Derek Carr spent the offseason thinking about how he could start the season better with the New Orleans Saints. He decided that increasing his practice repetitions was a key step, and it’s paying off.
Alvin Kamara scored four touchdowns, including a 57-yard screen pass, leading the Saints to a 44-19 win over the Cowboys on Sunday and ending Dallas’ 16-game home winning streak in the regular season.
Carr threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns, plus a 1-yard touchdown run. The Saints (2-0) scored touchdowns on their first six drives, continuing from the previous week when they set a franchise record with points on nine consecutive drives in a 47-10 win over Carolina.
Carr, 33, had a slow start last year, which contributed to the Saints missing the playoffs on tiebreakers.
This lingering memory motivated him, as he has only made the playoffs twice in 11 seasons, spending the first nine with the Raiders before moving to New Orleans.
“I promised our team, and I promised our city I would do anything,” Carr said. “I know it’s not going to be perfect, but I will do everything in my power, exhaust everything that I could even begin to imagine to try to just be better this year. So far we’ve started off good.”
The Cowboys (1-1) are now on a two-game losing streak at AT&T Stadium after a 48-32 wild-card loss to Green Bay last January.
Despite a strong defensive performance against Cleveland in a 33-17 win the previous week, Dallas allowed two long touchdown passes before halftime — a 70-yard throw to Rashid Shaheed, the longest of his career, and Kamara’s touchdown after catching a pass behind the line of scrimmage.
The Saints made four field goals in their offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s impressive debut as their play-caller. They didn’t settle for just three points while taking control against Dallas.
Kubiak, 37, son of former NFL coach Gary Kubiak, got a win in his second game, outshining 68-year-old defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, who is back with the Cowboys.
New Orleans finished with 432 yards and scored over 40 points in consecutive games for the first time since 2018, when coach Sean Payton was calling plays for quarterback Drew Brees.
The Saints are the fifth team to score at least 44 points in their first two games. They last did this in 2009, the season they won their only Super Bowl.
“It’s just important to get off to a fast start,” said safety Tyrann Mathieu, who had one of two interceptions of Dak Prescott. “I think the last two years, we’re like one or two games outside the playoff race. We think about a lot of those games that we played that we let slip. This is a good feeling.”
Kamara, who had 180 total yards (115 rushing), finished an opening 80-yard drive with a 5-yard run. Carr then connected with Shaheed for a touchdown on the first play after Brandon Aubrey’s first of four field goals for Dallas. Shaheed had 96 yards receiving.
Carr completed 11 of 16 passes but lost his perfect passer rating early in the fourth quarter when Donovan Wilson intercepted him with the Saints leading 41-19.
The interception didn’t have a major impact, unlike the previous season when Carr’s slow start drew criticism after he missed the playoffs multiple times with the Raiders.
“I would be lying if I stood up here and told you that it didn’t hurt him,” Kamara said. “I’m sure it hurt him. For him to come out and perform, it almost feels better for me seeing that than me getting the success.”
The long touchdown from Kamara, who set his career high with six touchdowns against Minnesota in 2020 when Zimmer was the Vikings’ head coach, came after the Cowboys settled for another field goal.
Dallas tried to catch up when CeeDee Lamb avoided a tackle and ran 65 yards for a score. However, Prescott threw his first of two interceptions on the following drive.
Jalen Brooks slipped while coming out of a route, and Paulson Adebo returned the ball 47 yards, setting up Carr’s short run for a 35-13 lead.
Prescott completed 27 of 39 passes for 293 yards in his first game after signing a $240 million, four-year contract with a record $231 million guaranteed. He finalized the deal just hours before their win against the Browns last weekend.
“It’s hard to say that we’re pressing, but obviously you’re trying to play complementary football and your defense is struggling to stop a group,” Prescott said. “You want to do your part and then score touchdowns and come back and we weren’t able to score touchdowns.”
