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What’s up, Who Dats? Tee Word, the #peopleschamp, is back to bring you the New Orleans Saints Player of the Week for the opening week of the 2018 NFL season. The Saints lost a shootout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which was saddled by a poor performance by the defense, falling 48-40 at home. Overshadowed by the surprising outcome was the outstanding showing by the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Alvin Kamara. For those who watched the game, player of the week could only rightfully be awarded to an offensive player, and there were four reasonable candidates.
Quarterback Drew Brees gets a nod for obvious reasons, playing a clean game while going 37/45 for 439 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions. Masterful. Ted Ginn Jr. caught 5 passes for 68 yards and 1 TD, continuing his rebirth in the Big Easy. Third year stud Michael Thomas made a strong bid for the award by hauling in 16 passes for 180 yards and 1 TD, but did have a fumble at a critical juncture in the game.
It would be fair to give the nod to Brees, but that’s just too easy. Kamara was everything you could have asked for in the absence of Mark Ingram. Though not as productive on the ground, Kamara more than made up for it with impressive catches to keep the saints competitive very late in what appeared to be a blowout late into the game. To go along with 8 carries for 29 yards and 2 TDs, Kamara caught 9 passes for 112 yards and 1 TD. Kamara totaled 13 scores last year, and started the season off with 3 already. If the trend continues, the possibilities would rival some of the Saints most impressive individual seasons.
The #giftedglider opened the season with a 5-yard TD off tackle, showing that he could do damage from the backfield. Later Kamara picked up his second rushing TD from one yard out and followed the score with a successful run for the 2-point conversion. On the Saints final scoring drive of the day, Brees found Kamara for a 7-yard TD, which was capped by 2-point conversion to Ginn.
The offense did their best to salvage a win, though it was not enough to overcome 2 turnovers and no pass rush. The shining star of the day was Alvin Kamara, let’s all raise our glasses and tip our caps to #AK!
Thank you for reading and as always, Be Cool Who Dats!