playKatherine TerrellOct 25, 2026, 07:30 PM ETCloseKatherine Terrell came back to ESPN to cover the New Orleans Saints in the summer of 2022. She left the company in 2019 after joining in 2016 to cover the Cincinnati Bengals. Katherine is a graduate of LSU and a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native, and she has covered the NFL since 2013.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsNew Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough tried to do it all against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris on Sunday.Shough ran right at defenders, dove for potential scores and led the team with 7 total rushing yards. Shough played the role of a quarterback who tried to put the team on his shoulders to win, but the odds weren’t in his favor in the 16-10 Week 7 loss.The second-year quarterback entered the game with an injured left hand and took a hit to his right hand during the game as well.
The Saints’ run game came into the week ranked 21st with 97.3 yards per game and reached new lows with no other player eclipsing double digits in rushing.”Seventeen runs for 18 yards, it’s going to be hard to win football games doing that,” New Orleans coach Kellen Moore said.The Saints’ run game wasn’t just bad Sunday — it struggled on levels unseen in several decades. It was just the third time in team history, and the first since the 1993 season, that a Saints player had not rushed for at least 10 yards in a game. Their 1.06 yards per rush was the fewest for a team with at least 15 attempts since the Carolina Panthers averaged 1.0 yard per rush in a Week 5 game in 2017 (28 rushes).Shough has admitted this season that he has tried to play too perfect, but with the way the Saints were failing to run the ball, the team would have needed a perfect game from him to win Sunday. They didn’t get that, as Shough threw an interception in the red zone in the third quarter, his sixth interception and ninth turnover of the season.But Shough’s play overall was a bright spot amid the struggles in the run game.
He completed 30-of-38 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown. The score, a 1-yard pass to Devaughn Vele, capped a 52-yard drive in which 49 yards came through the air.Shough spent the game trying to play hero ball, but didn’t get a chance to be the hero in the end, as the Steelers controlled the ball for the final 5:52. He did not get the ball back after the Saints punted following a final disastrous sequence on offense — two batted-down passes and a sack.The Steelers sealed the game as 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers scrambled for 8 yards and a first down. Rodgers’ run eclipsed the run totals for several Saints — Shough’s 7 yards, Kendre Miller’s 6 and Alvin Kamara’s 5.After the game, Shough admitted the lack of run game wasn’t conducive to future success.”Yeah, it’s not sustainable as far as they’re going to — they know what’s coming in certain situations and they’re a good defense,” Shough said of the Steelers.When asked to clarify his comments about the lack of a run game, Shough said the one-dimensional game limits the ability to open up the offense.”We have a really dynamic passing game, and we can attack them in different ways, and we’re able to do that, but in order to win against defenses like that, and you saw it kind of later in the game, they were able to just read and batted some balls down,” Shough said.
“It’s tough in those scenarios whenever you have to get it out.”Shough has had to hand off with his right hand at times due to a previous injury, and he appeared to injure his right hand as well after taking a sack from Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt.He got the hand looked at by athletic trainers and explained later that there was some pain but said it didn’t affect his performance. However, per ESPN Research, Shough averaged 10.4 air yards per pass attempt before the sack and only 2.7 yards after.Moore waved off the notion the Saints were asking too much of Shough without a run game to help him.”You could say that about any quarterback,” Moore said. “Any quarterback gets to team up with the run game, it just allows the mixed downs to look better, less obvious pass situations, and that’s certainly something we have to address.”The Saints head into their Week 8 bye with the run game on their minds and the intention to “really dig in and solve this thing,” Moore said.
Injuries have played a part, as left tackle Kelvin Banks has been on injured reserve for a month following ankle surgery, right guard Cesar Ruiz was out this week with a knee injury and running back Travis Etienne Jr. has also been on IR for a month with a hamstring issue.But the run game issues predate the Banks and Etienne injuries. Sunday marked the fifth game this season in which the Saints had fewer than 100 yards rushing per game.”We obviously have a bye week, we have to put a lot of work into it,” Moore said. “I’m thinking there’s too much ebbs and flows. There’s weeks where it’s good, there’s weeks where it’s not.”Moore admitted there was frustration, especially after running the ball well against the New York Giants in Week 6, one of two games the Saints rushed the ball well this season.
Moving forward, they’ll have to figure out how to balance the load and take weight off Shough’s shoulders.”Again, we’ve got to run the football better,” Moore said. “We can’t have a week like we did last week where we feel good about it, respond and put ourself in the situation we did today.”
