Live Updates From Saints-Patriots Week 5 Game

Follow along with all of the happenings from Gillette Stadium as we give you live Saints updates with notes, thoughts, and observations throughout the game.

Author:
John Hendrix
Updated:
Oct 8, 2023 3:56 PM EDT
Original:
Oct 8, 2023

In this story:

New Orleans Saints

FOXBORO -- The Saints and Patriots meet in Gillette Stadium for an early kickoff in Week 5, and we'll see if New Orleans puts all the talk into action to try and rebound on Sunday. Keep up with all the action in our Week 5 live updates game thread, as we'll provide notes, observations, and much more from here.

Pregame

Chris Olave was testing some things out on the field during pregame warmups, but we're not sure what that was about. He didn't have any type of injury in practice, but some have asked.

Pregame Notes

Getting Paulson Adebo and Jordan Howden will be a big boost for the secondary, but it'll be interesting if Adebo actually starts opposite of Marshon Lattimore. Isaac Yiadom has been playing strong, so we'll see what walkthroughs look like.
Speaking of Howden, if you didn't know or see, he's playing with a heavily wrapped left hand. This is to help with his finger injury which required surgery.
No Andrus Peat or Landon Young today will mean the Saints will have a new jumbo offensive lineman. They're already down Juwan Johnson, so in those heavy sets, it'll be interesting to see who is used. It's not ideal seeing the offensive line down players.
Saints are in their white jersey-black pants combo for the first time this season.
"There's plenty more to be said and there's plenty more to be done. I just think it's time to just stop saying things." That's what Foster Moreau told us in the locker room this week. As I alluded to this week, the biggest themes for the Saints this week have been around consistency and execution. Talk is cheap. It's time for them to execute.
The Saints are back to their normal starting offensive line in this game. They have played better, but need to keep things going.
Paulson Adebo is starting opposite of Marshon Lattimore during walkthroughs, while Jordan Howden is with Tyrann Mathieu at safety.
With a win today, Bill Belichick could join the 300-win club along with George Halas and Don Shula. Obviously, Saints fans don't want that to happen, but it's something worth pointing out.
Saints called tails, and it was heads. The offense is up first. Patriots will receive the second half kickoff.

First Quarter - Saints 7, Patriots 0

Scoring

Saints, 7:02 - Tyrann Mathieu 27-yard interception return.

Notes

Real nice hookup to Michael Thomas on the 3rd Down play to pickup 14 yards. Getting him involved early and often can pay off.
Max Garcia ended up as the jumbo offensive lineman on the first drive.
On Derek Carr's run, James Hurst lost his man, which led to pressure.
Good Alvin Kamara run for 8 yards. He needs to get touches like that to help get some things going on offense.
That was not a good throw by Carr with a wide open Chris Olave. It was about as good of protection as you can get.
That was a low snap on the Carr sack that turned them away on the first series. Adam Prentice also didn't block anyone on the blitz.
The decision to re-punt hurt the Patriots, pinning them at their own 6-yard-line instead of the 8. Interesting decision to go for the fair catch too.
Good job by the defense to rebound after giving up an 8-yard run to start.
Saints are getting excellent field position to start their second drive on the Patriots 40-yard-line. They kind of need to put points up here.
What a waste of good field position. The Saints had a nice thing going to make it 3rd-and-4, but then a false start penalty followed by a bad pass and drop to Jimmy Graham squandered it away.
Excellent hit by Carl Granderson on Mac Jones that ended up with a Tyrann Mathieu pick-six. That's the type of things you need when your offense is struggling.
Not understanding the unnecessary roughness call on Marshon Lattimore. It feels like one of those 'it looks bad, so let's call it' ones.
Carl Granderson continues to show off his run defense.
When you are shooting yourself in the foot, it doesn't help. A false start penalty moved the down and distance to a very unfavorable situation. The Saints had 4 penalties for 30 yards in the first quarter.
The 26-yard hookup to Michael Thomas and 25-yard hookup to Rashid Shaheed were big plays on the scoring drive. Alvin Kamara made a really nice block on the Shaheed hookup. He also got to cap things off with a touchdown run.

