Mark Ingram’s Return, Looking at his Usage

Mark Ingram returned home Sunday and played his first game as a Saints since the NFC Championship game. After being traded to the Saints last Wednesday, Ingram practiced with the Saints Friday and Saturday but his veteran experience allowed him to play Sunday.

The Dome was juiced and the energy was high as Ingram entered the stadium for the first time and led the WHO DAT chant. By far the loudest the Dome has been in quite some time, not counting last year’s Covid season. 

After the game Ingram tweeted out “I’ll never forget this game! Thank you!! #WhoDatNation”. Then posted to his Instagram a photo with the caption “I LOVE YOU #WhoDatNation!!”. Safe to say Mark Ingram was juiced and energized to be back where he truly belongs. 

Ingram had 6 carries for 27 yards with his longest going for 11 yards. He also had 2 receptions for 25 yards. Ingram played 22 snaps which was 29% of the total amount of offensive snaps.

Now that Ingram will have a full week of preparation he will definitely get more playing time, cause while he was playing, I still think Kamara got the ball too much. During their post game press conference Kamara jokingly mentioned that Ingram looked lost on some plays and not knowing where to go during practice (I would take this lightly).

The next game on the schedule is a home game vs the Falcons, and with Ingram being 63 yards away from breaking the franchise rushing yard record, you gotta hope and think that Sean will get him the record in the dome. I believe that with this extra week of preparation for Ingram that we will see a more split backfield between Ingram and Kamara and more designed plays to get Ingram the ball. 

While Ingram didn’t have the biggest game stats and yardage wise, the energy he brought to the team was very much needed, especially this week with the injury of Winston and the overall morale of the stadium being down. Ingram also set the tone for the game by leading the WHO DAT chant. The dome needed to be rocking and going nuts and Ingram’s presence set the tone with the energy he brought. Just an overall team guy and a fan favorite. 

Written By Kadin Janisch

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