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To their credit, the Detroit Lions didn’t stop trying to run on the New Orleans Saints. they kept up the pressure with 22 carries (against 31 pass attempts), and that stubbornness helped accomplish their own downfall by running out the clock late in the game. The Saints won 35-29 with too little time left for Detroit to try a comeback.
That’s according to plan. The Saints defense takes pride in their ability to stop opposing running backs in their tracks, and that was no different on Sunday. The Lions’ leading rusher was Adrian Peterson, who gained just 36 yards on the ground. As a team, Detroit ran for 90 yards, and their longest play was a 12-yard scramble by quarterback Matthew Stafford.
It extends the Saints’ streak of games played without allowing a 100-yard rusher to 47 games. And that’s approaching an NFL record, held by the Philadelphia Eagles from 1989 to 1992. Led by the legendary Reggie White, those Eagles teams played 53 consecutive games without allowing an opposing runner to reach the 100-yard threshold.
And that broke an even older record set by Deacon Jones and the Los Angeles Rams, who went 51 games from 1965 to 1968 without allowing a 100-yard rusher. Third place belonged to Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens, who didn’t give up 100 yards to a single rusher in 46 games from 1998 to 2001.
Well, third place used to belong to Baltimore. Now it’s been claimed by Demario Davis and the Saints, who surpassed the Ravens with their 47th game. They need to keep it up through the next seven games to break the NFL’s record. Here’s how many yards each of their upcoming opponents’ leading rusher has averaged through the first three weeks of 2020 (but keep in mind that many of them are dealing with injuries):
- Los Angeles Chargers: Austin Ekeler, 78.7
- Carolina Panthers: Christian McCaffrey, 78.0
- Chicago Bears: David Montgomery, 63.7
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Ronald Jones, 47.3
- San Francisco 49ers: Raheem Mostert, 74.0
- Atlanta Falcons: Todd Gurley, 65.7
- Denver Broncos: Melvin Gordon, 70.3
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