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Darren Rizzi talks Giants win, Derek Carr injury, Commanders game

Recapping the top five takeaways from the Saints Coaches Show on WWL 

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi joined Voice of the Saints Mike Hoss and Saints legend Bobby Hebert on the Saints Coaches Show on WWL on Monday, Dec. 9 to talk about the win over the New York Giants, Derek Carr's injury, the upcoming game against the Washington Commanders and more.

Here are the top five takeaway's from Rizzi's appearance:

1. Derek Carr dealing with injuries

One of the top stories coming out of the 14-11 win against the New York Giants was the injuries quarterback Derek Carr suffered attempting to dive for a first down late in the fourth quarter of the contest. Rizzi said Carr is dealing with two ailments as a result of that play with an injury to his non-throwing hand and a concussion.

"Obviously got banged up, went up high in the air, came down hard and he's dealing with the head part of it and then and then obviously the hand as well," Rizzi said. "So, the NFL concussion protocol, he's got to come in tomorrow and then has to complete a bunch of different steps. So, we're dealing with that and then obviously the hand as well. Right now, as I said earlier today, it doesn't appear as if this is going to require surgery at the moment. And so, with that being said, it's going to be a situation because if it's his non-throwing hand, it'll be more of a week-to-week thing."

Rizzi refuted reports that Carr was done for the season or would be placed on injured reserve and said Carr is not expected to need surgery and the team does not expect to place him on injured reserve. Rizzi mentioned that quarterbacks in the past have managed to play despite injuries to their non-throwing hands including Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

"It all depends on how it responds and whether we can function," Rizzi said. "There's obviously different ways you can do it. You can go shotgun, you can go all gun, pistol, all that kind of stuff and still hand off with the other hand. So that's what the other teams have done with quarterbacks that have had a similar injury. So, we're just trying to keep everything on the table and not rule anything out. And let's see how he responds. Again, I don't want to keep saying it, but we're also dealing with the concussion part of it so that that's also going to be a factor. We'll see how that that responds as well for this particular week. And, we'll kind of play it from there."

2. Big block by Bryan Bresee

One play that proved to be decisive was the athletic field goal block by defensive tackle Bryan Bresee. Bresee leaped over the line and got his hands on the final 35-yard attempt that would have tied the score and sent the game to overtime. Rizzi said Bresee had been resting on the sideline ahead of the play.

"We had the option, obviously, if we wanted to at that point to ice the kicker," he said. "I knew that he (Bresee) was fresh coming off the bench. Had he been out there for a few plays, that could have been an option to give him another little breather. But we discussed all during that drive what our field-goal block call was going to be myself, Phil Galliano, Marwan Maalouf. And so, we were kind of talking on the headset. And then I saw Bryan standing there, and I kind of knew he was fresh and ready to go. And as I said yesterday, just an unbelievable individual effort for him to go and make that game-winning play."

There had been speculation following the play that what the Saints did to free Bresee up to get over the top of the line may have been against the rules, but Rizzi clarified the strategy informing it.

"Let's go through the rule part, because I've actually gotten a ton of questions about this in the last 24 hours," he said. "You are allowed to push down on the opponent's back and push them, that's not holding. You could push them down to the ground. You can't grab and pull the player down, but you could push down on the player. That's what Payton Turner and that's what Nathan Shepherd did and they should be commended because they did a phenomenal job. Second part of it is when the lineman jumps over the line of scrimmage and when a lineman jumps over the line of scrimmage, they cannot get a running start. They have to be on the line of scrimmage. For anybody that's going to jump over the line, they have to be a player that's on the line of scrimmage and there's two things they cannot do. No. 1 is they can't leverage off of your own guy or the opponent, meaning they can't put their hands on them and gain a height advantage. And then No. 2, when they do jump, they cannot land on the opponent. And that's where Bryan did a phenomenal job of clearing his feet. He kind of landed a little bit awkwardly, but still had enough juice to kind of go up and get his hand up. And, you know, the rest is history."

