3 takeaways from the Saints win over Las Vegas

1. The defense better play like this the rest of the year

The New Orleans Saints defense turned in easily their best performance on Sunday, shutting out a Las Vegas Raiders team that had scored 29+ points in each of their last three games. The defense obviously doesn’t need to shutout every team they play, but if they return to form and can hold teams under 20 points per game the Saints have a real chance to turn the season around, especially given how weak the rest of the division has looked.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

2. The Saints should hang up immediately if anyone tries to trade for Alvin Kamara

Kamara’s 150+ total yards and three touchdowns were the driving force behind the Saints offense on Sunday, and he has been the only reliable weapon the Saints have had for a majority of the season outside rookie Chris Olave. With the rest of the offense being dogged by injuries, Kamara is their only hope of remaining good enough on offense to make the playoffs. His name was floated in unsubstantiated trade rumors on twitter this week, all of which were shut down by more reputable Saints reporters, and rightfully so. The Saints should not even consider trading Kamara as he is by far the best player on offense and has multiple years left on his contract.

3. We need to see a bit more from the healthy receivers not named Chris Olave

Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry have each missed over half of the season thus far, and other than Chris Olave, none of the backup WRs have taken a big step in their absence. Despite each missing 4+ games, Thomas and Landry are still fourth and fifth on the team respectively in receptions, behind only Olave, Kamara, and Juwan Johnson. Tre’Quan Smith, Marquez Callaway, and Rashid Shaheed are all players we know are capable of playing like starting level receivers, but so far none of them have been able to prove it over the last four weeks. I would like to see one of them have a breakout game soon, as the Saints could use as many playmakers as possible given their injury status.

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