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Saints aren’t fun, and worse, aren’t even entertaining in blowout loss to Bills

Saints aren’t fun, and worse, aren’t even entertaining in 31-6 blowout loss to Bills. They were just bad and boring:

It’s so disappointing to see the New Orleans Saints go down like this. They were embarrassed in all phases by the visiting Buffalo Bills, with Sean Payton’s stubbornly Trevor Siemian-led offense demolished while his defense slowly fell to pieces in the second half. Even the special teams units struggled with a series of subpar returns from All-Pro specialist Deonte Harris. They lost by a final tally of 31-6, and they earned that beatdown.

Sure, the Saints were beaten up. Every team is beaten up this time of the year, though few others were missing as many starters as New Orleans. But it was so bad that Drew Brees opened the second half by demonstrating how Josh Allen’s mechanics have changed after a few years in the NFL. Mitchell Trubisky went into the game for clean-up duty with seven minutes remaining.

This is as embarrassing as it gets in the NFL. Especially for a team that once had playoff hopes. At this point the Saints will be very, very lucky to finish the year with a winning record. This four-game losing streak is their first since the 2015 season (and before that, the 2012 season). Another loss next week to the Dallas Cowboys would be their first five-game losing skid of the Sean Payton era, dating back to Jim Haslett’s last year as head coach.

At least teams before had been ugly and entertaining. The 2012 Saints team made every game worth watching with a high-power offense to match their historically-bad defense; so did the 2014 and 2015 squads. Issues on offense were prevalent in 2019 and 2020 but the defense was strong enough to keep it interesting. This team doesn’t have anything to hang their hats on.

So who is to blame? Sean Payton earned a lot of ire for keeping Siemian in the game so long, with the offense ending drives with five punts and two turnover-on-downs sequences. His late-game interception still wasn’t enough to get Taysom Hill in the game. This is one of the lowest moments of the Sean Payton era.

And on that note: the NBC broadcast repeatedly mentioned Hill wasn’t playing due to a foot injury, but that’s bunk. He’s healthy enough to dress for the game on the active roster. He’s healthy enough to back up Siemian in case of an emergency. But he isn’t healthy enough to play over him when Siemian is actively hurting the team? He isn’t healthy enough to do anything but stand on the sidelines in a ball cap and clap? Literally days after signing a big contract extension without explanation?

It’s a frustrating situation to say the least. The fact we won’t get any satisfactory answers out of Payton for his bizarre decisions makes it difficult to accept. This season is swirling around the drain, and there’s next to no reason to think it’s about to get better. Payton earned a lot of faith from his years of success. But that can evaporate in a hurry if he’s got no plan to get out of this.

Instant analysis of Saints’ 40-29 loss vs. Eagles

The Alvin Kamara-less New Orleans Saints offense again took too long to get up to speed in a 40-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Instant analysis:

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The Alvin Kamara-less New Orleans Saints offense again took too long to get up to speed in their 40-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, but it wasn’t all bad. It might have been pretty one-sided for most of the afternoon — but there’s some reason for carefully guarded optimism moving forwards. Here’s a quick look at Week 11’s defeat.

Saints lose third game in a row for the first time since 2016

It’s been a while since the Saints were this bad. They’ve lost their third game in a row for the first time since 2016:

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It’s been a while since the New Orleans Saints were this bad. They’ve lost their third game in a row for the first time since 2016, falling 40-29 to the Philadelphia Eagles after previous two-point losses to the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. They lost their first three games to open the 2016 season and haven’t looked back, but now they’re in rough shape.

I’ve written before about how the 2017 to 2020 span was a golden age of Saints football — they won more games in those four years than they had in some decades, and never lost more than two games in a row. But they’ve been depleted by injuries, retirements, and salary cap considerations, and now they’re facing an uphill battle after back-to-back-to-back losses.

In fact, the Saints have only logged back-to-back losses twice since that three-game series in 2016 — Weeks 14 and 15 in 2020, plus Weeks 1 and 2 in 2017. It’s unusual to see Sean Payton’s squad unable to shake back. But years of neglectful drafting rendered their depth chart on offense paper-thin, making for a perfect storm once Trevor Siemian took over at quarterback. He’s not skilled enough to lift up those around him. And his supporting cast isn’t strong enough to prop him up.

