The New Orleans Saints hosted the New England Patriots on Sunday as they looked to build off of their first win of the season a week ago. Here’s a quick recap of all that went down.
First Quarter
The Saints got the ball
first in this one, with Spencer Rattler wasting no time as he connected with Chris Olave for 53 yards on the game’s first play. Although the drive would fizzle out from there, Blake Grupe converted from 34 yards, and the hosts were on the board.
Quarterback Drake Maye and the Patriots offense then made just as quick a start of their own, with a 3rd-and-9 conversion to Kayshon Boutte setting up a 53-yard touchdown pass to DeMario Douglas to give the Pats a 7-3 lead.
Rattler’s strong start would continue as the Saints offense returned, going perfect on the ensuing drive, including a scramble for a first down. But a holding penalty against rookie Kelvin Banks Jr forced the Saints into 3rd-and-long. A play later, Grupe was out to kick again, where he was good from 48 yards.
Maye soon found Douglas again on another deep end zone shot, but an offensive pass interference away from the play against Stefon Diggs brought it back. Nevertheless, the Pats drove down into New Orleans territory, helped by numerous penalties against the defense.
Maye then connected with Boutte for 25 yards and a touchdown with less than a minute remaining in the quarter to put the Pats up 14-6.
Second Quarter
The biggest play on the ensuing Saints drive was a 17-yard connection from Rattler to Rashid Shaheed, and the black and gold quickly found themselves in the red zone. Rattler scrambled to set up a 1st-and-goal, but it was Taysom Hill who eventually ran in the 1-yard touchdown to cut into the New England lead.
Now up just a point, the Pats would fail to respond. Facing 4th-and-7 just past midfield, Maye fumbled the snap before falling on it. The turnover on downs gave the Saints the ball and a chance at the lead.
Rattler connected four times with Olave to move the Saints into field goal range, where Grupe was good once more from 38 yards to give the Saints a 16-14 lead.
Maye returned to put together an excellent two-minute drill, finding a variety of receivers to set up another touchdown pass to Boutte, this time from 29 yards.
Unnecessary roughness against Alontae Taylor moved the Pats to the 1-yard line, where they consequently elected to go for two. Maye ran it in, and the visitors went into the half leading 22-16.
Third Quarter
The Pats got the second half underway with a long yet productive drive, going 50 yards in just over 7 minutes of action. A 14-yard pass to Diggs was followed by a 20-yard scramble from Maye, which moved the Pats down to the 2-yard line.
But the Saints defense was able to limit the damage to a field goal, which put New England on top 25-16.
Rattler would find Kamara for 22 yards on the ensuing drive, but a holding penalty against Trevor Penning halted progress. Both teams then exchanged quick punts.
With the ball back in his hands, Rattler connected with Olave for 15 yards to move the Saints past midfield before the quarter’s end.
Fourth Quarter
After finding Shaheed for 6 yards, Rattler was sacked by Marcus Jones on 3rd-and-6. Grupe continued his perfect day, knocking through his fourth kick of the afternoon from 54 yards.
Penalties bombarded the Patriots on the ensuing drive, and they were forced to punt.
Trailing 25-19 with a chance to take the lead, New Orleans was unable to capitalize. Juwan Johnson caught a pass over the middle from Rattler before fumbling the ball. Craig Woodson recovered for the Pats.
However, Maye was unable to do much as he got the ball back, and the visitors punted again with more than 5 minutes still to play.
Rattler connected with Brandin Cooks for 21 yards as he looked to lead a game-winning drive, but incompletions to Olave and Shaheed on 2nd and 3rd down forced a punt.
Needing a stop on 3rd-and-11, the Saints thought they had it when Maye’s 21-yard pass to Boutte was ruled to be caught out of bounds on the Pats sideline. But a successful challenge from New England saw the play reversed and the catch resulting in a first down. From there, Maye knelt out the clock to secure a 25-19 Patriots victory.
The 1-5 Saints will look to bounce back when they visit the Chicago Bears on October 19th.
