One New Orleans Saints cornerback had a breakout game against the New York Giants, but it may not have been who you'd first expect. Starting corner Kool-Aid McKinstry draws the top assignment each week, but he didn't finish this one -- after the game, head coach Kellen Moore told reporters that he "had a little bit of a migraine thing going on."
McKinstry started the game but only stayed in for 32 defensive snaps before stepping out. Martin Emerson Jr. replaced him for the rest of the afternoon, with rookie draft pick Lorenzo Styles Jr. briefly stepping in after Emerson got the wind knocked out of him. And it was Emerson who earned himself a game ball in the victorious postgame locker room.
"Truthfully, every time, I want to come down with it,"
Emerson said in the postgame press conference. "Coach Staley was preaching all week that the secondary had to step up, and have that ballhawking mentality, and get the ball back for our offense. Impact the game. I'm happy to know we did that."
Emerson intercepted both Giants quarterbacks in one afternoon, picking off Jameis Winston before taking a pass away from his replacement J.J. McCarthy. He also had seven tackles (one a tackle for loss) and two other pass deflections, surrendering a single first down conversion on ten targets into his coverage. His takeaway from Winston set up a lead-extending field goal, and the interception off of McCarthy should have prompted the offense to run out the clock. They fumbled the ball back to New York instead.
Will Emerson remain in the starting lineup moving forward? He's been rotating into games with second-year starter Quincy Riley when McKinstry was healthy, and if everyone has the green light you'd assume that continues. But the secondary has been so porous to start the season that it wouldn't be a shocker to see Emerson supplant one of them. Riley appears to be more vulnerable of the two, but McKinstry hasn't performed as well as expected in Brandon Staley's scheme. Either way, it'll be tough to keep Emerson on the sideline after watching him make the most of this opportunity.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints CB Martin Emerson Jr. reflects on breakout 2-interception game
