NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The previously hapless Saints have won consecutive games for the first time all season and their rookie quarterback is a big reason why.
Tyler Shough, who spent the first eight weeks of the season watching from the sideline, has won three of his first six starts and has done so with no small measure of panache.
One week after his escape-artist scramble produced a winning touchdown at Tampa Bay, he led two scoring drives — one for a TD and another for a last-second field goal — in the final five minutes in Sunday's 20-17 triumph over Carolina.
While neither the Buccaneers nor the Panthers have taken the NFL by storm this season, they are tied for first place in the NFC South and now have both lost meaningful games to a rebuilding Saints squad that has been playing its best since being eliminated from the playoffs.
Recent results beg the question: Might the Saints (4-10) have won more than once in their first eight games if Shough — a second-round draft pick out of Louisville — had been named the starter from the outset?
First-year coach Kellen Moore, a former NFL QB himself, hedged on that one Monday.
“You can look at the history of a ton of quarterbacks in this league,” Moore said. “There's a lot of benefit for guys who have been able to sit for a little bit, continue to grow and develop off the field. There's a lot of different things you can work on.
“That's all benefited him. It's put him in a position to be successful,” Moore added. "The opportunity presented itself and he's taken advantage of that.”
Regardless, if Shough keeps it up, New Orleans will enter the offseason with a needed uptick in optimism.
With a solid pass rush complementing a jelling young secondary, the Saints rank sixth in the NFL against the pass. After limiting Bryce Young to 15 completions on 24 attempts for 163 yards passing, New Orleans is giving up an average of 180.6 yards per game through the air.
The Saints rank 27th in the NFL in rushing, averaging 93.4 yards on the ground. It doesn't help that Alvin Kamara has been sidelined by knee and ankle injuries, or that Kendre Miller has been on injured reserve since October, and now Devin Neal is hobbled by a hamstring injury.
Kicker Charlie Smyth, a product of the NFL's International Player Pathway Program, produced a compelling storyline when the Northern Ireland native, who grew up playing Gaelic football, hit a 47-yard game-winner. He made all three of his field-goal attempts, although one was taken off the board after the Saints accepted a penalty and put the offense back out on the field.
Meanwhile, Chase Young helped set up the game-winning drive with his sixth sack in a season shortened by a calf strain that sidelined him for the first five weeks.
The offensive line allowed five sacks against the Panthers and was flagged seven times.
Kamara (knee, ankle) and safety Justin Reid (knee) will continue rehabbing injuries this week. It's unclear how long Neal's hamstring injury will sideline him. Receiver Devaughn Vele, who held onto some tough catches through contact against the Panthers, is nursing a shoulder injury. Right guard Cesar Ruiz has sore ankle.
6 — The number of fourth-down stops the Saints' defense has posted in the past two games. All have been important in two close victories.
The Saints seek a third straight win when they host the New York Jets (3-11) on Sunday.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase Young (99) tackles Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle (5) in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Ella Hall)
New Orleans Saints placekicker Charlie Smyth (39) runs off the field after an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) looks to pass in the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Ella Hall)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police released new video and a description of a potential suspect and renewed their search for the shooter who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest in the case.
Here's a look at what to know about the shootings and the search:
Authorities announced the detained man's release during a news conference late Sunday. That marked a setback in the investigation of Saturday's attack on the Ivy League school's campus and added to questions about the shooting and investigation.
Police had detained the man at a Rhode Island hotel. State Attorney General Peter Neronha acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, saying, “We have a murderer out there.”
On Monday, Providence police released three videos of the suspect in the attack that show him wearing a mask and a dark two-tone jacket. The footage from about two hours before the shooting provided the clearest images yet of the suspect.
The FBI said the man is about5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall, with a stocky build.
The shooting occurred as students were in the first-floor classroom of the engineering building studying for a final.
The gunman fired more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
The students who died were MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. Umurzokov was an aspiring neurosurgeon and Cook was a student leader of Brown University’s campus Republicans. They were in a study group preparing for an economics final.
One of the nine wounded students has been released from the hospital, university President Christina Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was critically wounded and that her parents were with her.
Another wounded student, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told the New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald from a hospital bed that there was a mad scramble after the gunman entered the room where he and the other students were studying for finals. Many students ran toward the front of the room, but Yang said he wound up on the ground between some seats and was shot in the leg.
Law enforcement officials were still doing basic investigative work two days after the shooting, such as canvassing local residences and businesses for security camera footage and looking for physical evidence. That has left students and some Providence residents frustrated at gaps in the university’s security and camera systems that helped allow the shooter to disappear.
Kristy dosReis, a spokeswoman for the Providence Police Department, said that at no point did the investigation stand down even after officials appeared to have a breakthrough in the case when they detained a Wisconsin man who they now believe was not involved.
But a lack of campus footage left police seeking tips from the public.
Authorities asked neighborhood residents and businesses for surveillance video that might help identify the attacker. They said Sunday that one reason they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown's engineering building doesn't have many cameras.
Law enforcement on Monday traced the suspect’s movements in the minutes after the attack and searched for physical evidence near the crime scene.
Additional police were sent to Providence schools on Tuesday to reassure worried parents that their kids will be safe with the Brown University shooter on the loose and no indication yet that investigators have zeroed in on a specific suspect in the weekend attack.
Brown University junior Mia Tretta was 15 years old when she was shot in the abdomen during a mass shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. Two students were killed, and she and two others were wounded.
On Saturday, Tretta was studying in her dorm with a friend when the first message arrived warning of an emergency at the university’s engineering building. As more alerts poured in urging people to remain locked down and stay away from windows, the familiarity of the language made clear what she had feared.
“No one should ever have to go through one shooting, let alone two,” Tretta told the AP by phone Sunday.
Levi Neuwirth, who said he was a Brown senior who used to have class in the room where the shooting happened, said the campus is on edge. But he said students and the rest of the Brown community have been supporting each other and displaying extra kindness in the wake of tragedy.
“Campus is on edge, mourning, grieving, processing, all of the above that folks would expect,” said Neuwirth, of Wallkill, New York. “But I would really highlight that the major sentiment I feel and I know many of my peers feel is a strong sense of community, of love. We have each other’s backs.”
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Kimberlee Kruesi, Amanda Swinhart, Robert F. Bukaty and Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Michael Casey in Boston; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington.
A community member looks at flowers, notes and mementos in a makeshift memorial display sitting in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting took place on the university's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)
This combo image made with photos provided by the FBI and the Providence, Rhode Island, Police Department shows a person of interest in the shooting that occurred at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (FBI/Providence Police Department via AP)
Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A police vehicle is parked at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following a Saturday shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Passers-by walk past crime scene tape at an entrance to Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following the Saturday, Dec. 13, shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Police tape off hotel rooms where the person of interest was arrested in a shooting, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Coventry, R.I. (AP Photo/Kimberlee Kruesi)
People hold candles during a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for those injured or killed during the Saturday shooting on Brown University campus. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A bouquet of flowers rests on snow, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, on the campus of Brown University not far from where a shooting took place, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
