The New Orleans Saints keep trying to move away from Taysom Hill in the quarterback position, but the do-it-all weapon simply does too much to ignore.
After Hill, listed as a tight end, scored from 8 yards out early in the second quarter against Seattle, New Orleans kept calling his number – and he kept producing.
“He’s such a weapon, and there’s nobody else like him,” Saints quarterback Andy Dalton said.
Hill posted a quartet of touchdowns – three rushing, one passing – and the Saints rallied past the Seahawks to score a much-needed 39-32 victory at the Caesars Superdome Sunday.
“Once you get to Friday (practice), then you know it may be a heavy week for me,” Hill said of the Saints’ game plan. “Going into this game I had a feeling that I’d have a certain number of opportunities.”
The “tight end” didn’t catch a pass, but carried the ball nine times for 112 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown run that gave the Saints the lead for good with 5 minutes left in the game. Hill also completed his only pass attempt, a 22-yard touchdown to Adam Trautman which gave the Saints a 31-19 advantage late in the third quarter.
The victory moved the Saints to 2-3 and kept them within a game of the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers. New Orleans hosts the Cincinnati Bengals — and former LSU stars Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase — in the Superdome next Sunday.
“(The win) was important,” Hill said. “I don’t want to overstate or undersell the importance of this win but 1-3 doesn’t feel great, obviously. We needed a game like this just to get some confidence back and you know, the expectation moving forward is that we just keep this thing rolling. We know that we’re a really talented football team and we just need to continue to stack these wins.”
A team stacking victories is the Dallas Cowboys.
Also with a backup quarterback at the helm, the Cowboys used their defense to take out the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, 22-10, at SoFi Stadium in California.
Less than 2 minutes into the game, Dallas’ DeMarcus Lawrence returned a Matthew Stafford fumble 19 yards for a touchdown and the Cowboys never relinquished the lead.
Dallas recorded five sacks — two by Micah Parsons, the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year — and forced two fumbles. Quarterback Cooper Rush collected just 102 yards on 10-of-16 passing, but running backs Tony Pollard (86 yards on eight carries) and Ezekiel Elliott (78 yards on 22 carries) complemented the defense.
The Cowboys (4-1) have won four straight since Rush was forced into action when Dak Prescott broke a bone in his hand. They remain one game behind the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL East. The surprising New York Giants are also 4-1.
The Cowboys travel to play the Eagles in a significant early-season primetime affair on Sunday night. Prescott may be ready for the NFC East matchup.
Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com
