NEW ORLEANS — A few takeaways from the Saints last-second victory over the Texans to start the season.
Deshaun Watson was terrific. He single-handedly kept the Texans in the game even though he was sacked six times. Trey Hendrickson in particular had a terrific game rushing off the edge, but Watson was unbelievably good. Sean Payton said as much after the game.
There were a lot of positives for the Saints:
- Wil Lutz with the 58-yarder to win the game but Ryan Ramczyk and the offensive line did an unbelievably good job against the Texans’ J.J. Watt, who is maybe the single best pass rusher/defensive end. Watt had zero tackles, zero assists, zero pressures, zero sacks. He did cause one holding call, but Ramczyk and company did a spectacular job, as good as you could ever do – against J.J. Watt.
- Ted Ginn showed up in a big way with over 100 yards receiving.
- Brees was unbelievable, especially in the second half when he was 16 of 20 for 210 yards and two touchdowns. How good was he? Two of those
incompletions were spikes on the final drive. - Alvin Kamara was maybe the player of the game for the Saints, though you could pick many. He had 169 yards rushing and receiving. He was untackleable. He had 140 of those yards in the second half.
A huge win. You haven’t won an opener in six years and you get a win against a good team – a playoff team last year, a divisional championship team last year. You get a win in thrilling fashion. It was a fun night in the Superdome.