After one week of NFL football being back, the New Orleans Saints currently sit with a record of 0-1 following their 31-30 loss to the Detroit Lions. Attention will now shift to another road matchup, this time versus the Baltimore Ravens, who are coming off of a 41-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
The Saints will enter week two as the fourth-ranked offense in the league after gaining 469 total yards. They accumulated 378 passing yards (1st in the league) and 91 rushing yards (22nd in the league) during
last Sunday’s slate.
QB Tyler Shough leads both New Orleans and the NFL with 410 yards through the air even after throwing two interceptions and being sacked five times. Former Jacksonville Jaguar RB Travis Etienne Jr. led the Saints with 46 rushing yards, averaging just over five per carry. WR Chris Olave is also league-leading after his career-high 182 receiving yards on ten receptions even though he was kept out of the endzone by Detroit.
Size in the passing game led to majority of the Saints’ scoring after WR Devaughn Vele and TEs Juwan Johnson and Noah Fant hauled in touchdowns. RB Kendre Miller punched in the other New Orleans TD on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore defense is currently ranked sixth overall in the league after giving up just 251 yards of offense in week one. The Ravens allowed 149 yards through the air (5th in the league) and 102 yards rushing (13th in the league) in their first outing.
Ravens LB Roquan Smith had a team-leading 11 tackles versus the Colts and secured an interception. CB Marlon Humphrey came up with the only other turnover for Baltimore after forcing and recovering a fumble. Safety Malaki Starks and LB Tavius Robinson earned sacks last weekend for the Ravens and combined for 17 total yards tackled for a loss.
Baltimore’s defense held the Colts to just 16 points through three quarters before giving up a garbage time score. The Raven defense can play hardnosed, competitive football long into the game meaning New Orleans will not be able to rely on too many late heroics and scoring spurts if they want any shot of getting their record up to .500 and avoiding an 0-2 start.
