Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Jalen Hurts, eagles vs saints
THE AP: Philadelphia Another quarterback was sought after by Cameron Jordan as he waved his arms in fierce pursuit. Gardner Minshew was pursued and sacked one, twice, and three times by a defensive end from New Orleans.
Jordan currently leads the Saints in career sacks with 115 1/2, an impressive figure considering he just had one as a rookie in 2011.
Jordan remarked, “I just needed an opportunity. Jordan received his. After Green Bay defeated Minnesota and eliminated them from an NFC wild-card spot, the Saints will not have a chance in the playoffs.
Although the Saints defeated the Eagles 20-10, Tampa Bay’s comeback victory over Carolina caused them to lose their chance to win the NFC South. The Packers’ 41-17 thrashing of the Vikings in the late afternoon window put a stop to the Saints’ remote prospects of making it as a wild card, but only for a little while.
But the Saints (7-9) proved they had plenty of guts by travelling to Philadelphia and defeating the 13-win Eagles, despite the fact that their top quarterback Jalen Hurts missed the contest for the second day in a row due to a sprained right shoulder.
Under first-year coach Dennis Allen, New Orleans has demonstrated that it never gives up. When the Saints trailed by two scores last week at Cleveland in the coldest game in the team’s history, they refused to give up after defeating Atlanta two weeks prior (9 degrees). The Saints won consecutive games for the first time this season after scoring 17 straight points and making a last-second defensive stand to preserve the victory.
Make it three straight now.
We have a hard-working, competitive group, and they continue to fight in the locker room, Allen said. “I’ve been saying that the previous few weeks,” he said.
As the Eagles played with the No. 1 seed in the NFC on the line, Jordan led a Saints defence that sacked Minshew six times and prevented the Eagles from mounting a significant comeback. Philadelphia already has a postseason spot secured, but by defeating the New York Giants in Week 18, they can still secure the top seed.
The Saints made an effort to make the home finale versus Carolina next Sunday meaningful.
We set out to try to go 4-0 three weeks ago, and that was all we really had control over, Allen said. “We’ve been able to get three of them, and next week we face another challenging opponent.”
After concluding that Jordan had faked an injury in the fourth quarter of New Orleans’ 17-16 loss to Tampa Bay on December 5, the NFL fined Jordan earlier this season. Also penalised were the Saints. Any wrongdoing was refuted by Jordan and the group.
The stats Jordan has accumulated over a career that has been spent exclusively with the Saints, though, are beyond dispute. He increased his number of sacks from one as a rookie to eight, then to 12 1/2 in 2013. He had a career-high 15 1/2 in 2019, and his three on Sunday helped him pass Rickey Jackson, who had 115, into the Hall of Fame.
Granted, it wasn’t against Jalen Hurts; it was against Gardner Minshew, Jordan said.
Jordan even learned that Minshew is not Hurts, as Philadelphia discovered the hard way. The Mississippi native, who was making his second consecutive start, completed 18 of 32 passes for 274 yards, one touchdown, and one pick. Late in the third quarter, he threw a touchdown pass of 76 yards to A.J. Brown, another Mississippian, cutting the score to 13-10. With 5:27 remaining in the fourth quarter, Marshon Lattimore intercepted a pass from Minshew and returned it 12 yards for the game-winning interception.
For the first time this year, the Eagles were shut out in the first half, and their 10 points were a season low. It took them until 12 seconds remained in the half to make a first down.
“We simply performed poorly. DeVonta Smith, an Eagles wide receiver who caught nine passes for 115 yards, stated, “That’s that.
Jordan received the game ball from the Saints. The remaining three sacks for New Orleans were shared by Carl Granderson and Kaden Elliss.
Rashid Shaheed caught one of Andy Dalton’s first 13 receptions for a distance of 58 yards as he passed for 204 yards. Wil Lutz made two field goals in the first half, one of which was made possible by the play. For New Orleans, who was up 13-0 at the break, Taysom Hill scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run.
“If you simply look at our season,” Dalton said, “I think we have had games comparable to the last couple, but we haven’t been able to complete them.” “We were able to find methods to win the last few games we played. I believe that is one aspect of our season that will cause us to reflect on a number of games and think, “Man, if we would have done one or two more things, then the record could look a lot different.
