METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert sounded jubilant during a postgame radio show as he reviewed everything he thought New Orleans did well in its lopsided, Week 2 road victory over the favored Dallas Cowboys.
It was a long list of successes in areas that included the running game, passing game, pass rush and pass defense — and it took him more than 10 minutes to get through it.
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New Orleans Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (22) and wide receiver Chris Olave (12) react after Olave made a catch against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jerome Miron)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) celebrates his first quarter touchdown run with teammate center Erik McCoy (78) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr looks to pass against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) breaks away with Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence (90) in tow while running for a long touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara reacts after scoring a long touchdown run against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen looks on during the second half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr reacts after scoring on a keeper against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Saints are gaining credibility as NFC contenders after their rout of the Cowboys
Saints are gaining credibility as NFC contenders after their rout of the Cowboys
“This is almost too good to be true!” Hebert exclaimed on the WWL broadcast. “Considering the expectations, this is so satisfying!"
The Saints have been a middling, non-playoff team for the past three seasons. They looked different in a 47-10 rout of Carolina in the Superdome in Week 1. But because of how the Panthers have struggled lately, it was difficult to discern how much better New Orleans might be this season.
A 44-19 victory over a Cowboys squad that hadn't lost a regular-season game at home in about two years offered more clarity.
“That’s a really good football team that we just played," third-year Saints coach Dennis Allen said. "So, hopefully our team will gain some confidence with that.”
An offensive line with three new starters — including relatively inexperienced left and right tackles — has coalesced effectively in the opening weeks and appears to be thriving in new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's system, which allows linemen to spend more plays attacking defensive players as run blockers than backing up in pass protection.
The Saints have rushed for 370 yards in two games, and that has allowed quarterback Derek Carr to operate comfortably on pass plays that often start with play-action fakes to running backs.
“When you’re able to run the ball and you’re able to put yourself in manageable situations, you’re not having to get into a drop back passing mode where they can just unleash their pass rush,” said Allen, a career defensive coach. “Klint and the guys had a good plan for how they wanted to protect in the passing game, and I think our offensive line did a good job executing.”
The Saints rank 21st in covering kickoffs under new rules that special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi helped draft. New Orleans is allowing 25.8 yards per return. Two games is a small sample size and kickoff coverage has not kept the Saints from soundly defeating their first couple of opponents. But this is one area where New Orleans currently ranks in the bottom third of the NFL, even as it's been at or near the top of the league in just about everything else.
Alvin Kamara continues to look robust, highly productive and committed to his Saints teammates, despite not yet getting the contract extension he has sought since the offseason. Through two games, the versatile running back has 290 yards and five TDs from scrimmage.
“We’re utilizing him in a way that allows him to be effective,” Allen said. “He’s still one of those guys that if you create some space, and he’s able to operate in space, I think he’s pretty good.”
Critics of the Saints' decision to retain Allen after the club went 16-18 combined during the coach's first two seasons. It's still early in Year 3, but it appears general manager Mickey Loomis' patience with his hand-picked successor to Sean Payton is bearing fruit.
Cornerback Marshon Lattimore has remained out with hip and hamstring issues since leaving the Saints' Week 1 victory over the Panthers. Tight end Taysom Hill left the game in Dallas in the second half with a chest injury.
Latimore “wanted to play,” Allen said. “That was really my decision, and it really boiled down to — I didn’t want to risk what we think might be potentially a one-week deal, and him going out there and all of a sudden we turn one week into four weeks.”
Hill was taken to a hospital “for some extra evaluations,” Allen said. “I think it’s more precautionary, but we’ll see.”
3 — The number of consecutive games in which the Saints' offense, with Carr at QB, has produced 44 or more points, starting with their 48-17 victory over Atlanta to close out the 2023 regular season. The Saints did not have any defensive or special teams' scoring plays in those three games.
The Saints play host on Sunday to the Philadelphia Eagles and a QB in Jalen Hurts who has given their defense a lot of trouble in the past.
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New Orleans Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (22) and wide receiver Chris Olave (12) react after Olave made a catch against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jerome Miron)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) celebrates his first quarter touchdown run with teammate center Erik McCoy (78) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr looks to pass against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) breaks away with Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence (90) in tow while running for a long touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara reacts after scoring a long touchdown run against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen looks on during the second half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr reacts after scoring on a keeper against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Saints are gaining credibility as NFC contenders after their rout of the Cowboys
Saints are gaining credibility as NFC contenders after their rout of the Cowboys
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and injuring at least 200 others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
The governor of the surrounding state of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose from two to five and that more than 200 people in total were injured.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God's mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar, " Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.
Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The number of injured people was overwhelming.
“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said.
The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (about 54 yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market.
Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.
Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X.
Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland.
Two firefighters walk through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police officers and police emergency vehicles are seen at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A barrier tape and police vehicles are seen in front of the entrance to the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
People mourn in front of St. John's Church for the victims of Friday's attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Police tape cordons-off a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer stands guard at at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers patrol a cordoned-off area at a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reiner Haseloff, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, center, is flanked by Tamara Zieschang, Minister of the Interior and Sport of Saxony-Anhalt, left, and Simone Borris, Mayor of the City of Magdeburg, at a press conference after a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Dörthe Hein/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this screen grab image from video, special police forces attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Thomas Schulz/dpa via AP)
Reiner Haseloff (M, CDU), Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, makes a statement after an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer speaks with a man at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A policeman is seen at the Christmas market where an incident happened in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A firefighter walks through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A view of the cordoned-off Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Forensics work on a damaged car sitting with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
