New Orleans Saints: Week 3 win was great, but don’t get too excited

The New Orleans Saints entered Week 3 as the underdogs in Seattle and left with a win over the Seahawks and a 2-1 record.

After losing Drew Brees in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Rams, the New Orleans Saints were granted underdog status in Week 3 against the Seattle Seahawks.

Even with Brees, the Saints probably would have been a point or so underdogs just because of the fact that it remains very difficult to win in Seattle. Without Brees, it was safe to say that most people predicted that the Seahawks would get the W.

That was not the case as Teddy Bridgewater led the Saints to a 33-27 victory on the road in a rainy, loud, CenturyLink Field. That kind of win is massive for the Saints moving forward, especially because it happened in the first game without Brees.

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There are a lot of positives to take from this game. The defense made some stops when they needed to and Alvin Kamara looked insane. It was a great win and no win is going to be perfect, so it is unfair to expect that.

However, it is also unfair to only see sunshine and rainbows after this game and take it as a clear-cut sign that the Saints will be just fine without Brees. There is still a lot of work to be done.

The Saints had more points at the end of the game and that is all that matters: that is all you need to do to get a win in the National Football League. However, if you look at the box score you would think that the Saints got absolutely hammered in this game.

The Saints had 265 yards of offense on the day compared to a staggering 515 for the Seahawks. Seattle had 26 first downs opposed to the Saints’ 15.

The team really got lucky on its first two touchdowns of the game, both of which were not offensive and came on a punt return and a fumble return. That is absolutely fantastic, but the team is not going to get two, let alone one, non-offensive touchdown every single game.

You cannot take the scoring drives on offense but a lot of it was fueled by Alvin Kamara both in the pass and run game. Teddy Bridgewater did not make any miraculous throws and did a good job at just managing the game, although he was a tad mediocre all game.

That was fine today, but you cannot get away with having your quarterback play mediocre every single game. That will bite the Saints in the butt more times than not.

It was not even like this was a blowout win, either. The New Orleans Saints defense came up when it mattered most, which included three turnovers on downs, but the defense also allowed the Seahawks to hang in their much longer than they should have been.

And this is a Seattle team that does not have an elite weapon for Russell Wilson to target. If he had an elite-type receiver then this game would have been drastically different because of the downs.

It was a great win and there is a lot to be proud of if you are a Saints fan. However, this win does nothing to tell us how the team will continue to play as no other game is going to play as this one did.

Next week is the Dallas Cowboys and we will see if the Saints can repeat the magic of Sunday. If not, we will see more of a true reflection of this team without Brees.