WASHINGTON COMMANDERS VS NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
SUNDAY, DEC. 15, 2024 ● CAESARS SUPERDOME
SAINTS POSTGAME NOTES
- The New Orleans Saints fell to the Washington Commanders 20-19 on Sunday. With the loss, New Orleans drops to 5-9 on the season and will play the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Monday, December 23 at 7:15 p.m. CT. The game will be nationally televised on ABC and ESPN.
- The Saints rallied back from a 14-0 halftime deficit and trailed 17-0 in the third quarter before outscoring Washington 19-3 for the remainder of the game. New Orleans narrowed the deficit to 20-19 on a one-yard touchdown pass from QB Spencer Rattler to TE Foster Moreau as time in regulation expired. The Saints opted to attempt a two-point conversion for the win that did not convert.
- New Orleans has held opponents to 21 or fewer points in the five contests since Interim Head Coach Darren Rizzi took over.
- The Saints tallied a season-high eight sacks against the Washington Commanders. The team last did so against the Falcons on Nov. 22, 2020. All-time, New Orleans has recorded nine sacks in a contest three times and eight sacks in a contest five times since sacks were recognized as an official statistic by the NFL in 1982.
- Sunday's contest marked the fourth time since 1982 that the Saints have recorded five sacks in the first half of a contest, tying a franchise record.
- QB Spencer Rattler entered the game in the third quarter. On his first drive, he led the Saints down the field completing 2-of-4 passes for 51 yards in a touchdown drive that was 6 plays, 71 yards and 2:27 time of possession.
- Rattler finished the game completing 10-of-21 passes for 135 yards and had one touchdown pass for an 84.4 QBR.
- QB Jake Haener made his first career start, becoming the 39th different starting quarterback in franchise history. Haener, the 2023 fourth-round draft pick, completed 4-of-10 passes for 49 yards, had one interception and was sacked three times for 29 yards.
- With 1:55 left to play, Rattler led the Saints on a 11-play drive, covering 56 yards in 1:55, ending with a touchdown connection to Moreau from one-yard out to make the score 20-19 as regulation expired, followed by the unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt.
- New Orleans got on the scoreboard with a 21-yard touchdown pass from WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. to RB Alvin Kamara, putting the Saints on the scoreboard and reducing the team's deficit to 17-7.
- Wilson Jr. tossed his second career touchdown pass, previously doing so one other time against the New York Giants as a member of the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. He is now six-of-six passing in his career with two touchdowns.
- RB Kendre Miller led New Orleans with nine carries for 46 yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
- WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a team-high 64 yards on just two catches, including 39-yard reception, marking the longest play of the game for both teams.
- RB Alvin Kamara totaled 70 yards from scrimmage, 58 receiving yards with a touchdown and 12 rushing yards.
- Kamara's team-record 86 touchdowns move him into a tie for 54th all-time with RB Ottis Anderson, WR Hines Ward and Pro Football Hall of Fame WR Paul Warfield (Class of 1983).
- Kamara's 25 career receiving touchdowns moves him into a tie for ninth with former Black and Gold WRs Quinn Early and Robert Meachem and moves him into a tie for 18th all-time in NFL record books among running backs with James White.
- Kamara's 11,541 career total yards from scrimmage rank 80th all-time, surpassing WR Muhsin Muhammad.
- LB Demario Davis played in his 111th game as a Saint and moved into a tie for 38th all-time in Saints record books for games played with G/T Andrus Peat. Davis finished with a season-high 14 tackles (nine solo), including one sack and two tackles for loss. Davis' tenth tackle of the game gave him 100 tackles on the season, which he has done in seven consecutive seasons with the Saints, since signing with the team in 2018 as an unrestricted free agent. Including his tenure with the New York Jets, Davis has eighth consecutive seasons reaching 100 stops in a season and has done it 11 times in his 13- year career.
- DB Will Harris made his 50th career start on Sunday and his tenth this season in his first year with the Black and Gold. Harris finished second on the team in tackles on Sunday with nine (seven solo).
- DB Ugo Amadi played in his 75th career game on Sunday. Amadi now has a career-high 49 tackles this season after logging seven stops Sunday, including a 14 yard sack in the second quarter. He also finished the game with one pass breakup.
- DE Cameron Jordan totaled six tackles (three solo), including two sacks for a loss of 11 yards. Jordan's 28 multi-sack games is a franchise record, surpassing Pro Football Hall of Fame LB Rickey Jackson (Class of 2010).
- Jordan, who has 120.5 career sacks, became the 23rd NFL player with at least 120 takedowns.
- Jordan's sack in the second quarter to force the Washington Commanders to punt and made rookie QB Jayden Daniels the 48th player for Jordan to have recorded a sack against.
- S Tyrann Mathieu also had six tackles and forced one fumble, while CB Kool-Aid McKinstry and DE Carl Granderson each had six tackles. Granderson also had one sack.
- DE Chase Young had two sacks in the game for a loss of nine yards and finished the game with three tackles. Young finished with two sacks for the second time in his career. He had two takedowns against the New York Giants as a member of the Commanders on Oct.22, 2023.
- CB Alontae Taylor has a new career-high 79 tackles in 2024 after registering five stops.
- DB Shemar Jean-Charles had a crucial fourth quarter pass breakup to go with a career-high three special teams tackles.
- P Matt Hayball has 34 punts downed inside the 20-yard line, a new team record since the statistic was first recorded in 1976. Hayball had two punts downed inside the 20 on Sunday.
- K Blake Grupe was two-of-two on field goal attempts in the game with a 51-yard field goal being the longest of the day.
Check out the game action photos from the New Orleans Saints game against the Washington Commanders for Week 15 of the 2024 NFL Season on Dec. 15, 2024 at Caesars Superdome.