Scoring Plays:
1Q - NONE
End of Quarter Score - New Orleans Saints 0, Denver Broncos 0
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2Q - NO - Taysom Hill 1 yd TD rush (PAT Good) | NO 7, DEN 0
2Q - NO - Taysom Hill 2 yd TD rush (PAT Good) | NO 14, DEN 0
2Q - NO - Wil Lutz 40 yd FG GOOD | NO 17, DEN 0
End of Quarter Score - New Orleans Saints 17, Denver Broncos 0
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3Q - DEN - Brandon McManus 58 yd FG GOOD | NO 17, DEN 3
3Q - NO - Latavius Murray 36 yd TD rush (PAT Good) | NO 24, DEN 3
End of Quarter Score - New Orleans Saints 24, Denver Broncos 3
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4Q - NO - Latavius Murray 7 yd TD rush (PAT Good) | NO 31, DEN 3
Final Score - New Orleans Saints 31, Denver Broncos 3
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Hello Who Dats & Who Datettes and welcome to the Saints Week 12, Game 11 Thread.

As I was planning out how to lead off this thread, I was going to talk about the Saints having not beaten Denver since a 30-28 win in Denver on Christmas Eve 1994... and that with the entire starting left side of the Saints offensive line out, the Bronco D should be highly respected... and then it was announced that ALL of the Bronco quarterbacks were ruled INELIGIBLE for today's game.

In the absence of a normal quarterback, it looks like the Broncos will have to turn to a rookie who was a practice squad wide receiver this week, former Wake Forest QB & WR Kendall Hinton. Hinton's last reps as mainly a quarterback came in 2017 as he came off the bench following an injury to the starter to go 14/30 for 203 yards & 2 TDs for the Demon Deacons in a 28-14 loss to Clemson.

Sure the Saints are using a back-up quarterback as well in Taysom Hill... but Hill has been in the Saints system since 2017 and has been taking starting QB reps for 2 weeks now since Drew Brees went down injured. Hinton is an undrafted player this year who was expecting to be in a t-shirt & sweats for gameday when he got to Denver's facility on Friday morning.

The Broncos were going to enter today's game on a bit of a high... causing an actually respectable Miami Dolphins team to bench starting QB Tua Tagovailoa in a 20-13 surprising win last week to end a two-game skid.

But if the Saints get play out of the defense that it got last week, and really over the last month, it won't matter who plays QB for either team. The 8 sacks the Saints registered against Atlanta's Matt Ryan last week moved the Saints into a tie for 4th most sacks in the league, while the 9 points allowed moved the Saints into 9th in the NFL in scoring defense. The Saints D is now 3rd in the league in yards allowed at 302.2 yds/game & the 74.3 rushing yards allowed per game is second best in the league currently.

The Broncos, whose head coach is Vic Fangio... the Saints LB coach during the Dome Patrol days, are 21st in points allowed per game & 13th in yards allowed per game. The 121 rushing yards allowed per game by the Bronco D (19th in NFL) has to have Alvin Kamara, Latavius Murray, & Taysom Hill all licking their chops.

Of course, the loss of all of their QBs won't help a Bronco offense that is 23rd in yards per game (346.5) and 28th in points per game (20.6). The Saints currently score 29.5 points per game, 6th best in the NFL, and are 13th in yards per game in the NFL at 373.4.

As noted earlier, the Broncos haven't lost to the Saints since 1994, a 5-game win streak in the series by Denver. This is the Saints 1st chance at revenge since the NFL's first significant use of the "defense can return a PAT for 2 points" rule change. November 13, 2016, week 10 of the 2016 season, the Superdome was rocking after Drew Brees found Brandin Cooks with 1:22 left in the game for a 32 yard TD pass to tie the score at 23-23. All the Saints had to do was put the PAT through the uprights and victory seemed in hand. But in controversial form, the Wil Lutz PAT was blocked and the Broncos recovered the ball and returned it for 2 points the other way for the 25-23 Denver win. Friendly reminder, Bill Vinovich was the referee of that particular game. The blocker jumped right over the center, a play now considered dangerous enough to be a penalty, and the returner looked to have stepped out of bounds, but replay did not overturn Denver's winning points. By the way, the Broncos starting QB for this 2016 game was new Saints QB Trevor Siemian

LET'S TAME THE BRONCOS AND MOVE OUR WIN STREAK TO EIGHT!!!!!!

Injury Report: (Players only currently on the 53-man roster who have a game designation from the Friday injury report listed here)
NO- (Neither Drew Brees [on Injured Reserve] nor Terron Armstead [Reserve/COVID-19] will appear here)
Deonte Harris (Neck) OUT
Andrus Peat (Concussion) OUT
Ty Montgomery (Hamstring) OUT

DEN- (The QBs are on Reserve/COVID-19 list and will not be listed here)
Bryce Callahan (Foot) QUESTIONABLE
Demar Dotson (Calf/Hand) QUESTIONABLE
Graham Glasgow (Calf) QUESTIONABLE
Trey Marshall (Shin) OUT
Jerry Jeudy (Ankle/Achilles) QUESTIONABLE
Joseph Jones (Calf) QUESTIONABLE
Sylvester Williams (Elbow) QUESTIONABLE

Weather: For late November, you really could not ask for a better day in Denver. Nothing but sunny skies are expected around kickoff time with temperatures falling from a high around 40 degrees with winds turning from north-northeast to south at only about 5 mph.

Uniforms: Winter is coming and that means the Saints are pulling the white pants out for what the team now calls the "icy whites".

Current Standings:
NFC South:
Saints 8-2
Buccaneers 7-4
Panthers 4-7
Falcons 3-7

AFC West:
Chiefs 9-1
Raiders 6-4
Broncos 4-6
Chargers 3-7

Betting Line: Saints (-15) O/U 37... a lot of places took this game down after word of the Broncos situation came to light... but the places that still have it up... the line is shooting massively to the Saints.

Want to listen to Zach Strief, Deuce McAllister, & Steve Geller instead of Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth, & Lindsay Czarniak?
Find your local Saints Radio Network affiliate at this link

Today's Officials: (all officiating crews are subject to change)
Referee: #4 Craig Wrolstad

Umpire: #71 Ruben Fowler
Down Judge: #91 Jerry Bergman
Line Judge: #87 Tom Eaton
Field Judge: #107 Dave Hawkshaw
Side Judge: #50 Aaron Santi
Back Judge: #61 Keith Ferguson
Replay Official: TBA
Replay Assistant: TBA
**Due to "regionalization" of crews due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Craig Wrolstad has a completely new crew with him this season, including rookie NFL official Tom Eaton.**

Inactive Lists:
NO-
WR Deonte Harris
OL Andrus Peat
RB Ty Montgomery
QB Trevor Siemian
CB Ken Crawley
TE Garrett Griffin
DT Malcolm Roach

DEN-
CB Kevin Toliver
S Trey Marshall
LB Mark Barron
G Netane Muti

This post was edited on 11/29/20 at 5:49 pm