He shaded over one way or another to help Paulson Adebo (who also picked off Rodgers) and Desmond Trufant in coverage while filling in against the run. His midfield interception stood out for itself, but Williams did so many things well that don’t show up on a stats sheet to bottle up the Green Bay offense. By the way, his touchdown put him at 60 in his career, not too far behind Marques Colston’s 72 franchise-record scores. Kamara’s adjustment to a too-high target from Winston put all his offseason training to good use, allowing him to contort his body, secure the bouncing ball, and then twist to stretch out for a first down conversion, all while falling to the sideline. He created an efficient 91 yards from scrimmage on 23 touches, but he was incredible on a snap-to-snap basis. Kamara’s greatness was more understated than what we saw last year. He’s the first player in NFL history to throw for five touchdowns and fewer than 150 passing yards without tossing an interception. And he was controlled, too, allowing the New Orleans running game to do its part as the main engine of the offense. Winston showed improved decision-making from his Buccaneers days but also proved he can still send the ball downfield as well as anyone in this league. Yeah, he has to enter the way-too-early MVP conversation after this. Situational football was a strength of the Packers last year and a weakness for the Saints, but they’ve reversed that narrative. Meanwhile, New Orleans went 5-of-10 on third downs, converted both of their fourth downs, and ended all four red zone trips with touchdowns. Green Bay only converted a single third down (on 10 attempts) and didn’t come away with a touchdown on their only trip into the red zone. He’s got room to improve even after lobbing five touchdown passes against a well-respected Green Bay defense, and that should scare every other team in this league. He avoided making mistakes outside a few too-low passes and an errant throw that got broken up and picked off in the end zone, which was wiped out by a bogus penalty (which does a little bit towards the many, many bad calls the Saints have had go against them over the years). He was decisive, taking a checkdown when it was all the defense gave him and pushing the envelope when appropriate. One memorable play was Cameron Jordan bench-pressing the right tackle into Rodgers’ face and flushing him from the pocket before disengaging, chasing Rodgers down, and forcing an incomplete pass - shoving Rodgers to the turf for good measure. On the other side of the ball, the Saints defensive line gave Rodgers’ patchwork blockers so much trouble that he threw a couple passes away. They allowed Winston to step up in the pocket and carve up the Packers secondary. Even after the Saints lost Erik McCoy with a lower leg injury and shifted the lineup around. The Saints offensive line bullied their Green Bay opponents, consistently pushing them off the line of scrimmage. It all started by winning in the trenches.
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