The New Orleans Saints played their starting offensive unit for just two drives in the preseason opener. That’s one drive less than a year ago but with drasticallly different results.
The starting offense ran nine plays and were largely unimpressive, despite facing the Cardinals second team defense. Derek Carr wanted to play in the season opener, likely to gain comfortability in Klint Kubiak’s offense. If that was the goal, playing next week could be warranted.
Carr went 2-for-6 on the evening with some poor passes to Chris Olave along the way. Olave was the only wide receiver targeted by Carr. On the first completion of the night on 3rd and 5, Carr threw an out route behind Olave. It made for a much more difficult catch, and the defender was able to contest the pass because of it. Olave did come down with the catch, however. It’s good to see him playing with a more physical edge.
The most glaring miss was to Olave on a deep route on the second drive. It felt like the receiver had a step on the defender, but the pass wasn’t catchable. Carr hit the ground, but it felt like he had enough time to deliver a more accurate pass. In general, the offensive line wasn’t good on the night either. We’ll see if they can improve next week in their second preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers.
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