better he got.
This is year eight in New Orleans for Taysom Hill. In 2020 and '21, Sean Payton tried Hill as his starting quarterback with mixed results.
The truth is he's an ok NFL quarterback, but in the role he played Sunday he's one of one.
He's elite. Other teams have tried a guy in a similar way, but he's the only guy able to do the mixed bag of things he does.
Sean Payton sort of stumbled on to Taysom's uniqueness.. but then he nurtured it..
On Sunday, it paid off in one of the great individual games in saints history.
#1 Are the Saints relevant?
Are the saints relevant again? The truth is probably not but maybe.
Sean Payton did New Orleans another favor and beat the heck out of the Atlanta Falcons.
The Saints were three games out of first place in the south. They're two games out, thanks to the Broncos.
At 4-7, The New York Times says the Saints have a three percent chance to make the playoffs.
They'd have to go 5-1 over the last six to do that. It is certainly a long shot, but Rizzi's first two give you hope and a smile heading into the bye.
That's my four takeaways from a fun Sunday against the browns.
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