3. 98 yards to the house

The Saints got on the board first in the game with a nine-play, 98-yard drive finished off by a rushing touchdown by running back Kendre Miller. One play Rizzi emphasized in that drive was a 22-yard completion by Carr to wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling that came on third down and five yards to go on the Saints own 7-yard line.

"That first third-down conversion on that 98-yard drive, really when you look back at the game, it was one of the biggest plays of the game," Rizzi said. "Derek probably had his best or one of his best throws of the game to (Valdes-Scantling) on that first third down on an over route, great ball, great timing, great catch. And that gave us a little confidence there. Kind of got us out of the hole in the shadows of the goal post, kind of gave us a little breathing room. And then we were able to operate and get down the field and had a couple of big plays there to Juwan (Johnson) and Foster (Moreau)."

The drive was the longest scoring drive the Saints have had since Sept. 11, 2016 against the Oakland Raiders.

"I got to be honest, I didn't know it was our longest drive in eight years either," Rizzi said. "But I know, it's kind of hard to beat a 98-yard drive. There's only one drive to beat the 98 and so that was a big one. That was a real big one."

4. Work to do on third down

One point of emphasis for Rizzi is continuing to improve on third down. The Saints converted 5-of-15 third-down attempts against the Giants but also held the Giants to 5-of-19 on third downs.

"No. 1 I say the defense … particularly in the last four weeks, we got a lot better on third down," Rizzi said. "We got a little bit better every week. We've kind of jumped up from like 18th or 19th in the league and we're realizing they're getting better every week. But second point about the offense, again … we've done a little bit of peaks and valleys with the third down. We had been doing well in the first half on third downs the last few weeks. Not so much this week and not so great in the second half, but overall for the day five for 15, the number that sticks out to me there is we got to stay out of having 15 third downs. And so we got to limit the number, which means … being better on first and second down with the negative plays and staying out of third and long. And so that's where I feel like we can help ourselves moving forward, because this is going to be one of those games this week where we got to try to keep Jayden Daniels over standing next to Dan Quinn and not on the field. And by that, I mean we got to convert on third down. We're going to keep the offense on the field. And so I agree that'll be a big emphasis this week."

The Saints rank 17th in the league on offense converting 38 percent of their third-down attempts. On defense, the Saints rank ninth best in the league allowing opponents to convert on 35.6 percent of their third-down attempts.

5. On to Washington

The Saints face the Washington Commanders on Sunday, Dec. 15 at noon in the Caesars Superdome. The Commanders are 8-5 and coming off a bye. They are led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels who has gotten off to a productive start in his young career throwing for 2,819 yards with 15 touchdowns and six interceptions in his 13 games. The former Heisman Trophy winner out of LSU has also added 590 yards on the ground and another six rushing touchdowns.

"We've got to make this week about us and we got to fix a lot of the things and we got to get six. At the same time, Jayden Daniels is doing a heck of a job for Washington. Obviously, Dan Quinn has those guys rolling, right now. And maybe the most impressive thing that Jayden Daniels has done for a rookie quarterback is he's looking at a 70 percent completion percentage and a guy that doesn't turn the ball over. That's usually the two things that a rookie quarterback is known for right, a low completion percentage and turnovers. And so, they've done a phenomenal job. Kliff Kingsbury has done a really good job with their offense. They got it going right now. It's going to be a heck of a challenge for us. Like I said, we got to regroup quickly and … they're coming off a bye. They're going to be fresh, and they're coming off of a win, a big win by score. And so, again, like it is every week in this league, we're going to have a challenge in front of us, but certainly a very talented group coming in."

The Commanders defeated the Tennessee Titans 42-19 in their latest action in Week 13.

Check out the game action photos from the New Orleans Saints game against the New York Giants for Week 14 of the 2024 NFL Season on Dec. 8, 2024 at MetLife Stadium.

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