After another week of action, the Saints remain in first place and two starting quarterbacks in the NFC South suffered injuries on Sunday.
Here is a review of what went down in Week 10.
Saints (7-2) beat 49ers (4-6), 27-13
New Orleans extended its winning streak to six games against San Francisco, aided by three touchdowns from their freakishly talented running back Alvin Kamara. The real story here is Drew Brees going down, though. Late in the first half, he took a crushing (clean) hit from Kentavius Street – who earned a horrible flag for his trouble. Brees was replaced by Jameis Winston in the second half. He will be getting an MRI on his ribs and his status for next week’s game against the Falcons is in question, according to Adam Schefter.
Update: Ed Werder at ESPN is reporting Brees has multiple rib fractures and a collapsed lung.
Buccaneers (7-3) beat Panthers (3-7), 46-23
Tampa may not be able to beat the Saints. These Bucs still look pretty good against everybody else, though. This week we saw the sheer breadth of their offensive weapons. Chris Godwin, Mike Evans and Antonio Brown all contributed at least six catches, Rob Gronkowski and Cameron Brate both scored touchdowns and Ronald Jones II posted a back-breaking 98-yard score. Defensively, they only sacked Teddy Bridgewater once but they did manage eight quarterback hits. They’ll face the Rams next.
Falcons (3-6) had a bye week
Atlanta didn’t have a game this week. It was still pretty eventful, though. After blasting them on Twitter for declining a trade offer, the Falcons released former first-round pick Takk McKinley, who was picked up off waivers by the Bengals. In 49 games, he’s posted just 17.5 sacks. Disappointing as Takk may have been, Atlanta is now down another DE with Dante Fowler going on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list.
Panthers (3-7) finally got blown out
The one thing you could say about this young team before Sunday’s loss was that they hadn’t been blown out yet, keeping every game close despite facing a high level of competition. No more. After going into halftime tied at 17-17, the Panthers got thoroughly dominated in the second half. Teddy Bridgewater was once again flummoxed by Tampa’s defense and Carolina’s own defense practically fell apart after Jones’ big run. Worse, Bridgewater suffered a right knee injury late and he’s getting an MRI. Detroit is next on the schedule.
Update: Bridgewater has a mild MCL sprain and is considered day-to-day, according to Ian Rapoport at NFL Network.
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