Five things we learned from Denver's 33-10 win

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1. Payton's return to New Orleans will be painful for Saints fans. Sean Payton didn't return to the Superdome with a chainsaw. Instead, he bled his former team – and the energy levels of the notoriously loud Saints fans – dry with a death by a thousand paper cuts. The Broncos have hardly delivered an offensive gem, with Bo Nix Some receivers are severely lacking, and some of those receivers are missing. But they moved the ball consistently all night against a broken Saints defense, leaned on the running game and inflicted more punishment. Even without an All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain IIDenver's defense dominated most of the game. It's easy to imagine Payton making clever offensive plays and daring in-game risks, but he also doesn't mind methodically wearing down his opponent. Saints fans gave Payton a lukewarm welcome with a mix of cheers and boos as he took the field. They know he had to enjoy this victory, ugly as it may have been. It was also a nice evening of revenge for the former Saints kicker Wil Lutzwho Payton traded to Denver and who made all four of his field goal attempts. Even Lucas Krull had a career high in receiving yards (41) and Kwon Alexander Recovered from an important mistake in the first half. Yes, both are former saints. The Broncos came to New Orleans and held a second-line parade in the Superdome on Thursday.
2. The Saints' season has fallen apart. After two wins and 91 points scored, the Saints have lost five straight games – including three in the Superdome – while amassing a meager 79 points overall. That's now two consecutive home losses by more than 20 points, the first time since the end of the 2001 season, five years before Payton took the Saints job. The Saints lost at home by more than 20 points twice in Payton's 15-year Saints career. The Broncos kept the door open early, but the Saints showed no real response. They're already missing their quarterback, two starting receivers and two offensive linemen, and on Thursday the defense took two big hits – cornerbacks Paulson Adebo (knee) and Marshon Lattimore (paralyze). Saints fans appeared to have checked out after the Drew Brees Hall of Fame halftime ceremony, with many leaving afterward. Maybe Dennis Allen called a timeout just before halftime just to do it Spencer Rattler Kneel down, done. Or maybe that was it Tyrann Mathieuis a drop of a gift-wrapped interception just before halftime. Or the strip sack or the missed tackles. Whatever it was, fans seemed almost numb to the suffering — or perhaps shocked that their former head coach was the one calling the shots during their season. At 2-5, things are really tricky for Allen's team now, too banged up to compete and bye week still more than a month away.
3. The Broncos defense deserves praise for its good performance. Given the Saints' offensive injuries, it's hard to gauge how strong this performance was, but Denver's defense came out on top Thursday night. Four days ago, the Chargers pretty much trampled this group for three quarters, but the Broncos buckled down and performed well after a short layoff – and without arguably their best player in Patrick Surtain II. They sat the Saints- Quarterback Spencer Rattler was under pressure and only released him twice as a scramble. The coverage was also good on the back end, even if the Saints' struggling receiver group didn't seem to be much of a challenge. Cody Bartonwho is becoming one of Denver's more reliable playmakers, was everywhere. He struck out Rattler, should have had a pick, and after a first-half scoop-and-score was negated by a penalty, Barton picked up a deflected Rattler pass and ran it back 52 yards, the death knell for the touchdown meant. It was a four-quarter loss and arguably the best statistical performance of the season on that side of the ball.
4. Both rookie quarterbacks had their struggles. The 2024 NFL season has seen some pretty impressive rookie QB games overall, but Thursday's game – the first meeting between two rookie quarterbacks this season – may not make it into the highlight of the year. Bo Nix outperformed Spencer Rattler, as you would expect from a quarterback who was selected 12th overall and has held the job since training camp. But Nix was pretty sloppy at times, missing badly on several of his goals and coming away with a blocked interception by the Saints' Tyrann Mathieu before halftime. He was effective with his legs and limited his mistakes, but Nix still has plenty of room for growth. Where was Courtland Sutton? Nix didn't look his way once in the first clean sheet game of Sutton's career. In his second start, Rattler was unsettled after the first strip sack and was under pressure most of the night, unable to find much rhythm after a promising opening drive. Like Nix, he had a few effective scrambles. But the passing game never got going, his undermanned WR corps let him down multiple times, and Rattler's two lost fumbles were costly. Jake Haener replaced him in the final minutes after Rattler held on to a hip pointer, leading the Saints to a touchdown in garbage time. So it will be interesting to see how Allen will handle the situation if Derek Carr is not healthy before the next game with the Chargers.
5. Even with injuries, the Saints defense shouldn't be that bad. Over the last 11 days, the Saints have allowed 110 points and nearly 1,500 yards. Two of those games within four days were at home. The run defense wasn't as disastrous as it was against the Buccaneers on Sunday, but it wasn't good against the Broncos on Thursday night. Poor gap discipline, poor tackling and physical dominance caused problems for the Saints at the top. Failures were again a problem. Then the secondary was hit by two major injuries, losing Paulson Adebo and Marshon Lattimore midway through the game, further bleeding the depth chart. But there were too many open receivers and, aside from a few blitzes, not enough pressure. In some places there was a noticeable lack of effort, which made Dennis Allen sweat even more. He's a defensive coach, and his former boss controlled the game. Allen's lack of aggressiveness – even with a rookie QB – put his defense in some tough situations, and the difficult offense certainly led to Denver points. But this Saints defense shouldn't be that bad. It would be better to make a significant improvement over the mini-bye, otherwise it could end up in one of the bottom statistical groups at the end of the season.

Insight into the next generation stats for the Broncos-Saints (via NFL Pro): The Broncos' defense generated 14 rushing pressures (under 2.5 seconds) in their Week 7 win over the Saints, marking the most rushing pressures by a defense in a game this season. In Weeks 1 through 6, the Broncos generated 51 rushing pressures, the most in the league.

NFL Research: After Sean Payton defeated the Saints on Thursday, NFL head coaches are now 2-6 in their first road games against their former team in 10-plus seasons since the 2000 season. The Chiefs' Andy Reid's only previous victory came in Week 3 of the 2013 season against the Eagles in Philadelphia.