Category: Saints

Amazon Prime Day NFL Deals: One gift for fans of each NFL team

The holidays have come early for NFL fans thanks to Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale.

While Prime Day has come and gone for 2022, Amazon is giving Prime members another reason to be thankful this holiday season.

Amazon Prime Early Access Sale is a two-day event exclusive to Prime subscribers, who can start their holiday shopping with thousands of exclusive discounts.

We know just how challenging it can be to shop for the NFL fan in your life, so we put together a list to ensure no fan gets forgotten this year.

Looking for some team apparel? Got it. Big tailgater? No problem. Want a Halloween costume that shows your fandom? We got you covered.

If you see something you like, but it’s featured in your rival’s colors, don’t worry. Almost all of the items below can be found sporting the colors of your favorite NFL team.

 

The All-22: Taysom Hill revealed and exploited Seattle’s broken defense

Taysom Hill of the New Orleans Saints made history on Sunday against a Seattle Seahawks defense that had no answer for any of it.

Before Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks, there had been 11 instances in pro football history in which a player had at least three rushing touchdowns and at least one passing touchdown in the same game. After Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks, 12 players had achieved that impressive feat.

In New Orleans’ 39-32 win over Seattle, backup quarterback/Wildcat star/tight end Taysom Hill ran nine times for 111 yards, three touchdowns, 86 yards after contact, two forced missed tackles, and a supreme housing of the Seahawks’ problematic defense. Hill also attempted one pass, completing it for a 22-yard touchdown to tight end Adam Troutman.

As Hill had rushed 12 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns in the first four weeks of the 2022 season, that rushing ability should not have come as a surprise to a Seahawks defense that has been bailing water out of the boat all season long.

Still, the Seahawks seemed uniquely unprepared to deal with any of it.

“Taysom Hill had a great football game against us; we did not stop him,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said after the fact. “Our plan for the Wildcat did not work, obviously. He ran for over 100 yards, and that was really the difference for them in a lot of crucial situations. He came through in a big way for them. It wasn’t new, they had done it, but the things we tried to do didn’t get us off the field.”

So, was this about Hill’s greatness as a package runner and passer, or did the Seahawks just blow it? As is generally true, it was a mixture of the things. Let’s get into how it turned out the way it did.

Taysom Hill delivers passing TD, along with 3 rushing scores

Taysom Hill has a pair of rushing TDs and threw a TD pass for the Saints

Taysom Hill is the Swiss Army Knife of the New Orleans Saints .., and the NFL.

The Saints veteran scored rushing — three times — on Sunday against the Seahawks and then threw a TD pass late in the third quarter.

The touchdown toss was good for 22 yards and went to Adam Trautman. After the PAT, New Orleans led 31-19.

Hill’s TD runs were for 8 and 9 yards in the second quarter. He had 51 rushing yards heading into the final quarter.

Hill added a third rushing TD. He had 112 yards on the ground and was joined by Alvin Kamara over the century mark.

Anatomy of a Play: Vikings were setting up Justin Jefferson’s rushing TD all season

Justin Jefferson’s touchdown run against the Saints might have come as a surprise, but the Vikings have been setting it up all season long.

When you see unusual plays, you may wonder where those odd gambits came from, and if there had been any indication that they were coming. In the case of Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson’s three-yard touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, early Sunday morning (for us Yanks), there was quite a bit of preamble.

First, the play itself, which helped the Vikings go to 3-1 on the season with a 28-25 win:

Dalton couldn’t, but he gave it his level best. The Saints were down 16-7 until late in the third quarter.

In any event, the Vikings had been running Jefferson, their best receiver and one of the NFL’s top three at his position, on sweeps all season long — it’s just that there was very little statistical impact from those plays — at least on Jefferson’s stat sheets.

The Vikings had run Jefferson on sweep or cross motion 16 times through the first three games. He had never taken the ball on a run play with that motion, and he had caught two passes on three targets for five yards with such motions. All three targets were against the Packers in Week 1, and here’s the five-yard catch.

