You can’t say they didn’t try to rally back. The New Orleans Saints offense found some life in the second half of Thursday night’s game with the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Taysom Hill and Michael Thomas scoring a pair of badly-needed touchdowns to help tie the game up — and Alvin Kamara came through on a crucial two-point conversion to put a pin in that effort.
But it was too little, too late. The offense couldn’t get out of their own red zone and a bad punt by Lou Hedley was returned back into New Orleans territory. Their defense caved in on a long touchdown pass to Christian Kirk, and that was that. The Saints’ final possession ended with an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal. The Jaguars will go back to Jacksonville with a win, leaving the Saints at 3-4.
Nobody expected the game to come down to the wire like this. The Saints defense and special teams coverage units did their jobs by forcing a couple of early takeaways, but the offense wasn’t able to get going until the second half (helped, maybe, by a halftime talk with Ronald Curry). Derek Carr had too many miscommunications with his receivers — not helped by Chris Olave quitting on his routes at a couple of critical moments — and they failed to execute in scoring position at the end of the night. Carr’s receivers were either covered too tightly or they dropped the would-be touchdown pass, as Foster Moreau did at the end. It’s dispiriting.
Getting down to the 6-yard line with all three timeouts, only to fail to score a touchdown after four straight shotgun passes, is a questionable decision. But that’s how the Saints have operated all season. They haven’t done anything in phase with the offense, defense, and special teams complimenting one another. Dennis Allen’s squad is all out of sorts, and losses like this are proof of it.
Carr isn’t a talented enough quarterback to elevate those around him (or at least he hasn’t looked like one so far). His receiving corps has not met expectations and Olave’s effort level is becoming a serious problem. But they aren’t the only issue here. Pete Carmichael’s play calling has done them no favors. Why is Olave the target on a fade route with the game on the line instead of Jimmy Graham? Why was Graham essentially brought out of retirement to watch moments like that from the sidelines?
This is still a flawed team. But this isn’t the end of their season. Lesser squads than the playoff-bound Jaguars are lined up in front of them and it’s very feasible for this Saints team to go into their bye week with a winning record. With that said, it’s beyond obvious now that they need to make some changes to correct the course and get there. What they’ve done to this point in the season has not worked.
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