Rich on If It’s Time to Start Believing in Tyler Shough and the New Orleans Saints

Rich has been waiting to see it with the New Orleans Saints. TJ picked them as a sleeper to win the NFC South. Chris has been talking them up for a while. Rich's position was simple: "I got to see it."

"Well, I'm seeing it," he said. "I am seeing it."

What he sees is a team you can get ahead of, but one that will "stick with the program and beat you in the fourth quarter, which is the way you win a lot of football games." Rich put it in poker terms. You can have them beat at the flop, let them stay in the hand through the turn, and then watch them suck out on the river. "Doesn't matter. They're still raking the pot."

The numbers back it up. New Orleans outscored the Ravens 15-0 in the fourth quarter in Baltimore. Combined with last week's near miss in Detroit, the Saints have outscored opponents 25-3 in fourth quarters alone.

At the center of it is Tyler Shough, who threw a touchdown and ran for another in the fourth quarter. Rich noted that Shough has 10 passing and rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter and overtime since Week 10 of last season, one shy of the leader in that span. "His name is Josh Allen," Rich said, "which is only fitting because he apparently is a poor man's Josh Allen."

That label came from Baltimore defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver in the lead up to the game. Weaver meant it as a compliment, and Shough understood that. But it still landed. "A bunch of the coaches was telling me about it the whole time, calling me poor man," Shough said. "I knew what he meant by it, but obviously he's an elite player, but fires me up."

So, did the Saints find one? "It feels like they found one," Rich said. The crew agreed, with the sense that New Orleans is "never out of the game," something the franchise has not felt in a while. "Doesn't matter who the receivers are, who the running back is," came the verdict. "This guy's out there slinging it and you always have a chance."

TJ explained the pick. People who know far more football than him had been bringing up Shough's name all summer, and "everyone that knows football said that he was the real deal." As the desk recalled, Shough tried to tell everybody before the draft, making the case that he had been to different schools, been hurt, and come back, and that he already felt like a professional.

There was a fantasy dividend, too. One member of the crew remembered having Shough on the show while on the clock in a best ball draft and asking whether to take Chris Olave. Shough said yes. "Thank you, Tyler."

Olave had eight catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. His 268 receiving yards through two games are the third most in franchise history, behind Wes Chandler's 297 in 1979 and Michael Thomas's 269 in 2018, a fellow Ohio State Buckeye.

Next up is the home opener against the Raiders, and Rich could not wait. "Kirk Cousins in the dome," he said, with Saints fans thinking, "Wait a minute. We found one." Las Vegas is trying to go 3-0 before heading home to face Kansas City. "Sneaky good Week 3 contest," Rich said. "Who knew?"

And he left one more thought hanging: with the Saints looking like this, the upcoming game against the Steelers in Paris is looking a lot better, too.