 Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 10/12/2025 Article Courtesy of Crescent City Sports By: Ken Trahan The New Orleans Saints were catching the New England Patriots coming off an emotionally and physically draining victory over their biggest rival, the Buffalo Bills. While one though process is that momentum would carry over, the other thought process was that New England would not be able to match the emotional and physicality of the previous week. Unfortunately for the Saints, the Patriots showed up and played well. As a favorite with better personnel, that was enough to get the job done. Drake Maye and former LSU wide receiver Kayshon Boutte of Westgate High School combined to inflict pain upon the home team. Here are my Quick Takes on the 25-19 New England win over New Orleans: **Inactives for the Saints included Ugo Amadi, Khristian Boyd, Torricelli Simpkins, Xavier Truss, Rezjohn Wright and Isaac Yiadom **With Cesar Ruiz active, the Saints had their starting offensive line begin the game for just the second time this season. **On the first play from scrimmage, Spencer Rattler hit Chris Olave for 53 yards to the New England 22-yard-line. **The Saints could not full capitalize, doing nothing on the next three downs and Blake Grupe kicked a 34-yard field goal to give New Orleans a 3-0 lead with 12:50 to play in the opening quarter. **Grupe’s shaky kickoffs continued as he booted the ensuing kickoff in the end zone, giving New England the ball at its own 35-yard-line. **Drake Maye put New England on top with a 53-yard touchdown pass to DeMario Douglas and it was 7-3 with 10:52 to play in the first quarter. Douglas ran a deep cross and was wide open with only safety Jonas Sanker in pursuit and he missed the tackle. It took just four plays to go 65 yards for the score. **The Saints had a good drive which reached the New England 3-yard line on a completion from Rattler to Devaughn Vele but Kelvin Banks was flagged for holding, killing the possession. Grupe connected on a 48-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 7-6 with 5:05 to play in the first quarter. **The Patriots had a 61-yard touchdown pass from Maye to Douglas negated by an offensive pass interference penalty on Stefon Diggs. Maye extended the play and Douglas was wide open. **It did not matter. On the next play, Quincy Riley committed pass interference penalty on Kyle Williams, giving the Patriots a first down and a gain of 21 yards to midfield. **Then, Jonathan Bullard was flagged for defensive holding, giving New England another first down. **Maye hit Boutte with a 25-yard touchdown pass, a perfect throw as Boutte was blanketed by Kool-Aid McKinstry to make it 14-6 with 33 seconds left in the first quarter. McKinstry and Boutte had simultaneous possession and that is always awarded to the offensive player. **The drive covered 69 yards in six plays. **The Patriots had 118 yards while the Saints totaled 114 in the first quarter. **Kevin Banks Jr. went down with 14:10 to play in the first half. Asim Richard replaced him at left tackle briefly. Banks was able to return on the same possession. **Taysom Hill scored on a 2-yard run to cut the deficit to 14-13 with 9:42 to play in the first half, capping an 11 play, 60-yard drive in 5:51. It was an impressive drive mixing runs and passes. **Danny Stutsman replaced Pete Werner at linebacker in the second quarter. Werner did not appear to have an injury. **New England elected to go for a fourth-and-seven at the New Orleans 39-yard-line but a bad snap from center forced Maye to fall on the ball at the New England 47-yard line, a loss of 14 yards on the aborted play. **Rattler made a very good deep throw in the end zone to Olave against tight coverage, the ball hit Olave in the hands but he failed to make the catch. That led to a 38-yardfield goal by Grupe to give the Saints a 16-14 lead with 1:51 to play in the half. The drive went 27 yards in eight plays, taking 3:59 off the clock. **Werner returned on the next defensive series. **The Patriots had plenty enough time to answer and did, driving 73 yards in seven plays, taking just 1:20 with Maye hitting a wide open Boutte for a 29-yard touchdown. Maye snuck in the 2-point conversion to give New England a 22-16 lead with 31 seconds left in the half. **The only defensive stop for the Saints in the half was on a bad snap, an aborted play. **New England amassed 217 yards to 188 for the Saints in the half. **Rattler was 12 of 14 for 129 yards in the half while Maye was 11 of 13 for 185 yards and three touchdowns for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. **The Saints were penalized for a personal foul face mask penalty on Chris Rumph III, giving New England great field position at its own 43-yard-line. **The Patriots drove to the New Orleans 1-yard-line but Jonathan Bullard made a tackle for a 4-yard loss, followed by a delay of game penalty and New England settled for a 24-yard field goal by Andy Borregales to increase the lead to 25-16 with 7:26 to play in the third quarter. **The drive was 12 plays, 50 yards and took 7:34 off the clock, more than half the third quarter. **Trevor Penning was penalized for holding on the next possession, stopping a promising New Orleans drive. **Kai Kroger punted, the first punt of the game for either team, and hit an awful 23-yard effort. **The Saints then got a stop and forced the first punt of the game by New England. **Erik McCoy committed a false start on the next New Orleans series. **The Saints cut the deficit to 25-19 on a 54-yard field goal by Grupe with 13:41 to play in the game. **New Orleans got a stop, got the ball back, Rattler completed a pass to Juwan Johnson for 14 yards to the New Orleans 49-yard-line but he fumbled it away and Craig Woodson recovered for the Patriots, a costly turnover. **The play was originally ruled down by contact but Mike Vrabel challenged it and won the challenge. It was a close call. **The Saints got another stop but were unable to mount a drive and had to punt. **New England got the ball back and the Saints forced a third-and-11 but Maye made a perfect back shoulder throw to Boutte, who was working on McKinstry and the Patriots were able to run out the clock. Once again, the Saints competed well. Once again, as has been the case many times, the Saints had chances but simply could not finish drives. You are not going to win with 19 points. You are not going to win with one touchdown. Rattler played well, completing 20 of 26 passes for 227 yards. Olave had six catches for 98 yards but had a chance to make a touchdown catch and did not and had a chance at one other pass. The Saints did not run the ball well enough, rushing for just 73 yards. After a brutal first half, the New Orleans defense was better in the second half but could not get off the field when it needed to. Davon Godchaux had his best game as a Saint, in on seven tackles, including one for a loss against his former team. Werner had a sack and another quarterback hit. Grupe quieted critics, making all four field goal attempts. Maye looks the part of a very good young quarterback. He finished 18 of 26 for 251 yards and three touchdowns and he hurt the Saints with six carries for 32 yards, extending several plays. Boutte had five catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns in his return to south Louisiana. The Saints had their chances. They simply could not get it done. The Saints (1-5) travel to Chicago to face the Bears next Sunday, going against former New Orleans head coach and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, now the defensive coordinator with Chicago. Rest assured, Allen will dial up everything in his arsenal to beat his former team. Then again, it is not that tough a task against the 2025 New Orleans Saints. While the Saints are competing hard, the hard truth is they are simply not good enough, though we knew that already. 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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