 Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 10/5/2025 Article Courtesy of Crescent City Sports By: Ken Trahan The 2025 New Orleans Saints lacked big plays in their first four games of the season; all were losses. That trend ended Sunday.It did not good look good early as the Giants scored touchdowns on their first two possessions. It looked very good late after the Saints shut out New York the rest of the way. The last time the Saints had two touchdowns of 86 yards or more was in 1998 against Minnesota when Aaron Craver had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Sammy Knight returned an interception 91 yards for a score. Ironically, the Saints lost that game. The Saints scored on an 87-yard touchdown pass and an 86-yard fumble recovery and return for a score. That anomaly from another century did not occur Sunday. When you make big plays, you win games. New Orleans came up with huge plays on offense and defense. When you win the turnover battle, you typically win games. When you win the turnover battle by a whopping margin of five, you are unquestionably going to win. The result was obvious for New Orleans against the New York Giants at the Caesars Superdome. Kellen Moore has his first win as an NFL head coach. After 10 straight losses, Spencer Rattler has his first win as an NFL quarterback. The Saints won their third straight game in the series with the Giants and evened the all-time series at 17-17. Here are my Quick Takes on the 26-14 New Orleans victory over New York: **Taysom Hill and Foster Moreau were both active for the first time this season. **Inactives for the Saints included Devin Neal, Isaac Yiadom, Cesar Ruiz, Xavier Truss, Khristian Boyd and Chase Young. **The Saints won the toss and elected to receive. Hill and Moreau led the “Who Dat?” chant to loud applause. **The opening kickoff ended up on the ground and Velus Jones Jr. could only return it eight yards to the 9-yard-line. **The Saints got a false start penalty by Juwan Johnson and went three-and-out as Rattler passed incomplete into traffic twice. Moreau was in on the series. **Kool Aid McKinstry committed a pass interference penalty to sustain the first drive of the Giants. **Jacson Dart hit Daniel Bellinger for 18 yards to the New Orleans 1-yard-line. **On the next play, Dart hit a wide open Theo Johnson for a 1-yard touchdown to give the Giants a 7-0 lead, capping an eight play, 59-yard drive in 4:05. Dart was 5 of 5 for 45 yards and the score on the drive. **Taysom Hill was back in his familiar up back position calling signals on the first New Orleans punt and he was in on offense, lining up at quarterback on the first play of the second offensive series for the Saints. Rashid Shaheed was penalized for being offside on the play. **Rattler was picked off but Deonte Banks was flagged for pass interference, a 25-yard penalty, giving the Saints the ball at midfield. **The Saints continued the drive and reached the New York 10-yard-line and stalled. Blake Grupe kicked a 28-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 7-3 with 1:40 to play in the opening quarter. **The drive covered 70 yards in 14 plays, taking 7:54 off the clock. **Bryan Bresee broke up a pass on the next New York possession but Dart scrambled for 20 yards to the New Orleans 24-yard-line to end the first quarter. **The Giants had 93 yards to just 54 for the Saints through one quarter. **Justin Reid went out for the game in the first quarter with a concussion. Reid has had several injuries already this season while Julian Blackmon, his running mate, is out for the year. Jordan Howden replaced Reid. **Dart finished the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Theo Johnson to give the Giants a 14-3 lead with 13:01 to play in the half. **The drive covered 70 yards in eight plays, taking 3:39 off the clock. **It marked the first time since 2020 that the Giants scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of a game and it was the second straight week that Dart, starting just his second game, led the Giants to a touchdown on their first possession. **New Orleans had a decent drive and Grupe connected on a 53-yard field goal to make it 14-6 with 7:41 to play in the first half. The drive was 12 plays, 49 yards, taking 5:20 off the clock. **The Saints finally hit the big play as Spencer Rattler connected with Rashid Shaheed on an 87-yard touchdown pass on a deep corner route. Shaheed beat two defenders, with safety Tyler Nubin in pursuit, and the throw was right on the mark. Shaheed outran two