DENVER — Taysom Hill didn't look much like an NFL quarterback Sunday when the Denver Broncos held him to 78 yards passing, intercepted him once and sacked him three times.
Despite a paltry passer rating of 43.2, it wasn't Hill who looked out of position in a game New Orleans won handily 31-3 for their first win over the Broncos since Dec. 24, 1994.
It was Broncos QB Kendall Hinton who looked lost — and for good reason: until Sunday he was a practice squad receiver, and he was forced into action when all of Denver's quarterbacks were disqualified over coronavirus concerns.
By comparison, Hill looked like Tom Brady.
"Taysom played this thing just how I wanted him to play it, and it doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing to be effective," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "The job is to win and he did a good job of that."
In a grind-it-out slugfest like from pro football's early days, the Saints won their second straight game with Hill subbing for the injured Drew Brees. But Hill wasn't nearly as sharp as a week earlier against the Falcons, when he completed 18 of 23 passes for 233 yards and a 108.9 passer rating.
Hill did run for 44 yards and two touchdowns against the Broncos and Latavius Murray rushed for 124 yards and two scores to help the NFC-leading Saints (9-2) overcome a slow start and win for the eighth straight time.
"The game plan changed the last 24 hours. So, my mindset changed as well and I really became a game manager at that point and certainly the way Sean called the game reflected that," Hill said. "We're not going to take any unnecessary risks and put the defense in a bad situation."
