The game in Paris between the Steelers and Saints will go on as scheduled Sunday. The NFL, though, said it will heighten security in light of the civil unrest in the French capital.
NFL executive Peter O’Reilly said Tuesday the league is coordinating with the U.S. State Department and Parisian and national authorities overseas.
“There’s nothing more important from our standpoint than the teams’ security, the fans’ security — everybody involved with this game,” O’Reilly said at the fall league meetings, via the Associated Press. “Obviously being very vigilant in everything we do, in all of our planning on an hour-by-hour basis, working closely with the two teams.”
Rioting erupted across France on Saturday as demonstrators protested rising living costs and declining public services. It was the country’s worst civil unrest in years, with violence and looting in major cities as rioters clashed with police.
The NFL did not consider moving the game, which is being played at Stade de France outside of Paris in Saint-Denis. It marks the NFL’s first game in France.
“We feel confident that we would not have any impact on the broader resources needed,” O’Reilly said. “That’s always top of mind for us, and we feel confident that we wouldn’t be depleting resources in a negative way around this game.”
The Saints flew to Paris after their victory over the Giants on Sunday. The Steelers will travel later this week.
Saints Clips
Amid ongoing local unrest that has sparked full-blown riots, the NFL is pushing forward with its first-ever game in Paris.
Via Ken Maguire of the Associated Press, the Saints arrived on Monday for the Week 7 contest. The league, as Maguire explains it, hopes to stage a “mini-Super Bowl.” Which, of course, would only make the game and its associated events more enticing for disruption.
Among other things, an “NFL House” will open later this week, and the league will have other fan activities. The Saints have their own fan events planned.
The Steelers will make the trip on Thursday.
“You would hope that the NFL is not going to put us in any bad situations,” Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb said, via Matt Press of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “So if they feel like it’s safe for us to go, we’ll go.”
Coach Mike McCarthy said the team has had a “meeting where they talked about potential concerns for the trip,” and that owner Art Rooney II “has been” involved in conversations regarding a contingency plan if the situation escalates and disrupts the game.
As to the simplest Plan B — playing the game in New Orleans — that ship presumably sailed once the Saints landed in France. The worst-case scenario at this point would possibly include moving the game to London, which is only 213 miles away from Paris as the croissant flies.
Through the first five games of the 2026 season, Giants running back Cam Skattebo had 91 touches. In game six, a 34-27 loss to the Saints, Skattebo had zero.
After a game in which Skattebo was on the field for six plays and never touched the ball, coach John Harbaugh told reporters it wasn’t intentional.
“It was not by design,” Harbaugh told reporters. “I mean, all those guys were taking equal reps in the first half. We were trying to see who could make something happen, who could kinda get a hot hand and earn it. Nobody’s really taking the bull by the horns. . . . It wasn’t by design for him not to carry the ball. It was just, when he was in there, we didn’t call any runs.”
Still, Harbaugh had said “we’ll see” and “we’ll find out” when asked whether Skattebo’s key overtime fumble in Week 5 (his fourth of the season) would result in reduced opportunities.
And it’s not as if the other tailbacks took “the bull by the horns.” Quarterback J.J. McCarthy was the leading rusher, with 26 yards on two attempts. Receiver Darnell Mooney gained 20 yards on one attempt. The running back with the most yards rushing was Tyrone Tracy, who had six carries for 18 yards.
Next Sunday, the Giants visit the Texans. We’ll see whether Skattebo gets more, or any, opportunities in Week 7.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh turned to J.J. McCarthy in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Saints and was rewarded with a performance that almost brought the Giants their fourth win of the season, but he isn’t ready to talk about his plans for Week 7’s game against the Texans.
McCarthy threw for 243 yards while leading the Giants to 17 points that cut New Orleans’s lead to seven points in the final minutes. He brought them to the 14-yard-line on the final possession, but a fourth-down pass to tight end Isaiah Likely in the end zone fell incomplete to make the Giants 34-27 losers.
After the game, Harbaugh said in his press conference that McCarthy “gave us a chance to win the game” while also noting that coming into a desperate situation is “different from normal football.” Harbaugh said that he has “no problems” with starter Jameis Winston, although he acknowledged ups and downs that included a pair of second half interceptions that helped the Saints pile up 34 straight points after falling behind 10-0 in the first half.
Harbaugh said it had only been 10 minutes since the end of the game while declining to share his quarterback plans for the future.
“I can’t answer that right now. It’s not even up for discussion or conversation right now,” Harbaugh said.
McCarthy has only been with the Giants for a short time, but seeing if he can simulate what happened in the fourth quarter over an entire game has to be an appealing option for many given how much of a book there already is on Winston.
The Giants looked like they were throwing in the white towel when they turned to J.J. McCarthy at quarterback with the Saints up 34-10 with under 12 minutes to play on Sunday, but it turned out that they were just getting warmed up.
McCarthy threw an interception on his first drive, but led the team to 17 points on their next three while the defense kept forcing New Orleans to punt. The last of those punts came with just over a minute left and McCarthy promptly broke free for a 28-yard run into Saints territory. Completions to tight end Isaiah Likely and wide receiver Malik Nabers got the ball to the Saints’ 14-yard-line, but a fourth down throw to Likely in the end zone went incomplete.
That left the Saints to exhale with a 34-27 win that ended their three-game losing streak. That should make team owner Gayle Benson a bit happier even if it looked like her team might blow it all before the final whistle.
