Kellen Moore tried to pump the brakes before this one.
His Saints had just won at Baltimore, and folks in New Orleans were fired up for the first home game. Moore wasn’t ready to throw a parade.
“We’ve won one game, and there’s a lot of games to go,” Moore said during the week, in an AP preview of the matchup.
Turns out the man knows his team.
New Orleans spent Sunday matching Las Vegas blow for blow. It kept doing that until the fourth quarter, when the offense gave the ball away on four straight trips.
The Raiders rallied and left the Superdome with a 35-27 win. The Saints dropped to 1-2.
Keep going. pic.twitter.com/xXTSJi6dns
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 28, 2026
Every Raiders punch got an answer
Vegas struck first with a Matt Gay field goal.
New Orleans answered with a 79-yard march that took 13 plays. Tyler Shough took off for a 36-yard run early in it, and Juwan Johnson finished it with a 2-yard touchdown catch.
Then the Raiders got a hand on Daniel Carlson’s extra point. Remember that one. It’s the reason the Saints ended up chasing an eight-point deficit instead of seven.
Gay tied it with another kick. On the next Raiders series, tight end Michael Mayer cashed it in from the 3 on a Kirk Cousins pass. Las Vegas went up 13-6.
That drive got a boost from a flag on Danny Stutsman. He got to Cousins right as he let go of the pass. The roughing call was for how hard he took him down.
The Saints shook it off. Shough hit on five of his six throws for 59 yards as New Orleans marched right back. Noah Fant hauled in a 3-yard score, and the game was even at 13.
The Raiders got deep again, all the way to the 7, but the Saints defense wouldn’t budge. A short Gay field goal made it 16-13 at the half.
Third quarter belonged to New Orleans
This Saints team has done its best work after halftime all season. That didn’t change early.
The defense forced a three-and-out. Then Shough didn’t miss. He went 8 for 8 as the Saints covered 87 yards in 12 snaps, and Johnson caught his second score from 1 yard out for a 20-16 lead.
Vegas gave the ball right back. Dylan Laube lost it on the kickoff return, and Jordan Howden pounced at the Raiders 32.
It took New Orleans all of two snaps. Fant slipped out after a play fake and caught a 16-yard touchdown. It was 27-16, and fans were chanting “Who Dat” all over the building.
That was Shough’s fourth touchdown pass. Yahoo Sports called it a career day for the second-year quarterback.
The Raiders didn’t flinch. Mike Washington broke loose for a 36-yard touchdown run, their biggest gain on the ground all day.
The #Saints force the fumble on the kick return! New Orleans proceeds to score a touchdown to Noah Fant right after. pic.twitter.com/yjS9hvHsfj
— SleeperSaints (@SleeperSaints) September 27, 2026
Four drives and four giveaways
Right about here, the matching stopped.
On the next Saints series, Malcolm Koonce knocked the ball loose on a sack, and Maxx Crosby came up with it. The Raiders went 57 yards, and Cody White caught the go-ahead score from the 4. The 2-point try failed, but Vegas had the lead.
Then came Shough’s worst throw of the day. He aimed for Bryce Lance and hit rookie cornerback Hezekiah Masses instead. Masses returned it to the doorstep before losing the ball himself, and a Raiders teammate scooped it up. Even their mistakes were working out.
A few plays later, Brock Bowers hauled in a 4-yard touchdown. The Raiders led by eight with 6:22 to play.
One more push got New Orleans close, with a 22-yard throw to Johnson doing a lot of the lifting. This time safety Jeremy Chinn jarred the ball free on a sack.
Shough was trying to throw on that one. It was still ruled a fumble. That’s funny, because Detroit’s Jared Goff was ruled to be throwing on a similar play in Week 1. The Saints lost that argument too.
New Orleans got one last shot. Johnson hauled in a short pass out wide and lost the ball fighting for extra yards with 1:02 left. That ended it.
Both QB's intended to pass the ball forward. Only one was called a fumble. I guess it's only a fumble when the #Saints do it. pic.twitter.com/cl86RLRtJ2
— Nick Domingue (@geauxnick) September 27, 2026
Shough’s numbers look better than result
Shough’s line read 29 of 42, 255 yards, four scores and one pick. Chris Olave caught nine balls for 107 yards. Johnson had two touchdowns. So did Fant.
Cousins was 22 of 33 through the air. He threw for 248 yards and three scores without a single giveaway, and Bowers piled up 10 catches and 119 yards to go with his touchdown.
Cousins described his approach to Kubiak’s play calls before the game. “The phrase I’ll often say is: ‘Coach, you call it, and I ball it,'” he said. He balled it just fine.
The Saints also got banged up. Pete Werner left with a stinger, Carl Granderson hurt an ankle and Travis Etienne Jr. has a hamstring injury.
It’s the Raiders’ first 3-0 start in five years. Klint Kubiak used to call plays in this building, back when he ran the Saints offense in 2024. And Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, is still waiting on his first NFL snap.
Before kickoff, Kubiak labeled the Saints “a hot team.” For three quarters, he was right.
Atlanta comes to town next for a Monday night date. Holding onto the ball would be a nice place to start.
