ESPN reacts to Seattle Seahawks crush New Orleans Saints 44-13; Sam Darnold: 218 yds; 2 TD

ESPN reacts to Seattle Seahawks crush New Orleans Saints 44-13; Sam Darnold: 218 yds; 2 TD

that had led up to this action. As we say hello, Joe Muso alongside Jonathan Jones, Bryant McFaden, and Ben Denucci here to break down what we saw in the evening. And we didn’t see much out of the Saints. I I’d like to sit here and go winner first and uh speak glowingly about the Seattle Seahawks, but I’m not sure how much you take away from this tape either. What do you take away from this game in total, Mac? Well, with the Saints, it’s going to be a long year, and if you had any other expectations, you need to sober up. I think this is what the game plan not initially would be for the Saints, but we knew they would go through growing pains, but it’s been uglier than what most could expect. And for the Seattle Seahawks side of things, they did what they were supposed to do. They won, but they won in dominant fashions. When you look at their defense, they’ve been outstanding, guys. In three games of play, they allowed 13 points week one, 17 week two, and today 13 points as well. Mike McDonald has that side of the football field humming. They do a great job in putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks and not to mention stealing the football away to give their offense extra possessions. And looking at the running game now also in terms of the balance they have on the offensive side. I mean this could be a very very entertaining year because think about it like this. They’re two and one but they were one and a half play away from beating San Francisco week one. So they were very very close to being undefeated. And right now what we’re do what we’re seeing is a team executing on all cylinders. Ben, you you look at this Saints team right now and as I try and find the words for it, what are we doing is really where I’m at. What are they doing? Where is the flaw? Where do you begin to put things back together? Because it is week three. I I think the better question is what aren’t they doing? Couple couple slow games to start the year. Young quarterback room, new coach. Bmac, you hit it. There’s gonna be some growing pains for this team, for this offense. I think the biggest thing for them, they need some consistency on the offensive side of the ball for a full game for four quarters. They need to go out. Spencer Ratner needs to be efficient, take care of the ball. They need to sustain some drives and and really, you know, as this season gets going, you know, start to do a good job on the offensive side of the ball scoring points and converting when they get down there in the red zone. You say Spencer Ratler needs to start doing some things. Is it time that someone else gets an opportunity to do some things? Well, they wanted Tyler Shuck to to to start the season, second round pick, you know, 26 years old. They gave him every opportunity in the preseason to earn the job, to win the job. He didn’t do it. And so, they go, of course, with Spencer Rattler, who went winless last year. Now, not all Spencer Rattler’s fault. There were a number of injuries by the time he was inserted into the lineup there. This is a Saints team under Kell Moore. I understand that the first time first year head coach is trying to build a culture is trying to reinject winning ways over there. You go back to training camp and they were doing things like uh bowling and paintball and Topgolf. Well, heading into this game against the Seattle Seahawks playing in the Pacific Northwest, the Saints actually flew out on Thursday after practice. Really rare, right, guys, to to do something like that. Understand time zones, but that’s really Thursday is rare. And then if you looked at a couple of guys Instagram pages uh over the weekend on Saturday, it looked like uh the Saints were on a team bonding trip on a boat somewhere out in in the Pugent Sound. Um it there’s been some things that when you win and you do those things, when you take the ping pong table out of the locker room and you win, everybody’s like, “Oh, okay. That’s smart.” You bring the ping pong table in, you know, it it all depends on if you win or lose, right? Um, but while I think they are trying to build some culture there, really strange this week giving up as many practice days and practice time as they did. How about tackling and running and practicing? It’s they and they were down by, you know, six scores after halftime. Ben, I’m interested in your point of view here as always, but you have an intimate understanding of this system that they’re trying to put in place. Where are you seeing the disconnect right now schematically? It’s it’s hard to say. I mean, they just look kind of all over the place on offense. Aren’t able to sustain drives. There’s penalties. I I think that’s one of the things that people don’t realize how fast a penalty can can set back a drive, can set back a quarter. Uh and for this Saints team, really, this game was over before it started. And JJ, you a little bit of foreshadowing. Maybe they got boat race today, right? So, uh I don’t know, maybe maybe a little Saturday trip they’ll think twice about those in the future. It’s an interesting strategy moving into the game, an interesting strategy in the early stages of it. And as we said, over long before we found that final horn, Mac, let’s finish with a thought here on the positive side in these Seattle Seahawks. You talked about their ability to, you know, make some noise, flip some table, be be an actual uh in actual consideration when we start identifying what a playoff team looks like. This is a young coach there as well. We know what he’s doing with the defense, but it is a bigger responsibility for a headman to take everything under that roof, a new quarterback that comes in, get everything up to speed. Are you at all surprised with the I won’t say relative ease, but the smoothness in which Sam Donald has implemented himself into this offense? Uh, no, I’m not surprised. I think that was the biggest question mark associated with the Seattle Seahawks when they went out and paid Sam Darnold in the way they paid him. Can he deliver like he did a year ago? Was that an outlier of a year in terms of consistency and production that we saw with Sam Darnold in a Minnesota Vikings uniform, or can he sustain that level of play? Well, I’m here to tell you he’s been very, very efficient. The volume is not there, but I think that’s the ideal recipe for them offensively. You look at he only threw the ball 18 times today. 14 of 18, 218 through the air, two touchdowns. He didn’t need to. That’s efficiency. So, I think that’s the sweet spot for Sam Darnold in terms of volume. You want to have him anywhere between, I’d say, that 18 to 22 range in terms of attempts because if that’s the case, that means the running game is working like it worked today, like it worked last week, where it’s not like he has a bulkload of work on his plate where he has to deliver with his arm. Not saying that he can’t, but I think in terms of just being efficient and consistency, balance really helps Sam Donnell and he can really do wonders in that atmosphere. And that’s going to be huge for them because remember they had the opportunity to retain a Gino Smith. They chose to get better at the quarterback position. According to them by going with Sam Darnold by paying Sam Donald and not sticking with Gino. Remember this was a team that in week 18, the Seattle Seahawks still had playoff aspirations. They were still mathematically in the playoff hunt. And so now pick up where they left off. Right now they’re two and one. They have a big game, another divisional game going up against the Arizona Cardinals in week four where I think we’re going to learn a lot more about them facing a team and a defense that knows them quite well. All reflections of a head coach who improves to 12 and eight in his young coaching career. That’s the best ever 20ame start in Seattle Seahawks franchise history. A look at that schedule a set ahead, excuse me. Again, a short week here. Cardinals on Thursday night football standalone in prime time. Then a Bucks team that is out of the gates to 3 and 0. Jags, the Texans before the buy.

ESPN reacts to Seattle Seahawks crush New Orleans Saints 44-13; Sam Darnold: 218 yds; 2 TD
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