There’s a New Orleans Saints scoring parade heading back home, and the grand marshal is intent on keeping the highlights coming.
Off to a scintillating start, Saints quarterback Derek Carr wants to give the New Orleans faithful more to smile about on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It’s gonna be awesome,” Carr said Wednesday when asked about having a potentially true homefield advantage at the Caesars Superdome. “We had to prove it to our fans. We didn’t give them good enough football last year.”
New Orleans has set the scoreboard ablaze through its first two games of the 2024 season, throttling the Carolina Panthers, 47-10, in Week 1, and upsetting the Dallas Cowboys in impressive fashion, 44-19, in Week 2.
It was a surprising beginning to most after New Orleans went 9-8 in 2023 with an offense that could be a tough watch at times, though it did cap the season with a 48-17 roasting of the rival Atlanta Falcons.
Carr, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and Co. have given their fans plenty to root for, which the quarterback believes should always be the goal and something owed after the previous season.
“I think what we’ve done obviously, the first two weeks here, I think, we always talk about we gotta win for our city, we gotta win for them to be happy,” said Carr, who leads the league with five touchdown passes and has thrown for 443 yards on 30-of-39 passing. “We want to do everything so everyone can enjoy Sundays with us. I think this is going to be an electric atmosphere. I think our fans are really excited.”
They should be.
The Saints’ 45.5 points per game so far are the most in the NFL by more than 10 points.
New Orleans has posted 91 points, tied for the second-most points in the first two games of the season since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, according to NFL Research. Each of the prior two teams to score as many or more points — the 2009 Saints (93 points) and 1971 Dallas Cowboys (91) — won the Super Bowl.
Nonetheless, Carr cautioned that two weeks of production doesn’t mean much in Week 3.
“Obviously, you see the stats, you see the numbers out there for the whole offense, what it’s been in history, and all that kinda stuff, and it’s cool,” he said. “But at the same time, it doesn’t mean anything this week.”
Last season, the Saints averaged 23.6 points per game, which was 10th in the NFL and likely a surprise to some in retrospect. It’s an indicator that the talent was there, it’s just been ignited this season with the likes of Carr, Alvin Kamara and Rashid Shaheed returning and finding better results.
Kubiak’s addition is no doubt a major reason, but Carr also credits his teammates putting in the hours.
“There’s so much that goes into it,” Carr said. “The coaches have been unbelievable and the standard they’ve held us to. Our guys have worked their butts off.”
It’s all added up to a 2-0 start that has plenty of people talking about the Saints and the fanbase excited ahead of hosting the Eagles.
“You can definitely feel the buzz about it,” he said. “For us, we knew if we want to do what we want to do, we were gonna need that stadium rocking. And we have to play good football for that to happen. I’m excited for this Sunday and to feel that atmosphere, for sure.”
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