New Orleans Saints vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
New Orleans Saints
Quarterbacks
- Teddy Bridgewater: 24/36, 240 yards, 1 TD
In what turned out to be a defensive battle, Saints’ backup QB Teddy Bridgewater wasn’t nearly as sharp for the Saints as he was last week vs. the Bucs. Luckily for New Orleans, Bridgewater was still good enough to get the job done in Jacksonville and move to 4-0 as a starter this year. Even though he completed 66% of his passes, Bridgewater struggled with his accuracy at times, especially on deeper pass attempts. He didn’t take many shots downfield and averaged only 6.7 yards per attempt. Bridgewater was, for the most part, unable to take advantage of the absence of Jaguars’ all-pro CB Jalen Ramsey. Bridgewater missed a couple of wide-open TD throws – one to WR Michael Thomas and another one to WR Ted Ginn, Jr. While Bridgewater was mostly ineffective, his 4th quarter TD pass to TE Jared Cook turned out to be the difference in the game. The TD to Cook capped an impressive 11-play, 75-yard drive that took just over 6 minutes off the game clock. For the second straight week, it was up to Bridgewater to do enough for the Saints’ offense to put them in a position to win. Similarly to the Saints’ matchup last week vs. Tampa Bay, their rushing attack just wasn’t able to get much going. While the Saints were able to leave Jacksonville with a win, if you had to play Bridgewater in your lineup this week, he probably left you disappointed. While it was promising that Bridgewater was without a turnover for the first time since week 3 in Seattle, with a tough matchup against the Bears in Chicago next week, it’s probably a good idea to look elsewhere for a streaming QB in week 7.
Running Backs
- Alvin Kamara: 11 carries, 31 yards | 8 targets, 7 receptions, 35 yards
- Latavius Murray: 8 carries, 44 yards | 3 targets, 3 receptions, 35 yards
It was clear from the beginning of this game that Jacksonville prioritized stopping RB Alvin Kamara and the Saints’ rushing attack. Kamara finished with only 66 total yards from scrimmage and was held without a TD for the third consecutive game. In fact, other than Kamara’s 2 TD performance against Seattle in week 3 (one rushing, one receiving), he has been kept out of the end zone in 5 of New Orleans’ 6 games this season. While his lack of TD production likely has his owners scrambling so far, Kamara’s volume has kept him relevant and at least somewhat viable throughout the season. Kamara was nursing an ankle injury going into the week, so the Saints tried to get RB Latavius Murray involved a bit more to take some of the load off of Kamara. In fact, Murray finished with more rushing yards than Kamara on fewer carries and totaled the same number of receiving yards on 4 fewer receptions. Jacksonville’s defense was all over Kamara at every turn. Kamara was unable to find any running lanes – his longest carry of the afternoon going for just 8 yards. Teddy Bridgewater was unable to get Kamara the ball in space, either. Whether on designed screen plays or on check-downs, Kamara was quickly bottled up by the Jaguars’ defense after the catch for most of the afternoon. Murray sprung a nice play down the left sideline that would have been a TD, but was called back due to offensive holding on WR Michael Thomas. It was an ugly day overall for the Saints’ offense, and they won’t have a much easier time next week in Chicago vs. the Bears.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
- Michael Thomas: 12 targets, 8 receptions, 89 yards
- Ted Ginn, Jr: 6 targets, 2 receptions, 36 yards | 1 carry, 12 yards
- Jared Cook: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 37 yards, 1 TD
The Saints’ WRs fared slightly better than did the RBs against Jacksonville but still had their own struggles on the day. WR Michael Thomas was his usual, productive self against the Jaguars. Through the Saints’ first 6 games this season, Thomas has had at least 12 targets in 4 of them, and at least 8 receptions and 80 yards in 5 of them. Thomas finished with 8 catches and 89 yards receiving on the afternoon, but 4 of his receptions and 52 yards came on the Saints’ lone TD drive in the second half. For the rest of the day, Thomas wasn’t incredibly effective. Thomas only has 3 TDs so far this season, so his owners would hope to see him getting into the end zone more frequently going forward. That being said, Thomas has been a beacon of consistency for New Orleans in QB Drew Brees’ absence and the go-to target to lean on for QB Teddy Bridgewater.
Other than Thomas, it was a mostly slow day for Saints pass-catchers. TE Jared Cook’s 4th quarter TD grab ended up being the difference in the game for the Saints. Cook has now scored a TD in back-to-back games, but it’s tough to envision where he might fit into New Orleans’ offense once Brees returns to action. The rapport that Cook is building with Bridgewater isn’t guaranteed to translate to success once Brees is back at the helm, but luckily for Cook owners, he’s provided a couple of worthwhile performances in a row.
