Know Your Eagles Enemy: The New Orleans Saints

Well, Eagles fans, we have arrived at the Jalen Hurts era. Well, maybe just a one-game era.

The new Eagles starting quarterback gets welcomed to the NFL by a fierce New Orleans Saints defense. Before we dive into the game, let’s take a look at the 2019 stats, 2020 stats, and their moves up to this point.

2019 Ranks:

Yards per game: 373.9 (9th)
Passing yards per game: 256.3 (7th)
Rushing yards per game: 108.6 (16th)
Points per game: 28.6 (T-3)
Yards allowed per game: 333.1 (11th)
Passing yards allowed per game: 241.8 (20th)
Rushing yards allowed per game: 91.3 (4th)
Points allowed per game: 21.3 (14th)
Turnover differential: +15 (2nd)

2020 Ranks:

Yards per game: 370.8 (12th)
Passing yards per game: 230.1 (21st)
Rushing yards per game: 140.8 (7th)
Points per game: 28.9 (5th)
Yards allowed per game: 288.8 (2nd)* [Rams moved ahead of Saints after Thursday’s game vs Patriots]
Passing yards allowed per game: 212.8 (4th)
Rushing yards allowed per game: 76.1 (2nd)
Points allowed per game: 20.1 (5th)
Turnover differential: +7 (T-3rd)

Key additions:

WR Emmanuel Sanders (free agency), S Malcolm Jenkins (free agency), S D.J. Swearinger (free agency), QB Jameis Winston (free agency), C/G Cesar Ruiz (draft), LB Kwon Alexander (trade)

Key departures:

QB Teddy Bridgewater (free agency), G Larry Warford (released), S Vonn Bell (free agency), CB Eli Apple (free agency)

It Hurts so good?

It’s time to roll out Jalen Hurts for his first NFL start.

In his final season of college, his first at Oklahoma, Hurts completed 69.7% of his passes for 3,851 yards, 32 TDs, 8 INTS, and rushed 233 times for 1,298 yards and 20 TDs. He also caught two passes for 25 yards and one TD.

Pretty impressive.

However, he’ll be making his first NFL start versus one of the league’s fiercest defenses. The Saints’ -20.7% defensive DVOA (remember, negative is good) is second to the Steelers, they are second in adjusted line yards to running backs, and first in adjusted sack rate.

Defensive end Trey Hendrickson is tied for third in the league with 10.5 sacks, defensive end Cameron Jordan is tied for seventh with 11 tackles for loss, and CB Janoris Jenkins has three INTs.

The Saints haven’t allowed over 300 yards passing all season. They’ve allowed over 100 yards rushing just four times in 12 games.

This is going to be a rough welcoming for Hurts.

Eagles vs Saints: The History

The Eagles and Saints have faced each other 28 times in the regular season and four times in the playoffs. The Eagles lead the regular-season series 16-12, while the Saints lead the postseason series 3-1. The Eagles last beat the Saints in 2015.

Eagles Predictions

I think the Eagles lose, flat out. But I also think we’ll see a more relaxed Doug Pederson. He and Wentz clearly do not see eye to eye, which leads me to believe we’ll see some plays that we’ve been clamoring for all year. The Eagles lose 37-13, but the Pederson/Wentz relationship gets even murkier.