Tag: Score

WATCH: Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes scores rushing touchdown vs. Broncos

Patrick Mahomes got the #Chiefs on the board first with a slick rushing touchdown on the opening drive from the offense. | from @TheJohnDillon

The Kansas City Chiefs drew first blood on “Sunday Night Football” against the Denver Broncos, scoring their first points on a pretty rushing touchdown by quarterback Patrick Mahomes. After a stellar first drive, the Chiefs were able to punch the ball into the end zone with some help from their rebuilt offensive line which has looked dominant early against Denver’s defense.

Watch the touchdown here, and notice how third-string RT Andrew Wylie springs him loose with a pancake block to secure the score:

Kansas City is a prohibitive favorite in this game for anyone who has followed the NFL this season. Denver had a hot start in 2021 but has petered out in recent weeks as injuries have piled up and the league has adjusted to their schemes. While they’re by no means a cupcake opponent in Week 13, especially as they’re playing for a share of the lead in the AFC West. the Broncos have had their backs against the wall early in this game, and have predictably struggled against the Chiefs’ electric offense.

Through the first quarter, Andy Reid and the offense have managed to put up 10 points, and Steve Spagnuolo’s defense has held Denver scoreless, keeping their elite receiving talent in check early. They’ll need to keep their foot on the gas on both sides of the ball to put this game away, but after such a strong start, Chiefs fans should feel confident in the team’s ability to win this game.

If they manage to hang on, Kansas City will sit alone at the top of the division with eight wins heading into the final four games of the season. The Los Angeles Chargers are still hot on their trail, and they’re tied at the top with the Chiefs pending the outcome of their matchup with the Broncos. With so much on the line in primetime tonight, Mahomes gave Kansas City the momentum they’ll need to close this game out.

[listicle id=111721]

Saints hit rock bottom in first 5-game losing streak of Sean Payton era

It’s never been worse than this: the Saints hit rock bottom in their first 5-game losing streak of the Sean Payton era

This is as bad as it’s ever been for Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints teams. Their 27-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night extended their losing streak to five games — the longest losing streak of Payton’s tenure. New Orleans had lost four games in a row a few times before but this is breaking new, unpleasant ground. He’s snapped a 235-game streak without dropping five consecutive losses (the fifth-longest streak in league history), which stretches all the way back to the ignominious five-loss end to Jim Haslett’s Saints head coaching career.

So how did we get here? A flurry of injuries to assumed positions of strength like the offensive line (Terron Armstead, Ryan Ramczyk, and Andrus Peat were all unavailable, and have each earned Pro Bowl or All-Pro recognition) and the defensive ends rotation (with former first round picks Marcus Davenport and Payton Turner out of action, and free agent pickup Tanoh Kpassagnon sidelined) went a long way. Alvin Kamara is the team’s best player and he hasn’t been active for a game since Nov. 7. Those are tough hurdles to overcome.

It’s more difficult when other position groups aren’t pulling their weight. Marquez Callaway, Kenny Stills, and Tre’Quan Smith saw a combined 16 targets in the Cowboys game and converted them into 3 catches for 28 yards. Stills in particular gave a poor effort on a shot at the goal line that was deflected off his hands and intercepted by the defense. Maybe the Saints waited too long to give him another shot — either way, he doesn’t add anything to the offense at this point in his career. The receiving corps as a whole is talent-deficient.

And that impacts the offense at large. It doesn’t matter which quarterback the Saints put under center; Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian, and Taysom Hill have all struggled to work with such a weak set of pass-catchers. Rookie draft pick Ian Book wouldn’t do any better. This is a problem Payton created by years of neglectful drafting, and now all we can do is grind our teeth and hope he finally gets around to addressing the issue in the spring.

Will it be too late? Probably. The Saints have five games left on their schedule and all but two (Week 14 against the New York Jets and Week 16 versus the Miami Dolphins) are against teams that either have a winning record (Week 15 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) or have already beaten New Orleans this year (rematches in Weeks 17 and 18 with the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons).