So, you could say that the Vikings, led by head coach and offensive shot-caller Kevin O’Connell, had been waiting all season for the perfect opportunity to give Jefferson the ball as a runner. As Jefferson had just seven rushing attempts for 16 yards in NFL career, this came as a surprise to the Saints… but it shouldn’t have been a complete surprise.

Why? Because the Vikings have been setting this up all season long — and when Jefferson gets the ball in such schemes, it can work pretty well. Ask the Baltimore Ravens, who gave up this 11-yard sweep run to Jefferson in Week 9 of the 2021 season.

Wil Lutz misses from 61 on double-doink as time expires

Wil Lutz came close but double-doinked and the Vikings downed the Saints

Wil Lutz had kicked a 60-yard field goal in the final two minutes Sunday to give the Saints a tie with the Minnesota Vikings … temporarily.

Greg Joseph then delivered a field goal with 24 seconds left to give the Vikings the lead.

There was time for Lutz to force overtime … but this time he had to attempt from 61.

Doink off upright, doink off the crossbar.

Oh, the pain … no good and the Vikings escape London with a 28-25 victory over the Saints.

Another angle:

 

Wil Lutz of Saints nails 60-yard field goal against Vikings

Wil Lutz was good from 60 yards for the Saints in London

In a land of remarkable kicks, Wil Lutz added a different one to the history books.

The New Orleans Saints’ kicker took aim at a 60-yard field goal with less than two minutes to go in the game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in London.

And he was spot on, nailing the kick from 60 to put the Saints into a 25-25 tie as time wound down.

Mike Evans and Marshon Lattimore have had issues before

Marshon Lattimore and Mike Evans have a history of going at each other on the field

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints got into a melee on Sunday during the second half of their game at the Superdome.

A couple of the participants, the Bucs’ Mike Evans and the Saints’ Marshon Lattimore wound up ejected.

This was nothing new for the elite players who have history with disliking each other.

Lattimore and Evans have carried on a personal rivalry since 2017, when Lattimore was the defensive rookie of the year. During a Saints victory in New Orleans that season, an altercation began along the Tampa Bay sideline when then-Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston pointed in Lattimore’s face and told him to go back to his own bench area. That’s when Evans blindsided Lattimore with a running start, knocking Lattimore hard to the turf. Only Evans was ejected that time. He also was suspended a subsequent game.

Check these out:

Evans had some regrets after one incident in 2017.

Jameis Winston will play for Saints despite 4 fractures in his back

Jameis Winston will play for the Saints despite 4 fractures in his back

Jameis Winston is going to be a gamer Sunday as the New Orleans Saints play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported Winston is going to face Tom Brady despite having four fractures in his back.

Glazer reported the Saints offered Winston a number of options to protect his injured back.

The Saints will be without running back Alvin Kamara due to injured ribs.

 

Saints score 17 straight points in 4th quarter, stun Falcons

The New Orleans Saints stunned the Atlanta Falcons with a late rally

The New Orleans Saints made sure Dennis Allen will never forget his first game as their head coach.

Trailing by 16 points in the fourth quarter, Michael Thomas caught a pair of TD passes and Wil Lutz hit a 51-yard field goal with 19 seconds left as New Orleans rocked Atlanta, 27-26.

The winning drive came took 29 seconds and covered 47 yards over 5 plays.

A pair of players who New Orleans missed in 2021 delivered for them big time as both Thomas and Smith missed the entire season due to injuries.

Lutz was far from a sure thing beyond 50 yards as he had hit on 13-of-23 from that distance prior to this opening game.

The Falcons had a chance to win the game with 2 seconds left but Younghoe  Koo’s kick was blocked.

Michael Thomas is back in the end zone — twice — for Saints

Michael Thomas finds the end zone in his return to the Saints’ lineup

The New Orleans Saints have missed Michael Thomas. The great wideout from Ohio State played in seven games last year after 383 receptions in the prior three seasons combined.

Thomas was back on the field Sunday … and returned to the end zone.

He makes a nice catch of this Jameis Winston pass as the Saints attempted to rally against the Atlanta Falcons.

The pass was only good for 3 yards but it brought New Orleans 6 points.

Thomas figured anything worth doing was worth doing twice. He caught a 9-yard pass from Winston later in the game.