Saints escaped long yardage while Chase Young handed it out

Baltimore gained more ground, 312 yards to 298. New Orleans won 24–17. Read this one through the downs, not just the yardage.

Two Saints scoring possessions had reached third-and-13 when Tyler Shough found a way out. In the second quarter, he completed a 29-yard pass to Devaughn Vele. In the third, he hit Juwan Johnson for 25. Both completions supplied a fresh first down. Both possessions eventually produced Daniel Carlson field goals.

Those catches did not solve everything. That is the point. On the Vele possession, New Orleans later faced third-and-14, and Shough's 11-yard scramble left fourth-and-3 before Carlson made a 23-yarder. On the Johnson possession, a later third-and-4 pass fell incomplete before Carlson connected from 51 yards.

The Saints escaped one difficult down without earning immunity from the next. They still had to work for the points, and they still stopped short of touchdowns. But Vele and Johnson extended possessions that could otherwise have reached fourth down much earlier.

That is where their catches deserve weight. Not as two attractive entries in a passing total, but as repairs to scoring opportunities. In a game New Orleans won by seven, I would put those repairs near the center of the explanation. The Saints did not need every possession to look clean. These two needed another set of downs.

Chase Young worked the other side of that problem. His two sack plays left Baltimore with long distances before field-goal attempts.

In the second quarter, Young dropped Lamar Jackson for an 11-yard loss. Second-and-10 became third-and-21. Baltimore completed an eight-yard pass, but that still left fourth-and-13. The ensuing 49-yard field-goal attempt was blocked.

In the third quarter, Young shared a 12-yard sack with Nathan Shepherd. This one came on third-and-10 and left fourth-and-22. Baltimore again attempted a 49-yarder. This time the kick was good, making the score 17–9.

Same kick distance. Different scoring outcomes. The common feature was the damage before the attempt: Young's sack plays pushed the required distance well beyond an ordinary first-down gain.

Give him credit for that damage without handing him somebody else's work. The first sack did not itself block the kick. The second did not keep Baltimore from scoring. Neither sequence proves that a touchdown was waiting to happen before Young intervened.

What they do show is useful enough. Baltimore had to confront third-and-21 in one possession and fourth-and-22 in another. Young helped turn those possessions into difficult distance problems, and both ended with field-goal attempts. That belongs beside the Saints' escapes when judging how this game stayed within reach.

Chris Olave's 21-yard touchdown catch supplied the obvious image of New Orleans catching Baltimore. His earlier catch on that possession deserves to stay attached to it.

The Saints trailed 17–9 with 11:06 remaining when Shough faced third-and-5. He completed a 12-yard pass to Olave, moving New Orleans to the Baltimore 27 and earning a first down. Travis Etienne Jr. then gained six yards. On the next play, Shough found Olave for the touchdown, and Etienne's two-point run tied the score at 17–17.

This was a different distance from the earlier third-and-13 escapes, but the value was just as concrete: the completion extended the possession on which New Orleans erased an eight-point deficit. Olave's touchdown came two plays after his conversion.

There is no need to turn that into a story about a particular route combination or a defensive mistake. The down, gain and subsequent score explain the local consequence. Olave first kept the possession moving. Then he finished it.

Shough later scored on a one-yard fourth-down run, with Carlson's extra point putting New Orleans ahead 24–17 with 1:28 left. That winning finish should not swallow the earlier hinge. Before the Saints could take the lead, this third-down connection helped them reach level ground.