The New Orleans Saints opened their season on Sunday at the Superdome with a dominant 47-10 win over the Carolina Panthers.

Here are eight things I learned from the game after watching the replay:

Dominant performance

Give the offensive line the ball. The much-maligned front five dominated in the trenches and controlled the line of scrimmage for four quarters.

They set the tone early. On the first play, the Saints line pushed Carolina’s defensive line away from the offensive line, opening a huge path for Alvin Kamara, who gained 9 yards on the play. Kamara was not touched by any Panthers defenders until he was 4 yards back. That would be a theme throughout the game, as the Saints regularly outran or confused the Panthers’ front seven.

Kamara rushed for 83 yards on 15 attempts and averaged 2.93 yards per attempt before contact, his best rate in the last four years, according to TruMedia.

If the Saints offensive line plays like this all season, it will be a good year for the offense.

Blocking Brown

The Saints had a great plan for Derrick Brown, the Panthers’ star defensive tackle. They regularly double-covered him and used different blockers to provide variety and keep him under control at all times.

Right tackle Trevor Penning in particular often put pressure on Brown at the point of attack and appeared to frustrate the 6’5″ and 330lb Pro Bowler on several occasions. Brown finished the game with three tackles and was largely neutralized for the entire game.

Derek’s dime

You can’t throw a better ball than the one Derek Carr threw to Rashid Shaheed for a 59-yard touchdown pass to open the game. Carr had 330-pound A’Shawn Robinson in his face and couldn’t make the throw properly, but still threw a ten-pointer to Shaheed 53 yards down the field. The pass hit Shaheed, who had beaten Jaycee Horn in single coverage, perfectly on the run and he rolled unchallenged into the end zone.

The game enraged the sold-out arena at the Superdome and was a knockout blow for the Panthers from which they never fully recovered.

Relaxed afternoon

With the running game lagging behind the dominant performance of the offensive line, it was an easy day for Carr, who was incredibly efficient, completing 19 of 23 passes for 200 yards and three

According to an analysis by Pro Football Focus, Carr made three key throws and six of his 10 pass attempts were 10 yards or more, for 134 yards and three scores.

Carr had more productive games during his time with the Saints, but I’m not sure he’s been more efficient at quarterback since coming to New Orleans, which is exactly how new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and head coach Dennis Allen want to run the offense.

Need for Shaheed

Shaheed showed off his sprint speed a few times in the game. He topped out at 20.52 mph on his 47-yard punt return in the second quarter, the seventh-fastest time of any ball carrier in the league on Sunday. He hit 20.25 mph on his 59-yard touchdown reception and 20.13 on his 33-yard kickoff return.

Fast Sacks

The Panthers had no answer for the Saints’ pressure packages that kept catching them off guard. Nickelback Alontae Taylor came clean on all three of his blitzes from the second level, using his speed each time to reach and bring down Young. Two of Taylor’s sacks came in 3.0 and 3.1 seconds, which were the second and fourth fastest sacks recorded in the league on Sunday.

Shaky second grader

Without wanting to diminish the Saints’ excellent performance, the Panthers – especially their second-year quarterback, Bryce Young – were objectively so bad that it is difficult to properly evaluate the overall performance.

Carolina owner David Tepper and general manager Dan Morgan have to be very concerned about Young’s performance, considering they hired head coach Dave Canales primarily to assist Young and bolstered the team’s offensive line and perimeter corps in the offseason with the young quarterback in mind.

Young regularly missed throws to open receivers and was caught off guard by several Saints blitzes, a no-no for a quarterback who helps defend. His passer rating of 32.8 was the lowest of his career.

In three games against the Saints, Young has completed just 48 of 99 passes for an average of 150.3 yards per game with two interceptions and just one touchdown. His passer rating in those games is 56.4. Not surprisingly, the Panthers are 0-3 in those games.

Role reduction?

The Saints appear to be using Tyrann Mathieu differently this season. Or at least they did in Week 1. The veteran safety was replaced in goal-line packages by second-year safety Jordan Howden, who played with veteran Will Harris on defense.

As a result, Mathieu only played 27 snaps against the Panthers, compared to Howden’s 47.