The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Brees, Saints blast Eagles, grab 9th win
Drew Brees passed for 363 yards and four touchdowns, and the Saints won their ninth straight with a 48-7 demolition of Philadelphia on Sunday that marked the Eagles’ worst loss by far since they won last season’s Super Bowl.
Brees completed 22 of 30 passes and did not turn the ball over, giving him 25 TD passes and only one interception this season. Brees’ fourth touchdown seemed to encapsulate New Orleans’ audacious approach to the game. He hit running back Alvin Kamara in stride down the right sideline for 37 yards on a fourth-and-7 play that gave the Saints (9-1) a 45-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Brees’ other touchdown passes went for 3 yards to Austin Carr, 15 yards to rookie Tre’Quan Smith and 23 yards to Michael Thomas. Smith finished with 10 catches for 157 yards, while Thomas’ four catches for 92 yards made him the first receiver in Saints history to surpass 1,000 yards receiving in each of his first three seasons.
Mark Ingram rushed 16 times for 103 yards, including touchdowns of 14 yards and 1 yard. Kamara added 71 yards to help New Orleans finish with 546 total yards and score at least 40 for the sixth time this season.
And New Orleans’ defense produced a second straight dominant showing after largely stifling Cincinnati in a 51-14 victory the previous week.
Carson Wentz was intercepted three times — once by Marshon Lattimore and twice by Chris Banjo — and finished with 156 yards on 19-of-33 passing.
Time will tell if the lopsided loss marked the beginning of the end of the Eagles’ title defense. Philadelphia (4-6) remained two games behind Washington (6-4) for first place in the NFC East, but more injuries befell their already depleted lineup. They offered virtually no resistance to New Orleans and looked thoroughly outclassed by the surging Saints.
Rookie running back Josh Adams rushed for a 28-yard TD that pulled the Eagles within 17-7 in the second quarter, but the Saints responded with Smith’s TD in which the receiver held onto a hard throw over the middle while being sandwiched by two defenders. That made it 24-7 at halftime and the game was not competitive after that.