ARLINGTON, Texas — The New Orleans Saints ran 18 times for 119 yards in the first half on Friday night and scored 2 touchdowns on the ground, both of them outside the tackles. All 3 of the Saints’ touchdowns came on the ground in a 27-24 win at AT&T Stadium.
“Give them credit. Kellen [Moore] and his staff do a nice job. It’s a lot of misdirection, motions, and things like that,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “We didn’t set edges very well. We just didn’t get the edges set early in the game, so they got the ball outside in the perimeter a couple times. One of the first touchdowns was the same play they ran early in the game, and our eyes were bad. In the first half, we were kind of reacting to everything.”
Barion Brown ran 12 yards around left end on the game’s first snap from scrimmage. Later in the first quarter, from the Dallas 7, he scored around right end. He finished with 2 carries for 19 yards. Spencer Rattler ran 8 yards around right end for the second touchdown with 2:01 left in the half. Audric Estimé set that one up with a 33-yard run to the Dallas 8, the longest play New Orleans had all night.
Christian Parker’s First In-Game Corrections
In Christian Parker‘s first game as Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, Dallas held out Von Miller, Rashan Gary, and Donovan Ezeiruaku, along with both starting defensive tackles. Marist Liufau, who started at outside linebacker, was hurt at 3:56 of the first quarter and did not return.
New Orleans ran 14 times for 50 yards in the second half, 3.6 an attempt against 6.6 in the first. Saints coach Kellen Moore‘s offense scored once more on the ground, on an 11-yard Zamir White run up the middle at 9:41 of the third quarter, then went three-and-out on its next possession after Sam Williams sacked Zach Wilson for a 7-yard loss.
“I think we did settle in, and I thought they made some nice adjustments, and we settled the front down a little bit,” Schottenheimer explained. “We did a better job moving some of the fronts to close gaps in the running game because they were moving us pretty good early on. Again, weren’t as deep, so we didn’t have as many guys to rotate through like we would on a normal game.”
“I hope it means that we have some pretty cool depth pieces. I think that’s part of it,” Schottenheimer added. “But I think it was good for CP to have to make some corrections and adjustments and things like that. Like, let’s do that now. Let’s not wait until we’re in the Meadowlands on Sunday night and the shit hits the fan and all of a sudden you’re having to solve problems.”
Where The Yards Went
Estimé carried 4 times for 46 yards. Kendre Miller carried 9 times for 42. CJ Donaldson carried 9 times for 33. White ran 4 times for 23 yards and the touchdown.
New Orleans finished with 169 rushing yards on 32 carries, 5.3 an attempt. Eleven of its 23 first downs came on the ground. The Saints reached the red zone four times and scored on three trips, and they converted both goal-to-go chances.
Dallas ran 26 times for 91 yards and did not score on the ground.
Sam Howell’s Fourth Quarter
Brandon Aubrey made field goals of 49, 51, and 58 yards, the last with 28 seconds left in the half. He missed from 57. Dallas trailed 17-9 at the break.
Sam Howell threw a 26-yard touchdown to Jordan Hudson on the first play of the fourth quarter. He later completed all 5 of his passes on a 67-yard, 12-play drive that ended in a 21-yard touchdown to Mitch Van Vooren, then ran in the two-point conversion that tied the game at 24.
Daniel Carlson kicked a 53-yard field goal just after the two-minute warning to put New Orleans ahead 27-24.
The Cowboys open at the New York Giants on Sept. 13. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
