New Orleans Saints Defeat the Pale Seattle Seahawks on MNF, 13-10

The New Orleans Saints squeezed out a victory on Monday Night Football, defeating the Seattle Seahawks on the road, 13-10.

At first, Brian Johnson nailed a 33-yard field goal, to lift up his team three points, and erase all the Jameis Winston’s failures on the offensive side. After that, the Saints defense took matters into their hands, demolishing Geno Smith and catching the backup QB twice, before taking the football back and closing the game.

“Brian did an excellent job, man,” Jameis Winston said following the game. “We got him on Monday. The resilience, the tenacity that he had to come in here in a tough environment, to lock in and make those field goals, is critical force.”

The way things began at Lumen Field wasn’t that promising for the guests from New Orleans. A little bit more than four and a half minutes into the match, DK Metcalf showed a little bit of his magic, delivering an 84-yard touchdown.

But instead of catching up to that momentum and riding the positive wave, the Seahawks couldn’t keep on pounding at the same pace.

Johnson would hit one field goal, and after that, Alvin Kamara delivered a 13-yard receiving TD to completely change the situation on the field.

We saw a harsh battle on a cold and rainy night in Seattle, and there weren’t too many points involved. Third period saw only Jason Myers’ 50-yard field goal, but we need to add that the Seahawks’ kicker missed two field goals in the second half, one of them in the final period, with the result leveled at 10-all.

Winston had 222 yards thrown, 19-for-35 for one touchdown, plus generated 40 yards on 8 carries on the ground. He wasn’t very impressive in the clutch moments we need to add. Overall, the Saints weren’t that confident in certain sequences, especially in the third and the fourth period when they had chances to close out the game.

Alvin Kamara had 128 yards on 10 catches and 51 on the ground in 20 snaps, and was as usual, the leading force in New Orleans’ attack.

On the other side, Geno Smith was pale, with 12 completions in 22 attempts, for 167 yards and one TD. He also suffered five sacks for 38 negative yards. When things got tough, he didn’t meet the expectations, and it is obvious that Seattle isn’t anywhere near the playoff hunt with him as a starter.

.@GenoSmith3 ➡️ @dkm14 and that's a touchdown for EIGHTY FOUR YARDS! 🙌

📺: #NOvsSEA on ESPN pic.twitter.com/nFsCwP1mx6

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 26, 2021

The Seahawks rushing game was mediocre, with Alex Collins having 16 snaps for 35 yards. Overall, the hosts generated 90 yards, only four fewer than the rivals, but they were more dependable on this aspect of the offense, and still failed to deliver.

Up next, Seattle (2-5) hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars in a must-win match for them. If they fail to defeat one of the worst teams in the league, the playoff chase is over even if Russell Wilson comes backs earlier than predicted. After this game, the Seahawks hit the road to visit Green Bay.

As for the 4-2 Saints, they will have two divisional matchups at home. The first one is against the reigning NFL champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and after that, they will face the Atlanta Falcons. Even though they aren’t playing confidently, Sean Payton’s boys are 4-2 with realistic prospects to enter the postseason.

The next game is Thursday Night Football, with the undefeated Arizona Cardinals meeting the Green Bay Packers.