• 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00We start with the Saints at the star the Cowboys home opener where they had won 16 consecutive
00:08home regular season games.
00:11Of course, they lost to start off the postseason last year against Green Bay.
00:16You would have thought maybe Dallas could put up 44 against New Orleans.
00:19It was the complete opposite.
00:20The Saints score 44, which means they have scored 44 or more in each of their first two
00:26games, 47 week number one against Carolina.
00:30New Orleans wins outright by a ton as a six and a half point underdog.
00:35A total of 47 and a half, nearly skies over with New Orleans putting up all the offense
00:40themselves.
00:42It's crazy too, because sometimes you don't really know what you're going to get out of
00:45a football team.
00:46I didn't expect this last year out of the Saints, but I expected a better performance
00:49and probably should have won the division in my mind and also got the 10 wins.
00:52They weren't able to do that.
00:53So this year coming and sort of I forgot about team, like I'm not even really going to handicap
00:57the Saints because I don't think they're the best team in their division.
00:58It's Derek Carr.
00:59It's Dennis Allen.
01:00Why worry about them?
01:01So when I look at week number one, the biggest surprise to me was the New Orleans Saints.
01:04Even though we know the Carolina Panthers aren't a good football team, that many points
01:08at home.
01:09It's like, Oh, you know, I don't know what to take out of this game.
01:11Let's wait till week number two.
01:13And they did the exact same thing against better competition in the Dallas Cowboys.
01:16And this time not at home in their dome on the road in Jerry world, 44 points at 44 to
01:2219.
01:23That doesn't even tell the tale.
01:24Like this game was even worse than that.
01:25They dropped 35 points on that vaunted Dallas pass rushing defense in the first half and
01:31just put it on cruise control in the second going to an easy victory.
01:35And also after week number two, you really know a lot about teams.
01:37Do you know who's on deck for the New Orleans Saints in week number three?
01:41It's the Philadelphia Eagles.
01:42You want to talk about them getting the Eagles in a good spot off a Monday night game, which
01:45we don't even know if AJ Brown's going to play in this game.
01:48He's already out.
01:49Whether he plays in next week.
01:50Could we be looking at after three, four games into the season, the Saints as the best team
01:55in the NFC, who had that on their bingo card?
01:57They looked every part of the best team, not in the NFC, but in the NFL so far.
02:03No doubt about it.
02:04DRS.
02:05And you know, the defense under Dennis Allen is always going to be consistently solid.
02:08It's what we saw yesterday against Dallas.
02:11Now, normally I would give you a hard time for being unprepared in admitting to a national
02:16television audience that you did not handicap one of the 32 NFL teams to look at for the
02:21year getting underway.
02:23But I can't fault you because much like you, I was high on New Orleans entering last year
02:28as the odds on favorites to win the NFC South.
02:31And they failed us.
02:32They disappointed both of us.
02:34And at the start of the year, when I kind of turned my head from New Orleans, it was
02:38because the offense was stale.
02:41First month and a half of the season, midway through October, the Saints were a bottom
02:4410 scoring offense.
02:46And then after last week, I looked at what New Orleans ended up doing, still thinking
02:50they would be bottom half at the end of 2023.
02:53They actually ended the regular season.
02:55The ninth best scoring offense in the league, averaging nearly 24 points per game.
02:59And here we have the Saints averaging 45 and a half points per game, 91 total in two games.
03:06And Donnie, they haven't even needed the offense to be that great.
03:10New Orleans scored a touchdown on their first six offensive possessions yesterday in Dallas.
03:15On their first eight offensive possessions against Carolina a week ago, a score on every
03:20one, five touchdowns, three field goals, Alvin Kamara, 115 rushing yards, three touchdowns
03:27on the ground, 65 more through the air, and another receiving score, a four touchdown
03:32day.
03:33This New Orleans offense looks like a world beater.
03:36Not just the Saints winning and covering numbers.
03:39They beat Dallas yesterday, 17 to 14 in an ugly game, where you look at the underdog.
03:44New Orleans took it to Dallas, and that is impressive.
03:47No, it really is.
03:49Like you go on the road against the Cowboys, you run the ball 39 times for a buck 90, which
03:53is close to five yards per carry and four touchdowns on the ground, which is impressive.
03:57And also you have a game that you scored 44 points.
04:00Your quarterback was 11 of 16, but 15.2 yards per pass attempt, 243 yards and two touchdowns
04:07here.
04:08The thing that you don't trust about New Orleans, not necessarily is they don't have enough
04:10talent because they do.
04:12It's always like sooner than later, Derek Carr is going to come back down to earth.
04:14But if your running game is that strong and your defense is playing that well, you don't
04:18need Derek Carr to win you football games.
04:20You might just need Derek Carr to manage those football games for you, which is so impressive.
04:24And also look at their defense like Dallas, 21 carries, 68 yards, only 3.2 yards per carry.
04:29You said, okay, CeeDee, get yours, four for 19, a touchdown.
04:32We'll shut everybody else down.
04:33And they did that.
04:34As I said, again, the most eyeopening performances of the early season are for the Saints because
04:39maybe you could have said they could go 2-0, but winning games 21-20, 21-17, not absolutely
04:45firebombing these teams in back-to-back weeks here, both home and away.
04:50They look absolutely fantastic and you're right, looking at it coming into the season.
04:54How many people were saying like the Saints are my dark horse in the NFC?
04:57I don't think too many people were saying that, Ben.

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