defenders for the score to make it 14-13 with 5:16 to play in the half. **The Giants were flagged for pass interference on consecutive plays. The second was on former Saint Paulson Adebo. **That lead to a 52-yard field goal attempt by Grupe which he pulled wide left. **That gave the Giants the ball at their onwn 42-yard-line with 1:25 to play in the half. **Dart completed a pass to Darius Slayton but Demario Davis forced a fumble and Jonas Sanker returned the fumble to the New York 41-yard-line with 1:02 to play in the half. **That led to a 29-yard field goal by Grupe on the final play of the half to give the Saints a 16-14 lead at the break. The drive covered 30 yards in eight plays. **With four catches in the first half, Alvin Kamara now has 590 career receptions, surpassing Tiki Barber and Marcus Allen for fifth all-time in receptions among running backs. **On the opening drive of the second half, Dart, with an enormous amount of time to throw the ball, simply dropped the ball and Cam Jordan recovered for the Saints at the New Orleans 46-yard-line. **That gave the Saints the ball with the lead for the first time this season, with 10:52 to play of the third quarter of game five. **Hill extended the next drive with a third down pass completion to Juwan Johnson for 19 yards to the 7-yard-line of New York after Rattler hit Chris Olave for 19 yards. **Torricelli Simpkins committed a false start penalty, pushing the ball back to the 12-yard-line and that hurt the possession. **Grupe kicked a 28-yard field goal to extend the New Orleans lead to 19-14 with 6:55 to play in the third quarter. **The drive went 44 yards in 10 plays, taking 3:57 off the clock. **The Giants were driving for a potential go-ahead score and Howden came up with a huge play. Bryan Bresee forced a fumble by Cam Skattebo and Howden picked it up and returned it 86 yards for a touchdown to give the Saints a 26-14 lead. **Kool Aid McKinstry came up with his first of two turnovers with an interception of Dart on the next possession at the New Orleans 5-yard-line. **Then, McKinstry secured his second interception of Dart with five minutes to play. **That marked five consecutive possessions with a turnover for the Giants. The last team to commit a turnover on five straight possessions in the NFL was the New York Jets against Kansas City on Nov. 25, 2016. **The five turnovers are the most since the Saints came up with five in a win over Chicago on Nov. 5, 2023 when the Saints won 24-17. **Grupe missed a 46-yard field goal wide right. **Carl Granderson got a sack of Dart but was flagged for a personal foul. It was a simply terrible call. Granderson did nothing wrong. **McKinstry broke up a pass in the end zone in the final minute. Rattler is the first quarterback drafted by the Saints to win a game since Danny Wuerffel did so in 1998. The second-year pro finished 20 of 30 for 225 yards and a touchdown and rushed six times for 21 yards. The secondary, without Blackmon and Reid, was considered a weak spot for the Saints. It was a definitive strength against the Giants. Jonas Sanker missed a potential interception but was good with seven tackles and the fumble recovery. McKinstry had a breakthrough game with his two interceptions and broke up a pass in the end zone. Pete Werner led in tackles with 11 and he had a quarterback hit. Shaheed had four catches for 114 yards and a touchdown. Kendre Miller ran hard, with 10 carries for 41 yards. Olave had seven catches for 59 yards. The Saints were 7 of 15 on third down conversions. Dart, who started in fantastic fashion, was less than fantastic overall. Dart was 26 of 40 for 202 yards and two touchdowns but with two interceptions. He rushed seven times for 55 yards. The only negative was the kicking game/special teams for New Orleans, an ongoing issue. Coverage teams were not good enough, Grupe missed two more field goals and put a kickoff in the end zone, giving New York the ball at the 35-yard-line. Kickoff returns were abysmal, with poor decisions to field the ball and weak returns. Now 1-4, the Saints look for a win streak next Sunday at home against New England. For the first time since Nov. 17, 2024, Saints fans could finally chant “Who Dat” toward game’s end, snapping a 6-game home losing streak. Enjoy it, Saints fans! Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Post-game press conference Below John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) *John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
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