506 yards, and Baltimore was barely trying by the fourth
Some Week 1 performances are just noise. This one wasn’t.
Baltimore put up 506 yards on the Colts at 7.9 yards a play, the league’s best figure in Week 1 per Opta. Four of the first five drives ended in points. By halftime the offense already had 326 yards, which is a full game for most teams.
Lamar Jackson looked like the MVP version again: 17 of 25, 324 through the air, a passing touchdown, plus 40 on the ground and a rushing score on the opening possession.
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New Orleans needed thirty minutes to remember it had an offense
In Detroit, the Saints went eight straight possessions without a point. Punt, punt, punt, punt, interception, punt, interception, fumble. Total yardage from that stretch: 93.
Then something switched. Down 21-0 in the third, New Orleans came all the way back and lost by one, 31-30.
Chris Olave was the reason. 182 receiving yards, 142 of them after the break, four catches of 20-plus. Both of those were league highs on opening weekend.
The obvious question for Sunday
One team scores immediately. The other apparently needs a three-touchdown hole first. That is a strange matchup to handicap.
Baltimore’s defense cannot afford the second-half drift that Detroit allowed. Olave will punish it.
There is a standings angle too. New Orleans lost the NFC South to Carolina on tiebreakers last season. An 0-2 start in a division decided by that kind of margin is an expensive way to begin.
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