Sure, the Saints could miraculously cure their woes and go on a five-game winning streak, starting off against the Jets next week. But that just doesn’t feel realistic. This team is too flawed and too snakebit to pull off a feat like that. You just won’t hear that pessimism from Payton or anyone else on his staff. They have a lot of work to do and plenty left to play for. Don’t look for him to throw in the towel.

[listicle id=59969]

Saints put up a good fight, but fall to Cowboys 27-17 in Week 13

Saints put up a good fight, but fall to Cowboys 27-17 in Week 13

It wasn’t enough to win the day, but the New Orleans Saints fought hard enough to keep it close with the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night. Down 20-10 midway through the fourth quarter, a timely interception by Marshon Lattimore gave them a second shot at life — and a huge fourth down conversion on a dart from Taysom Hill raised a lot of hopes, only for another tipped pass off of Hill’s injured throwing hand to fall into Cowboys possession. Dallas secured the win with a late pick-six, and New Orleans fell to 5-7 with a final score of 27-17. Here’s everything we know:

What are the statistical chances Alabama is upset in the 2021 Iron Bowl?

Alabama looks to finish the regular season 11-1, but could Auburn get in the way of that?

Alabama and Auburn are set to square off in the 2021 edition of the Iron Bowl. This season, the famed rivalry will take place in Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, which always makes for interesting games.

Alabama has certainly seemed like the stronger team, as the program looks to win big for a chance to play for another national championship; and Auburn has not only looked weaker than usual, but starting quarterback Bo Nix is out for the season with injury. All signs point to the Crimson Tide winning, but nothing can be certain.

ESPN gives us the statistical chances that the Crimson Tide will drop the final game of the regular season to Auburn.

According to ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), Alabama has a 81.5% chance of winning the 2021 Iron Bowl, and 18.5% chance of losing.

Bryan Harsin in his first year coaching the Tigers, TJ Finley stepping up as the starter and an Auburn fanbase that will most likely count this as their biggest game of the season could make for an uniquely interesting contest.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to cover the Crimson Tide as Nick Saban & Co. stroll into Auburn seeking a regular season record of 11-1.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM.

 

Saints aren’t fun, and worse, aren’t even entertaining in blowout loss to Bills

Saints aren’t fun, and worse, aren’t even entertaining in 31-6 blowout loss to Bills. They were just bad and boring:

It’s so disappointing to see the New Orleans Saints go down like this. They were embarrassed in all phases by the visiting Buffalo Bills, with Sean Payton’s stubbornly Trevor Siemian-led offense demolished while his defense slowly fell to pieces in the second half. Even the special teams units struggled with a series of subpar returns from All-Pro specialist Deonte Harris. They lost by a final tally of 31-6, and they earned that beatdown.

Sure, the Saints were beaten up. Every team is beaten up this time of the year, though few others were missing as many starters as New Orleans. But it was so bad that Drew Brees opened the second half by demonstrating how Josh Allen’s mechanics have changed after a few years in the NFL. Mitchell Trubisky went into the game for clean-up duty with seven minutes remaining.

This is as embarrassing as it gets in the NFL. Especially for a team that once had playoff hopes. At this point the Saints will be very, very lucky to finish the year with a winning record. This four-game losing streak is their first since the 2015 season (and before that, the 2012 season). Another loss next week to the Dallas Cowboys would be their first five-game losing skid of the Sean Payton era, dating back to Jim Haslett’s last year as head coach.

At least teams before had been ugly and entertaining. The 2012 Saints team made every game worth watching with a high-power offense to match their historically-bad defense; so did the 2014 and 2015 squads. Issues on offense were prevalent in 2019 and 2020 but the defense was strong enough to keep it interesting. This team doesn’t have anything to hang their hats on.

So who is to blame? Sean Payton earned a lot of ire for keeping Siemian in the game so long, with the offense ending drives with five punts and two turnover-on-downs sequences. His late-game interception still wasn’t enough to get Taysom Hill in the game. This is one of the lowest moments of the Sean Payton era.

