Saints vs. Dolphins: Highlights, game tracker and more

The New Orleans Saints faced the Miami Dolphins in London on Sunday, Oct. 1 in NFL Week 4. Here are the highlights from the game.

Jay Cutler was signed by the Miami Dolphins with the hopes that he’d save a promising season. In their opener, he looked like he could do that. He was clearly picking up the system still, but pulled out a tough win on the road. However, he looked even more lost, and so too did the rest of the team, last week against the lowly Jets. In Week 4, they had the unyielding task of traveling to London to face the New Orleans Saints.

For as bad as Cutler looked last week, he started off looking quite good out of the gate on Sunday morning. He was finding DeVante Parker and moving the ball extremely well, with the help of Jay Ajayi. Interestingly, this was all happening as the communication equipment in his helmet was malfunctioning. Then, the quarterback malfunctioned — or maybe Julius Thomas did. He tried a fade to the tight end, but a mediocre throw and poor effort allowed it to be picked off in the end zone.

Drew Brees and the Saints looked like they were going to take advantage. Even with the reinstated Willie Snead ruled inactive, the offense was buzzing. Whether it was Michael Thomas or  rookie Alvin Kamara, it was looking easy. As they got in close, though, the drive stalled. Even worse, Will Lutz came out and missed the field goal, making it a drive apiece with no points to show for it.

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After that, though, all of the momentum of the game was truly robbed by overzealous officials. Every positive play on offense seemed like it was flagged for a penalty. As such, the boos started raining down from the fans in London and the football was relatively ugly. Neither team could get into any kind of a groove. However, the Saints used their timeouts to get the ball back late and a couple of quick plays allowed Lutz to redeem himself by putting the first points on the board and making it 3-0 at halftime.

Coming out of the locker room, though, it seemed as if only one team was motivated. New Orleans  took the field and marched for an 11-play, 77-yard touchdown drive as Brees found Thomas in the end zone. Then, perhaps to many people’s dismay, the Saints defense tightened up in a big way. Whether it was an uncomfortable Cutler or stuffing Jay Ajayi, New Orleans’ defense was swarming and the Dolphins could get nothing at all going.

That continued into the fourth quarter as the Saints really just wasted clock. They methodically moved the ball and continued to suffocate Miami. Lutz added another field goal and rookie Alvin Kamara found paydirt in the final period to seal the emphatic victory in London to move to 2-2.

Highlights

Next: Ranking the 25 best NFL games of Sept. 2017

Neither the Saints nor the Dolphins went to London knowing what they were. However, they knew that they’d find out a lot about themselves while playing across the pond. At this point in the season, that has to count for something, right?