WR Ted Ginn, Jr’s struggles continued against the Jags. Even though Ginn isn’t as young as he used to be, he’s still primarily a deep-threat WR and Teddy Bridgewater just doesn’t always have the nerve (or the accuracy) to take deep shots down the field to Ginn. Since his Week 1 performance (7 targets, 7 receptions, 101 yards), Ginn has yet to record more than 3 receptions or more than 36 yards in a game. In fact, Ginn recorded almost as many yards in week 1 (101) than he has in his 4 games since (105). Ginn did add 12 yards on his lone carry. As another week of fantasy opens and closes, Michael Thomas still appears to be the only consistent fantasy threat at WR for New Orleans.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Quarterbacks
- Gardner Minshew: 14/29, 163 yards, 1 INT
Minshew Mania came to a screeching halt – at least for one week – against a stingy New Orleans defense. Jaguars’ QB Gardner Minshew has captivated the NFL in the absence of starter Nick Foles, but he came crashing back down to earth on Sunday. The Jaguars’ offense as a whole was less-than-stellar, but Minshew was particularly bad. He missed open receivers, he had times where he would throw to a spot that a WR maybe should have run their route towards, but were nowhere in sight. This seemed to be the case on Minshew’s lone INT while targeting WR DJ Chark, Jr. Chark flashed over the middle and broke outside while Minshew threw inside instead. Saints’ CB Marshon Lattimore was there to haul in the easy interception – the first INT by Minshew since taking over as the starter for the injured Foles. Minshew completed only 48.3% of his passes, averaging only 4.9 yards per attempt. It was a defensive struggle, to be sure. The Jaguars were only able to muster 2 field goals on the afternoon, and Minshew was pressured consistently. On a positive note, Minshew and the Jaguars will have a much softer matchup next week at Cincinnati with high hopes to bounce back. This week is honestly one that Minshew and the Jaguars would rather forget.
Running Backs
- Leonard Fournette: 20 carries, 72 yards | 6 targets, 6 receptions, 46 yards
- Ryquell Armstead: 1 carry, 1 yard
Much like the rest of Jacksonville’s offense, it was a tough day for RB Leonard Fournette against the Saints’ defense. Luckily for Fournette’s owners, he still had a productive day due to his consistent high-volume usage. While he didn’t get into the end-zone, Fournette finished with 118 yards from scrimmage on the day and 26 total touches. While New Orleans ultimately came out victorious, the Jags were able to keep the game close enough to keep Fournette and the run game involved. RB Ryquell Armstead added 1 yard on 1 carry but remains fantasy irrelevant moving forward unless Fournette were to miss time. This game was a sloppy, defensive dominant matchup that hindered most of Jacksonville’s skill players, but Fournette was the only one who was able to salvage a respectable afternoon. He flashed at times, including a 16-yard run around the left end in the 3rd quarter that would lead to a field goal. He also did more damage as a check-down receiving option, catching all 6 of his targets and averaging 7.7 yards per reception. While the scoring opportunities were limited against the Saints, Fournette and the Jaguars’ RBs will hope to take advantage of a more favorable matchup against the Bengals next week, who are allowing the 3rd most ppg to RBs so far this season.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
- Dede Westbrook: 8 targets, 3 receptions, 53 yards
- DJ Chark Jr.: 7 targets, 3 receptions, 43 yards
- Seth DeValve: 2 targets, 1 reception, 16 yards
With QB Gardner Minshew only throwing for 163 yards and an interception, you can imagine it was a fairly disappointing day for Jaguars’ WRs. Dede Westbrook and fantasy darling DJ Chark, Jr both caught less than half of their targets on their way to a largely disappointing afternoon. While there were some flash plays, their offense was unable to operate with any real consistency. Westbrook was able to haul in a nice 23-yard catch-and-run on a short pass in the 3rd quarter that would ultimately set up Jacksonville for a game-tying field goal. DJ Chark, Jr was also able to grab a nice 22-yard reception on the Jags’ first field-goal drive of the game. Jags’ QB Gardner Minshew struggled all afternoon which only added to the woes of the Jags’ WR corps. When they were able to get separation, Minshew wasn’t always able to find his open receivers. The Saints’ defense made it quite difficult on the young QB and the results showed up in the final score. For the most part, the Jaguars’ offense was quite ineffective and the fantasy output from their pass-catchers was minimal. The entire Jacksonville offense will hope to bounce back next week against the Bengals in Cincinnati.
– Corey Saucier
Now that it seems like the 49ers are the real deal, would it be too far out there for me to be considering dropping the Vikings D for them? Or would it be a negligible trade off?