Second Quarter - Saints 21, Patriots 0

Scoring

Saints, 14:23 - Alvin Kamara 2-yard run for a touchdown. (8-62, 4:16)
Saints, 10:47 - Chris Olave 5-yard touchdown reception from Derek Carr. (5-59, 2:35)

Notes

Real physical battle on the 3rd Down play between Paulson Adebo and DeVante Parker that almost resulted in a circus catch. Adebo's physicality is one of his strengths.
Good job by Derek Carr going through the reads and progressions to send it to Kendre Miller in the flats. He ended up picking up 33 yards, getting a nice block from Michael Thomas in the process.
Taysom Hill continues to be a tough player to bring down. Real nice run to get inside the 10-yard-line.
Great red zone execution for the second time today, as Carr found Chris Olave for the score. This was the first time the Saints hit over 20 points since last year's game against the Falcons (12/18/22).
The Saints run defense is having a better showing in this game.
Good pass breakup by Paulson Adebo to turn the Patriots away after they caught some momentum. The Pats fans gave a nice cheer after the offense actually picked up a first down.
A successful screen play to Kendre Miller is a good thing to see. It picked up 11 yards. Saints also seem to be using a lot more motion in this game.
Looked like a big hookup to Chris Olave on the sideline, but he couldn't get the second foot down.
Patriots found some success working in their two-minute offense. Real nice job by Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon getting an 8-yard sack on the play.
Really nice job by Carl Granderson to negate the Patriots from even getting an opportunity at a field goal attempt late, as he sacked Mac Jones on 3rd-and-14 for a 13-yard loss.
That was one of the best first halves by the Saints in several games, and I can't remember the last time they had such a good showing where everything went right. The Packers game was one, but this is different.

Third Quarter - Saints 24, Patriots 0

Scoring

Saints, 11:34 - Blake Grupe 54-yard field goal. (4--6, 2:26)

Notes

Real nice tackle by Alontae Taylor on JuJu Smith-Schuster in the flats to start the second half.
The Patriots tried a fake tush push play and Jones flipped it out to Rhamondre Stevenson, who fumbled. Cam Jordan recovered.
The maddening part of the Saints offense is you see the cause and effect happen. They go from 3rd-and-5 to 3rd-and-10 because of a false start penalty, and then Carr gets sacked on the next play after arguably holding the ball too long. Thankfully, Blake Grupe booted through a long field goal attempt.
Good run stop by Pete Werner on Ezekiel Elliott. Werner continues to be a very underrated part of this defense.
There's another one of those Malcolm Roach making a play every week plays. He got a big tipped pass at the line of scrimmage on the 3rd-and-3 play.
Carl Granderson made another good run stop, forcing a 5-yard loss on the opening offensive play for the Pats following a three-and-out.
Really nice run by Alvin Kamara on 3rd-and-8 to keep their drive alive, picking up 10 yards up the middle.
Another 3rd Down pickup that was unfavorable, as Michael Thomas picked up 13 on 3rd-and-7.
Not sure what Carr was thinking or doing on the 3rd-and-8 play. He overthrew Thomas and was fortunate that the pass wasn't picked off.
Immediately following the punt, Pete Werner got a pick on the first play after Jordan Howden made a really nice play on Ty Montgomery that forced the ball up in the air. It's just been their day.

Fourth Quarter

Scoring

Saints, 13:03 - Foster Moreau 6-yard touchdown reception from Derek Carr. (6-31, 3:04)
Saints, 5:43 - Blake Grupe 53-yard field goal. (4--2, 1:32)

Notes

That was some individual effort by Alvin Kamara in the flats to pick up 12 after a short pass from Carr.
Really nice play design on the shovel pass to Foster Moreau for the score. That is something we saw in practice this week.
The Patriots made a quarterback change, putting in Bailey Zappe. Mac Jones finished with 12/22 for 110 yards and 2 picks.
The Saints only put up 30+ points twice last season, winning one against the Seahawks scoring 39 points and losing against the Cardinals scoring 32 points.
The Patriots were 1/12 on 3rd Down with less than 10 minutes to play, and they allowed less than 150 yards.
Saints tried to go for an 'insult to injury' shot to Chris Olave. It looked like he had it and crossed the goal line, but it might have been one of those situations where the ball did not survive the ground.
Blake Grupe making two 50+ field goals outdoors won't make a ton of headlines, but that's a big confidence booster for him.
Jameis Winston ended up going into the game. The Saints put in a lot of defensive reserves too.
Nice pass breakup by Jordan Howden late in the game on a Mike Gesicki catch.