It’s not often a team win s a game with a 28-6 margin and is left asking a ton of existential questions, but that’s where the New Orleans Saints stand. Only a one-win Carolina Panthers team could have fumbled the opportunities the Saints gave them to pull back and steal a win on Sunday.
Derek Carr threw the ball 26 times and only gained 119 yards, with 37% of his yards coming on a single 44-yard completion to wide receiver A.T. Perry. Carr was sacked just once but pressured often, and he threw the ball away several times when he could’ve worked faster to make a play. He frequently threw behind his receivers and struggled with his ball placement throughout the afternoon.
Things weren’t much better defensively. A better coaching staff would have seen Bryce Young gain 40 yards on just three carries and dial up some designed runs to take advantage of that athletic mismatch with an old and slow Saints defense. But Carolina didn’t. They asked Young to throw 36 times and his inaccurate passes continuously fell incomplete if they weren’t broken up by a Saints defensive back. Young only completed 13 passes for 137 yards at 3.8 yards per attempt. Carr had 4.6 yards per attempt.
It may feel like nitpicking to look at a game the Saints won by 22 points and have so many complaints, but don’t lose sight of the big picture. The Saints are so, so fortunate to play in such a weak division with mismanaged teams like the Panthers padding out their schedule. A 6-7 record would have New Orleans in third or fourth place in every division in the NFL but the NFC South. Instead, they’re rewarded for their mediocrity with a tie for first place.
But let’s not be so negative. Maybe the Saints can build on this win, figure some more things out, and rise to the occasion to compete with better teams like the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a few weeks. They don’t have any other option but to try.
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