NEW ORLEANS — A terrific bounce-back win for Sean Payton and the Saints. They go to Tampa, they get a terrific effort on offense, and the defense was solid.
They beat the Bucs going away. Two guys really stood out for me and this one. The first is Alvin Kamara who really hasn't been right since maybe week five.
Kamara got the ball 26 times in Tampa for 154 yards. When he gets it over 20 times, the Saints are almost impossible to beat, and when Kamara's this good, he lifts the offense up to another level. Kamara was terrific.
It's the eyeball test you really have to use to judge Alvin Kamara. His yards per touch we're not bad last week, but he wasn't the same guy — he wasn't breaking tackles.
During the week, Drew Brees used the term "on the mend" to describe Kamara. Kamara looked like himself Sunday and he was a major difference in the game: 26 touches. He actually did return punts with Deontay Harris. Three of his touches were on punt returns.
Kamara was good across the board.
On defense, Cam Jordan continues to have an elite season — not just an all-pro season. Jordan has to be in the defensive MVP for the NFL conversation. Sunday, he had one and a half sacks, one tackle for loss, and four quarterback hits on Jameis Winston.
The Saints as a team hit Winston 12 times. Quarterback hits hasn't been a stat that long, but I can tell you 12 hits as an enormous amount. It had a cumulative effect on James Winston. He got worse as the game went on, as the Saints pulled away in the second half. If you watched it, you saw it.
It's a great win for the Saints. New Orleans now 8-2, opening up a three-game lead in the NFC South.
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