Saints fall short in Green Bay in second preseason game

Ian Book looked better tonight than his first preseason game, but it wasn’t enough as Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers defeat the New Orleans Saints 20-10 at Lambeau Field to drop New Orleans to 0-2 in the preseason.

1st Half

Defensively, the Saints started strong, forcing the Packers to punt on their first drive. Shy Tuttle made an impact early on with two tackles on that first drive, however, the Saints couldn’t quite get going offensively either.

Green Bay and New Orleans would trade field goals on back-to-back drives to tie the game back up at 3 a piece before Green Bay led an 11-play, 80-yard drive to score a touchdown, a short pass from Love to Doubs to make it a 10-3 game early in the 2nd quarter.

The Saints would then turn the ball over on their next two possessions, with the Packers getting a field goal between those drives to push the lead up to 13-3 Green Bay shortly before the half. Chris Olave would catch his first touchdown pass as a Saint with a beautiful ball from Ian Book to close to gap to 13-10 at the half.

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

2nd Half

The third quarter of this game was full of punts, with the first seven drives of the quarter ending in a punt. The big play during this stretch for the Saints was the 81-yard punt from Blake Gillikin, who has proven himself to be a field position weapon for Dennis Allen and the Saints through his short career thus far. Gillikin also had a 65-yard and 61-yard punt later in the game as well, really giving New Orleans’ defense the opportunity to pin Green Bat deep in their own end.

Green bay was able to get a touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 51-yard scamper from former LSU Tiger Danny Etling to make it 20-10 and put the game out of reach for the Saints.

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Scoring Summary

Packers FG 2:20 Ramiz Ahmed Made 25 Yd Field Goal

3-0 Packers

Saints FG

0:00 Wil Lutz Made 59 Yd Field Goal

3-3

SECOND QUARTER

Packers TD

8:04 Romeo Doubs Pass From Jordan Love for 4 Yds, R.Ahmed extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Coco, Holder-P.O’Donnell.

10-3 Packers

Packers FG

2:37 Ramiz Ahmed Made 45 Yd Field Goal

13-3 Packers

Saints TD

0:12 Chris Olave Pass From Ian Book for 20 Yds Wil Lutz Made Ex. Pt

13-10 Packers HALF

FOURTH QUARTER

Packers TD

8:20 Danny Etling 51 Yd Rush, R.Ahmed extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Coco, Holder-P.O’Donnell.

20-10 Packers FINAL

Final Thoughts

Overall, preseason doesn’t matter. However, the Saints showed a lot of good things in a loss tonight. Turnovers have to be minimized going forward and the idiotic penalties can definitely go away, but this is the opportunity to get those minor things out of the way and be prepared come Week 1.