And on that note: the NBC broadcast repeatedly mentioned Hill wasn’t playing due to a foot injury, but that’s bunk. He’s healthy enough to dress for the game on the active roster. He’s healthy enough to back up Siemian in case of an emergency. But he isn’t healthy enough to play over him when Siemian is actively hurting the team? He isn’t healthy enough to do anything but stand on the sidelines in a ball cap and clap? Literally days after signing a big contract extension without explanation?

It’s a frustrating situation to say the least. The fact we won’t get any satisfactory answers out of Payton for his bizarre decisions makes it difficult to accept. This season is swirling around the drain, and there’s next to no reason to think it’s about to get better. Payton earned a lot of faith from his years of success. But that can evaporate in a hurry if he’s got no plan to get out of this.

Instant analysis of Saints’ 40-29 loss vs. Eagles

The Alvin Kamara-less New Orleans Saints offense again took too long to get up to speed in a 40-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Instant analysis:

[sendtonews_embed video_id=”R2I8PHbTVx-1633739-7498″]

The Alvin Kamara-less New Orleans Saints offense again took too long to get up to speed in their 40-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, but it wasn’t all bad. It might have been pretty one-sided for most of the afternoon — but there’s some reason for carefully guarded optimism moving forwards. Here’s a quick look at Week 11’s defeat.

Saints lose third game in a row for the first time since 2016

It’s been a while since the Saints were this bad. They’ve lost their third game in a row for the first time since 2016:

[sendtonews_embed video_id=”R2I8PHbTVx-1633739-7498″]

It’s been a while since the New Orleans Saints were this bad. They’ve lost their third game in a row for the first time since 2016, falling 40-29 to the Philadelphia Eagles after previous two-point losses to the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. They lost their first three games to open the 2016 season and haven’t looked back, but now they’re in rough shape.

I’ve written before about how the 2017 to 2020 span was a golden age of Saints football — they won more games in those four years than they had in some decades, and never lost more than two games in a row. But they’ve been depleted by injuries, retirements, and salary cap considerations, and now they’re facing an uphill battle after back-to-back-to-back losses.

In fact, the Saints have only logged back-to-back losses twice since that three-game series in 2016 — Weeks 14 and 15 in 2020, plus Weeks 1 and 2 in 2017. It’s unusual to see Sean Payton’s squad unable to shake back. But years of neglectful drafting rendered their depth chart on offense paper-thin, making for a perfect storm once Trevor Siemian took over at quarterback. He’s not skilled enough to lift up those around him. And his supporting cast isn’t strong enough to prop him up.

Inadequate play on offense bleeds over into unfavorable situations on defense and heightened pressure on special teams. Like every other team they’re only as strong as their weakest link. And a whole phase of the game is very, very weak in New Orleans.

What’s next? The Saints have got to hurry up and get back to New Orleans so they can regroup before a prime-time matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving, with Drew Brees on the call for NBC. Hopefully the Saints don’t embarrass him in front of company.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Shorthanded Saints lose to Eagles, offense pads stats in garbage time

The New Orleans Saints took advantage of soft coverage from the Philadelphia Eagles late in their Week 11 loss to pad their stats in garbage time:

Woof. The final score made this game look closer than it was — the New Orleans Saints trailed the Philadelphia Eagles 33-7 going into the fourth quarter. With an injury to top corner Darius Slay and a comfortable lead, the Eagles took their foot off the gas pedal and let the Saints cut into that deficit. Almost immediately, really, with Trevor Siemian lobbing a touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway from 26 yards out just 11 seconds into the fourth quarter. It didn’t matter and they lost 40-29.

But let’s focus on what really happened here: the Saints offense looked just as pathetic as you’d expect with half a dozen starters missing. Siemian spent last season on the practice squad and looked like that’s where he belonged in this outing. He threw two terrible interceptions, one of them returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Slay, and was missing open receivers all day. It was already a bad day, but his deficiencies made it worse.

So why didn’t they pull him out of the game? Taysom Hill was the only other active quarterback with rookie draft pick Ian Book a healthy scratch, but Hill’s foot injury this week limited him to just one practice session and the Saints had no plans of getting him on the field. He never even put on his helmet and was functionally standing inside an invisible glass box labeled “break in case of emergency.” Hill didn’t play a single snap in his usual position-less role. Barring a serious injury to Siemian, his job was just to hold a clipboard like any other backup in this league.

