Saints legend delivers a clear message to doubtful Saints fans
Marques Colston recently sat down with RG's DJ Saddiqi to discuss the New Orleans Saints' current direction. One of the major takeaways from Colston’s interview is the Saints lack of identity, which is to be expected. Kellen Moore is in his first year at head coach and Spencer Rattler is still a young, inexperienced quarterback.
Colston is a Saints legend, finishing his career with 711 receptions, 9,759 yards and 72 receiving touchdowns in his 10 year career. Each of those marks are franchise records. He played through the golden age of Saints history, so he should have a pretty good idea of what a team should look like.
“I think it's a team that's very much still finding their identity. There's so much transition. You got an offense coordinator as a first-time head coach. He's trying to find his identity as a play caller and as a leader. You got some of those younger players that are just trying to figure out who they are in the league. On top of that, you got some of the veteran players that are kind of that staying force in that that they're kind of that steadying anchor.”
The Saints' young talent have great mentors surrounding them
The Saints have a mix of young, developing talent with some proven veterans. This is exactly what the front office wants. Let the new age of players learn from some franchise greats. This will create a culture and set the standard of what the team wants to be.
"They know who they are, and they have this standard that they want to play at," Colston said. "I think as long as the younger guys can continue to play to the standard of the Cam Jordan's, the Alvin Kamara's, the Demario Davis's. I think as long as that kind of becomes that North Star, that standard becomes the North Star, they'll continue to get better. They'll continue to improve. Once you start to build that momentum, you'll start to see the winning stack over time."
Having leaders such as Demario Davis, Cameron Jordan, and Alvin Kamara greatly aid the rebuild and player’s development. For example, both Danny Stutsman and Devin Neal have a spectacular mentor to learn from before they hopefully take over.
Despite the record, Spencer Rattler has played winning football
Colston praised Spencer Rattler’s performance. He’s been playing winning football by limiting his turnovers and making good decisions.
“He's played pretty well over these first handful of weeks, and it hasn't necessarily showed up in the win column, but he's playing winning football. It sounds funny, but the No. 1 objective in winning is, don't lose, right? He's not turning the ball over, he's making good decisions. Sometimes the decision is, get to fourth down and punt.” Colston said, “He's playing winning football, and I think he'll just continue to build momentum. He'll continue to build confidence.”
Rattler has been great outside of his week seven performance against the Chicago Bears. As Colston said, the record doesn’t reflect it, but the Saints have been in a position to win. It’s all about building momentum from here on out.
Charlie Lindgren and Linus Ullmark almost get into goalie fight during Capitals-Senators game
Washington Capitals fans saw history at Capital One Arena with Alex Ovechkin’s 1,500th career NHL game. They also almost saw the first goalie fight on home ice in what feels like decades.
Late in the second period against the Ottawa Senators, Charlie Lindgren, who was already fuming, completely lost his marbles after being run into by Senators center Ridly Greig.
Greig was deposited hard to the ice by Martin Fehervary, but this was not enough for The Outlaw, who came out of the crease with his guns figuratively blazing.
As a melee broke out behind the net, Lindgren started taking pot shots at Greig with his blocker and David Perron. As the circle of violence made its way to the end boards, Senators goaltender
Unfortunately for us all, the two netminders were never really able to get free, and the referees pushed Ullmark out of the scrum, preventing the goalie fight.
A screaming Lindgren was certainly willing to engage after giving up 4 goals in two periods of work and a possible early shower.
Somehow, only 10 penalty minutes were awarded to both teams. Lindgren and Ullmark both received two-minute minors for leaving the crease. Fehervary got a double minor for roughing Ridley Greig, while Greig got a single minor for roughing. The Senators ended up getting a two-minute power play which Drake Batherson eventually converted 55 seconds into the third period, making it 5-0.
Lindgren’s night turned sour 3:27 into the second period when Shane Pinto crashed into the Capitals backup goaltender and was awarded a goal after being pushed into the net by Jakob Chychrun.
With Lindgren incensed, the Capitals called a timeout and eventually challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal still stood after review.
On the Senators’ resulting power play for the failed challenge, Dylan Cozens scored making it 3-0 Senators. Nick Cousins then added his first goal of the season shortly after putting the Sens up 4-0.
