The Saints left Week 9 with a clear split-screen showing from their defense and offensive line play: the pass rush came to life, the protection fell apart, and the secondary had a rough afternoon against Cleveland’s young receivers.
Start with the bright spot. New Orleans got after Shedeur Sanders all game, bringing him down five times and adding three more tackles for loss.
Carl Granderson was in the middle of it with two sacks, while Chase Young added one of his own. That puts both edge rushers in the top 3 in the NFL in sacks, with Granderson at 7.5 and Young at 8, and the Saints can make a strong case that they’ve got the league’s best pass-rushing duo right now.
Khristian Boyd chipped in his second sack of the season, and Kaden Elliss turned in his best game of the year with a sack and a tackle for loss. The timing mattered, too.
Two of those sacks came on third down, and two came in goal-to-go situations, helping force a Browns field goal and a turnover on downs in the red zone.
The Saints also got a lift on the ground from Audric Estime, who returned and ran for 72 yards and a touchdown against the team that had waived him a week earlier. That 72-yard total was the most by a Saint this season, and it stood in sharp contrast to the previous game, when Tyler Shough led the team with just 7 rushing yards.
But the same game also exposed the other side of the line play. New Orleans gave up five sacks of Tyler Shough, and four of them came on third down.
One of those plays may have cost the Saints three points, since it turned a potential 43-yard field goal into a 52-yarder, and that kick was missed. Only one of the sacks came from a defensive lineman, with Cleveland’s blitzes giving the Saints fits throughout the afternoon.
The Browns came in averaging just under 3 sacks per game, so the hope is that the line gets a boost with Kelvin Banks Jr. back in the mix.
The ugliest part of the day came in the secondary. New Orleans had no answer for Cleveland’s young receivers, giving up a 60-yard catch to Denzel Boston and a 64-yard touchdown to KC Concepcion.
Concepcion got behind Martin Emerson Jr. and then slipped past both Emerson and Julian Blackmon on the way to the end zone. Kool-Aid McKinstry was beaten deep as well, then couldn’t locate an underthrown ball, which turned into Boston’s 60-yard catch and run.
Later, in overtime, Justin Reid missed Harold Fannin Jr. in the open field, a play that could have ended the game with a touchdown if the Saints hadn’t stopped the two-point try that followed.
By the end of it, Shedeur Sanders had what was arguably the best game of his career, and the Saints’ pass defense is now 28th in the NFL, allowing 236 yards per game.
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