After the Saints finished their 38-3 rout of the Packers in Jacksonville on Sunday, quarterback Jameis Winston said that the resiliency of the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Ida “inspired us to go out there and ball” and said that the victory was for them.
Winston would have been forgiven if all of his thoughts weren’t on the people watching the game from afar. It was his first start since leaving the Buccaneers after the 2019 season and he made the most of it by going 14-of-20 for 148 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions.
It’s not the kind of stat line we were accustomed to seeing from Winston in Tampa, but he demurred when asked about his reflections about his journey back to a starting job.
“Coach says all the time that we’re in a race to get better,” Winston said. “We are going to celebrate this game today, but there are people dealing with way worse than me right now. There are still people in Louisiana without power. I’ll probably reflect on it after our season is over, but right now we have to keep getting better. There’s some things that I won’t like when I watch the film tonight, so we still have to get better.”
One game won’t tell the whole story of Winston’s season, but it was a promising start to his second life as a starting quarterback in the NFL. More of the same in the weeks to come will make an eventual reflections happy ones for Winston and a lot of others around New Orleans.