Monday Night Observations

I had talked myself into Andy Dalton as a serviceable quarterback for the Saints, but this game disabused me of that notion pretty thoroughly. The problem for the Andy Daltons of the world is they can only succeed when conditions are good. If the conditions are avearge — or worse — they’re toast, and that’s what we saw. The Ravens got a lot of pressure on him, and he had no chance. His counterpart, Lamar Jackson, is the opposite. He made plays even without virtually all of his key weapons against a solid defense.

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I needed 27 points from Devin Duvernay and Kenyan Drake (not Isiah Likely as I wrote yesterday), and I got 26, thanks to Duvernay getting only one catch for five yards. That knocked me to 4-1 in the NFFC, and the Saints +2.5 knocked me to 3-1-1 in the Circa Millions.

I did get a very nice and surprising late TD from Juwan Johnson, who I was forced to start in my Primetime with Pat Freiermuth and George Kittle on bye. That team has a real shot through nine weeks.

• Lamar Jackson put up modest numbers and missed an open Likely on a probable second TD, but otherwise played a great game. He didn’t turn it over, he escaped the rush and he made good decisions all game.

• Kenyan Drake (24-93-2, 2-2-16-0) has looked great this year. It helps when the defensive line has to account for Jackson, but Drake has been elusive, quick and tough to bring down.

• Alvin Kamara (9-30-0, 4-3-32-0) couldn’t get going because the Saints were dominated on the line of scrimmage.

• It’s a waste of everyone’s time to have Justin Tucker attempt field goals from less than 55 yards. Just count the points, give him credit for it and cut to the kickoff. Having him kick is like making the pitcher throw four balls to issue an intentional walk.