Let’s start with the good news: the New Orleans Saints defense rallied to keep the Tennessee Titans out of the end zone in Week 1’s matchup, with Derek Carr’s offense doing just enough to squeeze out a win by the narrowest of margins — literally winning the day 16-15.
And that brings us to the bad news. This game was so much closer than it should have been, and too many players didn’t meet expectations. Poor execution, lapses in technique, and bad situations led to mistakes and troubling performances. But it’s a long season and they have plenty of time to clean it up.
Buy Saints TicketsWe’ll explore the peak performers and weak links in Week 1’s Studs and Duds:
STUD | CB Marshon Lattimore
The entire Saints secondary deserves credit here — they limited Ryan Tannehill to just 198 passing yards and intercepted him 3 times. But Lattimore deserves a singular mention for shutting down DeAndre Hopkins and forcing the Titans to line their star receiver up anywhere he wasn’t guarding. Hopkins finished the game with 7 receptions for just 65 yards, and he didn’t gain more than 16 yards on any single catch. That’s largely due to Lattimore’s efforts. That battle was won when he beat Hopkins at the catch point to wrest away an interception.
DUD | LT Trevor Penning
We’ve got to have a talk about Penning. Sunday’s game was just his second career start in the NFL after a turf toe injury cost most of his rookie season, and it looked like it throughout the first half. He was overwhelmed by Titans edge rushers Arden Key and Harold Landry III on several sacks, tackles for loss, and other disruptive plays.
It took a while for the Saints to finally acknowledge the issue and give him some help, and he was much more effective in the second half and fourth quarter especially. He needs to have a tight end or fullback chipping rushers next to him and assisting with double teams until he’s cleaned up his footwork.
Benching Penning won’t help him or the offense — Andrus Peat is not the answer, and the only way Penning will develop into a better blocker is with more reps. He has all the athletic ability in the world but it won’t mean anything without experience to hone it. Just like Terron Armstead did before him, he’ll have to take his lumps, learn from them, and become a better pro.
STUD | WR Chris Olave
Olave built a lot of momentum over the summer, which he backed up on Sunday by leading the team in receptions and receiving yards. He improved in some areas that were concerns for him a year ago — like picking up yards after the catch. Some of that is due to having a better quarterback throwing to him in stride, some of it is the different routes that send him downfield instead of cutting back towards the line of scrimmage. But Olave was dangerous in the open field which wasn’t something we saw often in his rookie year or in college at Ohio State.
DUD | RB Jamaal Williams
You don’t want to be too hard on Williams given how poor the blocking was in front of him and the well-documented strength of the Titans run defense, but he didn’t exactly impress anyone in relief of Alvin Kamara. Williams’ longest run only gained 11 yards and he fumbled at the end of it (fortunately, he was able to recover the loose ball). He didn’t show much speed in the open field on a pair of receptions, either, making gains of 2 and 5 yards on each of them. He’s a physical runner and an asset in short-yardage situations, but Williams won’t be mistaken for an explosive big-play threat after a game like this.
STUD | DE Cameron Jordan
Is Jordan ever going to slow down? He tied for the fifth-most tackles on the team (5, 2 solo) while splitting a sack with a teammate and notching several pass deflections. That’s after he turned 34 this summer. Jordan’s game has never been based off his speed and reaction time, though. So long as he’s in a battle of strength and situational awareness he’ll continue to be a problem at the line of scrimmage with his knack for clogging passing lanes.
One fun note: though Jordan officially won the Saints sack record last season, he still trails Rickey Jackson in the unofficial count at Pro Football Reference, who charted Jackson’s 1981 rookie season (the year before sacks were officially tracked by the NFL) and found he had 8 sacks, putting him ahead of Jordan with 123 unofficial sacks. Jordarn’s half-sack put him at 116.0. He needs 7 sacks to close the gap with the Hall of Famer once and for all.
STUD | K Blake Grupe
Honestly both specialists deserve a shoutout — Lou Hedley flipped the field on a couple of punts, including a monstrous 51-yarder on his first try. But Grupe’s performance stands in stark contrast to the guy he replaced. The rookie was good from distances of 26, 33, and 52 yards and he also made his point-after attempt. Wil Lutz, kicking at elevation with the Denver Broncos, whiffed on an early extra-point try and later pushed a 55-yard field goal wide to the right of the goalpost. Sure looks like the Saints made the right decision here.
DUD | QB Taysom Hill
The issue here is more with Hill’s utilization than his performance, but we should touch on it anyway. His lone target as a receiver was thrown out of reach in the end zone. He was given three rushing attempts that sent him too wide around the formation, and the stout Titans run defense kept him from turning uphill to round the corner (he averaged 1.3 yards per carry).
We didn’t get to see Hill run QB power in short-yardage looks or revive the zone-read plays that he and Jamaal Williams ran so well together at BYU all those years ago. Those delayed handoffs may have helped slow down the Tennessee rush and open running lanes, but maybe that’s something Pete Carmichael is keeping in his back pocket for another day.
STUD | QB Derek Carr
Carr is going to be criticized for his sloppiness in the red zone, and rightfully so. He wilted under pressure, threw some horrible passes into the dirt and over his receivers’ heads, and went 0-for-5 on his first two trips inside the Titans’ 20-yard line. But we’ve got to give him props for elevating a Saints offense that’s been out of sorts for years now. He kept the offense on schedule in their own territory and across midfield, and he linked up with multiple receivers for big gains. He posted the highest number of net passing yards in a win since Drew Brees was under center back in 2020. If Carr can tighten up in the red zone he just might be the answer at quarterback for this team.
