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New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan wasn’t pleased by his unit’s effort in their defeat to the San Francisco 49ers, to say the least. Problems plagued them throughout the afternoon; whether his defensive line wasn’t putting pressure on 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo or his teammates in the secondary were giving up too much ground to the San Francisco receivers, New Orleans just wasn’t able to play complimentary football in the 48-46 loss.
“It’s something that we have to deal with,” Jordan said during his postgame media availability. “They (San Francisco) had over 40 points on the board. That is on the defense. When you have an offense rolling the way that they were, with the ebbs and flow of the game, this is something that we have to be able to go back to what we know.”
Jordan pointed to the ease with which San Francisco picked up yards on the ground as one weakness that stuck with him: “You’ve got to be able to stop that run. At the end of the day, they ended up with over a buck-fifty (150 yards rushing) on the ground. Whether that’s Jimmy (Garoppolo) scrambling, whether that’s the 15 running backs that they have in the backfield, it’s something that we knew coming in that we were going to have to stop.”
The 49ers feature one of the league’s deepest running back corps; Raheem Mostert (608 rushing yards), Matt Breida (596), and Tevin Coleman (460) have each taken turns leading the team in making big gains on the ground, and they combined for 129 rushing yards against the Saints on Sunday. As Jordan himself said, allowing that kind of productivity just isn’t good enough. That he and his teammates knew it and still weren’t able to do much about it is disquieting.
This one stings, and it’s going to haunt the Saints for a while. And Jordan is acutely aware of the role the unit he leads played in this loss, summing it up as, “At the end of the day, we didn’t do enough to get a win.”
That’s tough medicine to swallow, but it’s what the Saints need to hear right now. They can’t continue wasting the opportunities they’re given with Drew Brees, a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback, at the helm. Having leaders like Jordan in the room will help keep everyone accountable and optimistic, and that’s something fans can feel confident about. With the immediate 24 hours from this loss behind them, rest assured that Jordan and his teammates are dialing into their next opponent.
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