Week 5 Saints Rewatch: Taysom Hill goes beast mode on Seahawks

We’re rewatching every game of the New Orleans Saints 2022 season to help get ready for the 2023 season and learn what we can about the Saints approach.

Week 5: The Saints come back from England to play the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle is 2-2. The Saints are 1-3. Tell Pete Carroll no spitting gum on our field.

What to remember?

How do you think Taysom Hill will be remembered when his Saints career is over? He’ll certainly go down as a folk hero to Saints fans, who enjoyed watching him rumble and run.

But I ask you, what will be the level of post-career honor for Taysom? Is he a Saints Hall of Famer? (Those guys do a great job), is he a Saints Ring of Honor type (maybe a stretch) or is he just a guy fans will remember fondly from this era?

This game could go down in Taysom history as his best ever (he’s not done yet). He runs for three touchdowns. He throws a touchdown pass. The Seahawk's run defense is pretty bad – they finish 30^th in the league - and the Saints score the most points they score all season (39).

Alvin Kamara is back for this game. He fumbles once but helps win the game when the Saints just need a first down to run out the clock, but this is the game Olave gets knocked out. So, the Saints are without Olave, Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry… and also lose Deonte Hardy. Keith Kirkwood comes in off the street and makes a catch.

And still, the Saints score 39 points? Go figure.

That’s because the Saints have success running the ball. The offensive line still struggles against the blitz, but this is the best game they play all season (until the Eagle game).

So, you know what that means, if the offense is having a good day, that must mean the defense is all over the place. Just before halftime, the Seahawks have the ball with 14 seconds left near the Saints 40, they have no timeouts left. Basically, the only thing to do is throw the ball deep. This is Basic Football 101. Somehow the Saints secondary lets Tyler Lockett run a post pattern through the defense. Touchdown.

(In other words, this is exactly what the Saints should have done at the end of the Viking game in England, but I digress).

Seattle isn’t good, even though they do make the playoffs. This is the game where their punter inexplicably tries to run with the ball when Seattle is backed up inside their own 20 and its like fourth-and-nine. He gets clobbered and the Saints score an easy TD two plays later. I mean… what?

The Saints seem to realize that on short yardage situations, shifting to single wing football and snapping the ball to Taysom and letting him run works.

Seahawks rookie running back Kenneth Walker III comes in the game when Rashaad Penny gets hurt. Walker III rips off a long TD run. He ends up being second in the AP Rookie of the Year voting. The Seahawks had him on the bench for five weeks. Talent evaluation in the NFL is hard y’all.

Talking about NFL TV commentators is a futile exercise. Everyone thinks so-and-so is against their team, but Matt Millen brought very little to this telecast other than noting his Penn State heritage and saying “great play by (that player)” a dozen times.

What we thought at the time?

Taysom did it again! It’s like he’s good for one or two games a year where he single-handily beat the other team – or turns around a game with a big play - but how was the defense so crummy on the back end?

It still feels good to beat the Seahawks. I’m fine with never seeing that Beastquake thing ever again. Besides, LSU did the earthquake game first…and much better.

The Saints are 2-3 and the NFC South is horrible. So, you’re saying there’s a chance?

Next up:

Joe Burrow and Cincinnati Bengals come to the Dome. It’s the ultimate Andy Dalton revenge game!

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