The Giants had a 10-0 lead in the first half, but the Saints went into halftime tied at 10 thanks to a field goal, a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and a Tyler Shough touchdown pass with one second left in the second quarter. They kept rolling in the third quarter as Shough threw two more touchdowns and joined the Kendre Miller/Alvin Kamara/C.J. Donaldson running back committee in posting 175 rushing yards.
While that was happening, the Giants were either punting or watching Jameis Winston throw two interceptions that may have pushed his run as the starter to the brink. McCarthy went 11-of-21 for 243 yards and a touchdown to Likely and his 243 fourth quarter passing yards are the third-most since 2020. McCarthy’s 28-yard scramble also made him the team’s leading rusher.
Sunday morning brought a report that Najee Harris would supplant Cam Skattebo as the team’s top running back, which proved partially correct. Skattebo played a handful of snaps and never touched the ball while Harris joined Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary in the backfield. That group was much less successful than the Saints’ trio and the Giants offense lacked any skill position players with impact beyond Likely and Nabers. That tandem combined for 18 catches and 264 yards.
The big question is whether they’ll continue to catch passes from McCarthy in Week 7. The 3-2-1 Giants will be in Houston to face the suddenly surging Texans and it’s hard to see much of an argument that Winston offers more upside than his new teammate given how things played out on Sunday and throughout the older quarterback’s career.
The Saints will head to Paris on Sunday night to prepare for a game against the Steelers and a win in that one would send them into their bye week with a much rosier outlook than they had when this game got underway.
It’s J.J. McCarthy time for the Giants for the rest of the day.
After the Saints turned Jameis Winston’s second interception of the day into a 34-10 lead, the Giants pulled their starting quarterback and replaced him with McCarthy. McCarthy had been in for one snap to run the zone read in the first half, but this time he’s actually playing quarterback.
McCarthy’s first drive didn’t end any better than Winston’s final two, however. He was picked off by cornerback Martin Emerson, who also had one of the two interceptions off of Winston.
The Giants led Sunday’s game 10-0, but the Saints have steamrolled them in the second half. We’ll find out after the game if there’s any chance of a lasting quarterback change for John Harbaugh’s club.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara reached a career milestone while putting his team in the lead for the first time on Sunday.
Kamara took a short pass from Tyler Shough and carved through the Giants defense for a 31-yard touchdown. The score capped the first possession of the second half and put the Saints up 17-10 with 12:21 to play in the third quarter.
The catch was Kamara’s first of the day and it moved him over 5,000 receiving yards for his career. Per the Fox broadcast, he’s the sixth player in NFL history with 5,000-plus rushing yards as well as 5,000-plus receiving yards.
The Giants had a 10-0 lead in the first half, but they’ll now have to play catchup to avoid falling to 3-2-1 on the season.
The Saints didn’t do much to make owner Gayle Benson change her mind about the team for the first 25 minutes or so on Sunday, but Benson has to be feeling good about how her team wrapped up the first half at MetLife Stadium.
A Daniel Carlson field goal got the Saints on the board with just over a minute to play in the half and Giants kickoff returner Charlie Jones fumbled the ensuing kick to give New Orleans the ball back in scoring position. Quarterback Tyler Shough moved them inside the 5-yard-line with a 25-yard run and then found rookie wideout Bryce Lance with a two-yard pass with one second to play.
That made it 10-10 at halftime and the Saints will get a chance to keep things rolling to start the third quarter.
Shough is 8-of-19 for 58 yards, so he’ll need to find a better groove for the Saints to build on their strong finish to the half. Jameis Winston is 9-of-16 for 99 yards, but he’s been sacked three times and the running game is doing little to balance out the offense.
Cam Skattebo has not carried the ball at all as the Giants have gone with Tyrone Tracy, Najee Harris, and Devin Singletary instead. They have eight carries for nine yards and J.J. McCarthy lost a couple of yards when the Giants sent him in to run the zone read.
The Giants are out to an early lead over the Saints.
Jameis Winston evaded pressure long enough to find running back Tyrone Tracy on a third down and Tracy found open running room for a 17-yard touchdown. The extra point put the home team up 7-0 with just over five minutes left to play in the first quarter.
Tracy is one of three Giants running backs to have a touch through the first two drives, but Cam Skattebo is not one of them. A report on Sunday morning indicated Najee Harris would see more time at the expense of Skattebo, who has four fumbles this season, but the Giants have gone with a committee approach in the early portion of the game.
They also got a 20-yard run by wide receiver Darnell Mooney and a three-yard sneak by Winston on a fourth down during the scoring drive.
The Jameis Winston Experience is the ultimate amusement park ride. Currently, Giants fans are getting more thrills than chills from Winston’s performance.
Winston had no touchdown passes in his first two games after replacing starter Jaxson Dart. In the last two games, Winston has six total touchdown passes against two interceptions.
He has thrown three touchdown passes against the Cardinals and three against the Commanders. If he does it again today against the Saints, Winston will tie the longest streak in franchise history of consecutive games with three or more touchdown passes.
Via NBC Sports research, Y.A. Tittle did it four times. Fran Tarkenton did it once, in 1967. And Eli Manning did it once, in 2011.
One player who can help Winston get there is receiver Malik Nabers. He has 156 catches in 24 career games. With four catches, he’ll pass Rams receiver Puka Nacua for the second-most catches in a player’s first 25 games. Former Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. holds the record with 176 catches in 25 games.
