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There wasn’t much to complain about from the New Orleans Saints’ Week 11 win over the Atlanta Falcons, with the Saints defense dominating the afternoon and Taysom Hill looking the part of a starting quarterback in the 24-9 victory.
Hill held his own, and showed some of the qualities that have made the Saints believe in him — he threw with plenty of zip, climbed the pocket with clean footwork, and didn’t shrink under pressure. He finished the day after completing 18 of 23 pass attempts for 233 yards, taking 3 sacks while running 10 times for 51 rushing yards and a pair of touchdown runs. He did have an ugly late-game fumble after a nice 20-yard run, which shouldn’t happen again.
But the more impressive performance came from his teammates on the other side of the ball. Led by a season-high 3 sacks from defensive end Cameron Jordan, the Saints defense harassed and harangued Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan throughout the day, taking him down 8 times and rushing him into a pair of costly interceptions. Ryan completed just a few passes of 20-plus yards, his longest gain coming on a 46-yard bomb to Calvin Ridley on the opening drive after Janoris Jenkins tripped up in coverage; Jenkins got some payback later on with a fourth-quarter interception.
Sure, there are areas the Saints can improve. Thomas Morstead was inconsistent, averaging just 39.8 yards per punt, and Wil Lutz banged a field goal try off the uprights. Hill showed some problems with ball security in addition to the fumble, lobbing a would-be red zone interception early on that was luckily dropped. And the defense had a few coverage busts to review. Also, it would be nice to see Alvin Kamara involved more successfully.
On the whole, however, this was as strong a debut as you could hope for in Hill’s first career start. The Saints have plenty to room to improve despite their 7-game winning streak. And with more winnable matchups head (like a rematch with this same Falcons team in two weeks), they just might continue rolling until Drew Brees is healed up and ready to return.
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