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The New Orleans Saints defeated the Green Bay Packers 38-3 on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong, dead wrong, as I predicted the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers would beat the Saints 31-17. But part-time Jeopardy! host Rodgers did little that resembled leading his team to anything other than turnovers and New Orleans capitalized on that ineptitude.
I did say that if the Saints were going to be competitive it would take an entire team effort. If there was ever a game that embodied the definition of “entire team effort” then Sunday’s game was exactly that. For that reason, it makes it so hard to single out just one player as the “player of the game.”
But, for this exercise, I am going with quarterback Jameis Winston for three valid reasons:
To start, don’t think players don’t feel the pressure that fans, teammates and they themselves have placed on them. Winston was asked to take over an offense that was led by one of the greatest quarterbacks the game has ever seen for the previous 15 seasons. Those are some big shoes to fill.
Winston has handled the pressure admirably and even chalked up a lot of his success on Sunday to learning from Brees when he said after the game that “Drew always preached, it’s about the decision, not the result.” Winston looked in complete command of the offense and just looked like he was having fun. In a game where all eyes were on Winston, he rose to the occasion, and that leads us to the next reason he is our player of the game: his actual play.
Sure, if one just looks at the box score then Winston’s 148 passing yards doesn’t come across as impressive. However, he didn’t throw an interception and he did throw five touchdowns, none of which were to players named Michael Thomas or Marquez Callaway. Instead, he spread the ball around to Alvin Kamara, Juwan Johnson (twice), Chris Hogan, and the beautiful deep ball to Deonte Harris.
The offense started with a short field on the majority of drives thanks to the defensive performance by the Saints, as well as Green Bay’s inexplicable tendency to go for it on the majority of fourth downs. In a sense, the Saints didn’t need to air the ball out. Their 171 rushing yards kept the ball out of Rodgers’ hands and helped run the clock down. But when it came time to pass, Winston used sound judgement and looked fantastic while taking control of the offense.
Finally, what helped separate Winston from the rest plays into the first two reasons, but it was using his legs and converting for first downs. Who knew New Orleans had a dual-threat quarterback who’s name isn’t Taysom Hill? Not me. But when the situation dictated it, Winston turned nothing into something and on multiple occasions earned a first down.
It was nice to see Winston use other resources to make a play rather than force something that wasn’t there. If this is truly the “new” Jameis Winston and he can find consistency being this type of player for an entire season, then the Saints are in very good hands.
In a game where the entire team stepped up, Winston was the star this team envisioned him becoming.
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