It’s tempting to look at this fourth quarter rally as a sign of progress, but it’s fool’s gold. The Eagles made the same mistake as the Titans last week and the Falcons a game earlier. All three teams went into soft prevent coverage in the final period, allowing the Saints to put up 53 of their 75 points in that quarter. When their opponents are taking them seriously and putting in the effort to pressure Siemian and challenge his receivers, Sean Payton hasn’t had an answer for them.

That doesn’t bode well for their upcoming game with the Buffalo Bills. The Thanksgiving night game four days away (roughly 100 hours, if you’d rather look at it that way). Buffalo was dismantled by Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday but we’ve seen before that other game results don’t matter when teams play the Saints. Just look at their losses to the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, and Tennessee Titans (who just got whacked by the lowly Houston Texans this week) earlier this season. Every opponent has to be weighed on their own merits, and the Bills have enough firepower to give New Orleans trouble.

November wasn’t kind to the Saints. They have a shot at turning it around in the Thanksgiving nightcap against the Bills, and they just might do it given how well they’ve played strong teams this year. But if nothing else, this three-game losing skid has to put a dampener on the expectations for this season. At this point fans should just be happy to finish the season with a winning record.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Unable to get out of their own way, Saints fall 23-21 to Titans

Unable to get out of their own way, Saints fall 23-21 to Titans

The New Orleans Saints couldn’t win for losing in Sunday’s game with the Tennessee Titans. It seemed like every big play was wiped out by a penalty, a dropped pass, or a botched assignment. They traveled to Tennessee and left with a 23-21 loss. It was the Saints’ second consecutive two-point loss.

Two missed point-after attempts by rookie kicker Brian Johnson soared wide of the goalposts and loomed large as the game continued. So too did the four sacks that quarterback Trevor Siemian took, most of them coming in an ugly series before halftime. The Saints just couldn’t get out of their own way.

Too many defensive breakdowns let the Titans pick up chunks of yardage, including an early 50-yard gain by backup receiver Marcus Johnson. Marshon Lattimore split time covering A.J. Brown with running against Johnson, and too often he let off the gas to let Johnson rack up 5 catches for 100 receiving yards — Johnson went into the game with just 4 receptions for 60 yards on the season. After a really promising start to his season, Lattimore has sunken back into bad habits and risen and fallen to the quality of his opponents.

But most of our ire should be focused on the Saints offense. Sure, they were banged up without their starting left tackle or left guard, but second-year starters like Cesar Ruiz can’t get bulldozed or slip and fall this often. Last season’s first round draft pick has continued to be a liability. Poor blocking up front allowed too many of Siemian’s passes to be batted down at the line of scrimmage. Despite averaging a healthy 4.1 rushing yards as a team, Sean Payton still had his offense attempt 38 passing plays.

Now their season is on the line in next week’s road game with the Philadelphia Eagles, who upset them in a big way just last year. If Payton can’t get his undermanned offense back on schedule, they risk slipping and falling out of the playoff picture altogether.

[lawrence-newsletter]

New Orleans Saints game recap: Everything we know after 27-25 loss

New Orleans Saints game recap: Everything we know after 27-25 loss

Late-game heroics for the New Orleans Saints were too little too late to knock off their division-rival Atlanta Falcons. Despite posting 18 points in a furious fourth-quarter rally, all it took was a mistimed jump by rookie cornerback Paulson Adebo to allow a 64-yard catch-and-run by Cordarrelle Patterson to set up Younghoe Koo’s game-winning chip shot field goal.

It was dramatic. For most of the afternoon it was sloppy. It got the Falcons to .500 and cost the Saints an opportunity to take the top spot in the NFC South. Between a flurry of dropped passes by the Saints receivers throughout the game and 10 penalties against New Orleans, the black and gold did as much as they possibly could have to lose. Here’s everything you need to know from the game: