The Taysom Train Helps Power Saints Past Seahawks

NEW ORLEANS -- The Saints got a big win at home against the Seahawks, improving to 2-3 on the young season. A heavy dose of Taysom Hill was key in seeing New Orleans getting past Seattle. There are still a lot of things to cleanup for this team, and the health certainly is a focal point as two key players went down during the course of the game. However, we get to talk about a win for the Saints this week.

Game Recap

The Saints started with the football after the Seahawks won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half kickoff. New Orleans didn't get into the end zone to start, but did rattle off a 10-play, 41-yard drive and had Wil Lutz convert a 56-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 9:34 left in the first quarter. There was a good dose of Alvin Kamara on the first two plays, and then Andy Dalton found Chris Olave for another conversion. The drive stalled out after Dalton couldn't hookup with him on a 3rd-and-5 play in Seahawks territory.

It took the Seahawks just five plays to get into the end zone on their first possession of the game, as Geno Smith did a good job extending the play on a 3rd-and-5 to find DK Metcalf for a 50-yard touchdown catch and run to go up 7-3 with 6:41 left. The other big play on the 75-yard drive was a 15-yard hookup from Smith to Noah Fant.

Looking to counter, New Orleans started with bad field position after Deonte Harty muffed the kickoff and brought it out to the 11-yard-line. The Saints got out of the whole quickly on the first play, as Dalton hooked up with Olave for an 18-yard gain. Unfortunately, the rets of the drive went nowhere. Even after getting a neutral zone infraction from the Seahawks to make it 3rd-and-5, they couldn't pick up and had to punt.

Seattle got points on their next drive, going 36 yards in 6 plays that ended with a 56-yard Jason Myers field goal to make it 10-3 with 1:13 to play. The big play came from Rashaad Penny, who rushed for 32 yards on one of the early plays to flip the field position. New Orleans settled in defensively to force the field goal attempt, with offsetting penalties happening on one of the plays with offensive pass interference on DK Metcalf (Marshon Lattimore) and a holding call on Paulson Adebo.

The Saints got back into it after rattling off a nice offensive drive of their own, going 69 yards in 10 plays to find the end zone with an 8-yard Taysom Hill touchdown run. The drive kept going early after the Seahawks were guilty of a neutral zone infraction on 3rd-and-5, and then things kept going from there with a big pass play to Juwan Johnson and runs by Taysom Hill and Alvin Kamara to help set the Saints up in goal-to-go.

The teams traded three-and-outs on their next possessions, with Cam Jordan coming up huge on a 3rd-and-2 play to sack Geno Smith. Meanwhile, Andy Dalton was sacked on the team's opening 1st-and-10 play, and they couldn't crawl out of the negative yardage to punt back to Seattle with 6:43 left in the half.

The next offensive drive was shut down by the Saints defense, and then some craziness happened on the punt for Seattle. It looked like it was a designed fake or rugby style punt, but it didn't work either way, as Michael Dickson lost the football and saw it get recovered by Taysom Hill to give New Orleans excellent field position. Two plays later, Hill took it in from 8 yards out to make it 17-10 with 3:34 left until halftime.

Seattle did a good job responding on their next drive, going 62 yards in 9 plays to get another Myers field goal to cut it to 17-13. A big 32-yard hookup to Noah Fant helped their drive, and they also got a 13-yard scramble by Smith on the drive. The Seahawks got into the red zone, but New Orleans turned them away, dodging a major bullet on 3rd-and-8 with Bradley Roby being beat by DK Metcalf in coverage. Thankfully, he couldn't haul it in.

New Orleans looked to counter in the two-minute offense, and had some good momentum going on their drive. However, disaster struck at the end of their drive after a costly offensive penalty on James Hurst followed up by an Alvin Kamara fumble after a catch to give Seattle back the ball with 20 seconds left. Seattle made them pay, as Geno Smith found Tyler Lockett for a 35-yard touchdown hookup with just 0:07 left in the half. The extra point was missed, but they took a 19-17 lead into halftime.

Second Half

Seattle ran one play on their opening possession of the third quarter, and it gave the ball to the Saints after the short hookup to DK Metcalf saw Pete Werner strip the ball out and the ball was recovered by David Onyemata. There was a lengthy review, but the call on the field stood. Several plays later, the Saints found the end zone after Dalton hooked up with Chris Olave for a 16-yard score. It was a great route and adjustment for him, and the play had to be challenged. He also got hurt on the play with what looked to be a head injury and then went to the locker room after further evaluation.

The Seahawks ran a short 5-play, 15-yard drive on their next series, as Pete Werner helped get the defense off the field after an Abraham Lucas false start penalty backed Seattle into a 3rd-and-15 play. New Orleans ended up doing a 5-play of their own before punting back to Seattle, with the Seahawks running a three-and-out on their next possession.

Disaster then struck for the Saints just a couple plays into their next drive after Dalton was picked off by Tariq Woolen. Seattle took over inside New Orleans territory, but ended up going backwards a bit and punted back to the Saints inside of 3 minutes left in the third quarter. They did not disappoint with their next offensive drive, taking it into the end zone after a 4-play, 79-yard drive that was fueled by a 54-yard Alvin Kamara screen play. Just a couple of plays later, Taysom Hill threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Adam Trautman to make it 31-19 with 0:36 left in the third quarter.

Seattle ended up responding quickly, going 75 yards in just 3 plays. There was a big pass interference call on Marshon Lattimore that helped the Seahawks move into Saints territory, and then Smith found Tyler Lockett for a 40-yard hookup to get into the end zone early in the fourth quarter. The 2-point attempt failed, but the damage was done to make it 31-25 Saints with 14:08 to play in the game.

New Orleans looked to answer, and they had a decent drive going before it stalled out. The 10-play, 30-yard drive saw the offense stay out for a 4th-and-2 call, which saw them get called for a false start on Juwan Johnson after it appeared that the Seahawks defender jumped first. New Orleans punted the ball back to Seattle with 7:40 left in the game.

It took the Seahawks all of 46 seconds to get into the end zone, as Kenneth Walker rattled off a 69-yard touchdown run to help Seattle take the lead 32-31 with 6:54 to play in the game. The Saints quickly answered with a 60-yard Taysom Hill touchdown run on their short 3-play drive, with the 2-point attempt working with Mark Ingram to make it 39-32 with 5:22 to go.

New Orleans got a big defensive stop on the next series, which saw Cam Jordan sack Geno Smith for a 14-yard loss on 3rd-and-2 to give the Saints back the ball with under 4 minutes to go. They did what they needed to do on offense on their drive, getting some key first downs and were able to bleed the clock down to win 39-32.

Game Recap

Second Half

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