Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

It wasn't the prettiest performance by the Saints but once again they found a way to win. At this point of the season, the Saints are far from dominant but there's something to be said about a team that continues find ways to win. Last week they won a shootout. This week they won with defense and a powerful rushing attack. At 3-1, they now find themselves alone in first place in the NFC South and still haven't come close to playing their best football yet. All things considered, this team has to like where it's at after starting the season with that ugly loss to Tampa Bay.

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Defense dominates after shaky start
It was an ominous start for the Saints defense. The Giants marched 75 yards in 10 plays to score a touchdown on their opening drive and made it look easy in doing it. Eli Manning completed 6 of 7 passes for 42 yards in the series, capping the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard. From there, the Saints defense dug in and kept the Giants out of the end zone for the rest of the game. The Giants managed to gain just four first downs and 42 total yards in their next five series as the Saints seized control of the game. Linebacker Demario Davis led the effort with game highs of 11 tackles and two sacks.

Alvin Kamara enjoys career day
The second-year running back had a remarkable second half, rushing for 102 of his career-high 134 yards and scoring all three of the Saints' touchdowns. The Saints needed Kamara to come up big as they held off the Giants and iced the game with a dominant rushing effort. The 173-yard rushing effort marked a season high and something to build on as Mark Ingram returns from suspension next week.

Wil Lutz enjoyed a perfect afternoon
Wil Lutz was the Saints’ best player in the first half. The third-year place kicker drilled field goals of 42, 34, 37 and 22 yards in the first half to account for all 12 of the Saints' points before intermission.
Lutz was actually 6 for 6 because he was forced to re-kick a couple of field goals after one of his attempts was nullified by a holding penalty and another was ruled to have been booted after the play clocked expired in the first quarter.
Lutz has quietly put together a strong start to the season. The Saints' kicking game has never been better .

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Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

You can't catch Kamara till tamara!

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

Ginn has to go. He’s just sucked all year and almost single handedly cost us the game. We still need someone else to step up at receiver.

Have to get TDS instead of field goals

Davenport is going to be fun to watch.

We didn’t get killed by huge plays

Good thing Ingram is back because our running game sucks outside of Kamara. We closed it out pretty good but we are going to need him to control the clock. Everything else he brings is just a sweet bonus. Should help keep the defense off the field a little longer. I also think he brings swagger to the entire team.

3-1 in first place is awesome but NY isn’t a very good team. We need to continue to improve because if our offense stalls against teams like the Rams we are screwed.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

Alvin Kamara ... he's a special player.

He has literally put this team on his back the last 4 games. If this O line can stay healthy, having Ingram back will make this running game a deadly combo ... again.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

He is something special. We would be winless without him. 100%.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

OBJ was pretty much a non factor ... a testament to how good Lattimore is on those boundaries.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

He gave up 4 catches for 49 yards when in direct coverage of OBJ. I’ll take that all day. He’s given up one TD so far this year.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

Has anyone noticed how well Crawley plays when Lattimore is on his game? They seem to feed off one another quite well


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Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

We are weak at WR. Probably not a big deal with MI returning. Meredith is a liability in the endzone.

Re: Observations from the Saints' 33-18 win against the Giants
 

Kamara can run the ball between the tackles, but he's not really a guy that can pound it in the way that Ingram does against particular defensive configurations. The Giants knew we were lacking this, so they often just sat back a lot of guys in coverage. This was the right choice for them, and almost worked. Kamara did indeed end up with a ton of yards yesterday, but we didn't really run the ball as consistently as the stats would indicate(he had a ton of short yard runs, with some huge runs mixed in between). Not having a guy that can just pound yards out makes it especially hard to throw in the redzone. I think we'll improve starting next week.