The New Orleans Saints await the Las Vegas Raiders for their Week 8 clash this Sunday. In the meantime, the Silver and Black now know who the opposing starting quarterback is.
According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, Andy Dalton will be getting the nod for the Saints. The team runs one of the most intricate offenses in the league that features Taysom Hill and Alvin Kamara, which no doubt will make things difficult for Patrick Graham’s defense. As far as the quarterback matchup, how has Dalton performed against the Raiders? More importantly, how has Dalton looked this season? Well, let’s take a look.
Andy Dalton vs. the Las Vegas Raiders: 3 stats worth mentioning
Technically speaking, Dalton has faced the Raiders a total of three times. However, in 2021, as a member of the Chicago Bears, Dalton threw just one pass for eight yards. Obviously, a completion percentage of 100 is extraordinary, but we won’t count that matchup. Instead, the notable stat here is five touchdowns. That’s how many Dalton threw for against the Raiders in his time as the Cincinnati Bengals’ starting signal-caller. To keep things in perspective, though, those games were quite a few years ago: 2012 and 2015. Most of the current Raiders players weren’t on the roster at that point. Nevertheless, Dalton has thrown zero interceptions against the Raiders, and considering that those are hard to come by for the Silver and Black’s defense, it’ll be interesting to see if Dalton keeps that number intact.
In four starts for the Saints this season, Dalton has managed to stay pretty accurate and consistent. For example, his current percentage of on-target throws per pass attempt sits at 75. That’s impressive as Dalton normally takes care of the ball. The exception was in Week 7 against the Arizona Cardinals. In what turned into a shootout, Dalton threw the ball 47 times, leading to three interceptions (but four touchdowns). The fewer passes Dalton throws, the better chance the Saints have. They need to get the ball to Hill and Kamara to do the brunt of their damage. One final tidbit: against the Raiders, Dalton sports a 112.8 passer rating ahead of Sunday’s game. Take that as you wish. It could be something or nothing.
*Top Photo: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports