Travis Etienne — Week 1: Nine and Nine, and Miller Got the Touchdown
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Etienne carried nine times for forty-six yards and caught seven of nine targets for thirty-two more, sixteen touches in all, on a day Kendre Miller also carried nine times and scored the Saints' only rushing touchdown from the eight. His longest run, eighteen yards up the middle with twenty-seven seconds left in regulation, started the drive that ran out the clock at 24–24, and in overtime he recovered Tyler Shough's fumbled snap on third down to keep alive the drive that got the Saints within one, in a 31–30 loss to the Lions.
When Travis Etienne's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
The most useful thing Travis Etienne did Sunday was pick up a football that was not handed to him. Third and four at the New Orleans 26, three 49 left in overtime, Saints down 31 to 24: the snap was aborted, Tyler Shough fumbled at the 21, and Etienne recovered at the 23 and carried it to the 27. That left fourth and three instead of a turnover, and on the next snap Shough hit Chris Olave for 20. Expected points added — what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — charges that play at −1.2, and a Detroit recovery there ends the drive.
The line: nine carries, 46 yards, no touchdowns, and nine targets, seven catches, 32 yards. Three of the nine carries were successful, meaning they gained what the down asked for, and the nine came out at −1.8 expected points. Two of them account for most of the yardage — 14 up the middle on first down from the New Orleans 24 early in the fourth, and 18 up the middle with 27 seconds left in regulation, first and 10 from the 20 at 24 all, the play on which the play-by-play notes Olave had returned. The other seven went for no gain, three, one, two, no gain, seven and one. The catches were short: three, six on third and three to the Detroit seven, none, four, 16, two, and one yard on third and five at the Detroit 11 in the fourth, the throw that turned a drive into a 28-yard field goal. Two incompletions, both in the second quarter.
The backfield was shared to the carry. Etienne nine, Kendre Miller nine, Shough four, C.J. Donaldson two, Brown one, on 25 rushes in a game with 62 Saints pass plays. Miller's nine went for 30 yards and the touchdown — second and eight at the Detroit eight, four 32 left in the third, up the middle, the score that started the comeback. Etienne's nine targets tied Devaughn Vele for second on the team behind Olave's 13, and six of his seven catches came in the second half, when the Saints ran 39 pass plays.
Back in June the preview kept Etienne on the watchlist: a rebound season it read as touchdown-flagged, now moved to an offense he had never played in, and the show's position was that it was buying the situation rather than the player. Sunday the situation was 16 touches and an even split of the carries with Miller, with the goal-line touchdown going the other way. One game in a new place does not fix a share, and the reason the June read was cautious — the touchdowns — showed up as Miller's. New Orleans is at the Ravens on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is nine, and whose it is.
_Data via nflverse._
When Travis Etienne's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going