Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints seemed to have forgotten what it’s like to lose a game. Since falling prey to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1, the Saints have won all of their next nine games, a stretch that includes last week’s 48-7 win over Carson Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles at home.
The Saints put on a clinic on both ends of the field against the defending and reigning Super Bowl champions, with New Orleans getting some help from a tactic Payton divulged recently, per Peter King of NBC Sports.
“We want to put the game on [Eagles quarterback Carson] Wentz,” Payton said. Payton likes Wentz as a player, but his player-personnel analyst, Ryan Herman, gives him trends and numbers every week, and Payton tells the group two interesting ones about Wentz, from Herman: The Eagles are 1-11 when Wentz plays and they allow more than 26 points. And he’s 0-9 when he passes for between 308 and 364 yards, the point being if he does that, the Eagles likely won’t be running the ball well, and the Saints feel they can beat a one-dimensional offense.
Does this mean that Eagles opponents would prefer seeing Nick Foles under center for Philly than Carson Wentz? It’s not stated exactly in the excerpt above, but it’s convenient to gravitate towards that assumption considering the trends, though, there’s more to the Eagles’ struggles than Wentz’s own troubles in the pocket.
Still, Wentz has to get better. Against the Saints, he threw for only 156 passing yards with zero touchdowns and three interceptions on 19-of-33 completions. Over the last two games, he’s had more interceptions (4) than touchdowns (2).
The Saints, on the other hand, are not having any significant problems with their offense, particularly in the play of Drew Brees, who went 22-of-30 for 363 passing yards with four touchdowns against zero picks in the Eagles game.
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