Inadequate play on offense bleeds over into unfavorable situations on defense and heightened pressure on special teams. Like every other team they’re only as strong as their weakest link. And a whole phase of the game is very, very weak in New Orleans.

What’s next? The Saints have got to hurry up and get back to New Orleans so they can regroup before a prime-time matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving, with Drew Brees on the call for NBC. Hopefully the Saints don’t embarrass him in front of company.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Shorthanded Saints lose to Eagles, offense pads stats in garbage time

The New Orleans Saints took advantage of soft coverage from the Philadelphia Eagles late in their Week 11 loss to pad their stats in garbage time:

Woof. The final score made this game look closer than it was — the New Orleans Saints trailed the Philadelphia Eagles 33-7 going into the fourth quarter. With an injury to top corner Darius Slay and a comfortable lead, the Eagles took their foot off the gas pedal and let the Saints cut into that deficit. Almost immediately, really, with Trevor Siemian lobbing a touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway from 26 yards out just 11 seconds into the fourth quarter. It didn’t matter and they lost 40-29.

But let’s focus on what really happened here: the Saints offense looked just as pathetic as you’d expect with half a dozen starters missing. Siemian spent last season on the practice squad and looked like that’s where he belonged in this outing. He threw two terrible interceptions, one of them returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Slay, and was missing open receivers all day. It was already a bad day, but his deficiencies made it worse.

So why didn’t they pull him out of the game? Taysom Hill was the only other active quarterback with rookie draft pick Ian Book a healthy scratch, but Hill’s foot injury this week limited him to just one practice session and the Saints had no plans of getting him on the field. He never even put on his helmet and was functionally standing inside an invisible glass box labeled “break in case of emergency.” Hill didn’t play a single snap in his usual position-less role. Barring a serious injury to Siemian, his job was just to hold a clipboard like any other backup in this league.

It’s tempting to look at this fourth quarter rally as a sign of progress, but it’s fool’s gold. The Eagles made the same mistake as the Titans last week and the Falcons a game earlier. All three teams went into soft prevent coverage in the final period, allowing the Saints to put up 53 of their 75 points in that quarter. When their opponents are taking them seriously and putting in the effort to pressure Siemian and challenge his receivers, Sean Payton hasn’t had an answer for them.

That doesn’t bode well for their upcoming game with the Buffalo Bills. The Thanksgiving night game four days away (roughly 100 hours, if you’d rather look at it that way). Buffalo was dismantled by Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday but we’ve seen before that other game results don’t matter when teams play the Saints. Just look at their losses to the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, and Tennessee Titans (who just got whacked by the lowly Houston Texans this week) earlier this season. Every opponent has to be weighed on their own merits, and the Bills have enough firepower to give New Orleans trouble.

November wasn’t kind to the Saints. They have a shot at turning it around in the Thanksgiving nightcap against the Bills, and they just might do it given how well they’ve played strong teams this year. But if nothing else, this three-game losing skid has to put a dampener on the expectations for this season. At this point fans should just be happy to finish the season with a winning record.

[lawrence-newsletter]

New Orleans Saints game recap: Everything we know after 27-25 loss

Late-game heroics for the New Orleans Saints were too little too late to knock off their division-rival Atlanta Falcons. Despite posting 18 points in a furious fourth-quarter rally, all it took was a mistimed jump by rookie cornerback Paulson Adebo to allow a 64-yard catch-and-run by Cordarrelle Patterson to set up Younghoe Koo’s game-winning chip shot field goal.

It was dramatic. For most of the afternoon it was sloppy. It got the Falcons to .500 and cost the Saints an opportunity to take the top spot in the NFC South. Between a flurry of dropped passes by the Saints receivers throughout the game and 10 penalties against New Orleans, the black and gold did as much as they possibly could have to lose. Here’s everything you need to know from the game:

New Orleans Saints Week 8 game recap: Everything we know about 35-27 thriller

New Orleans Saints Week 8 game recap: Everything we know

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That might have been the game of the year. The New Orleans Saints improved to 5-2 with a stunning upset of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home in the Caesars Superdome — and they did it largely without Jameis Winston. That’s enough window dressing. Let’s get to it:

New Orleans Saints Week 7 game recap: Everything we know

Well that was something. A game of professional football transpired between the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints, who improved to a 4-2 record with a stifling defensive effort at Lumen Field. There are very real concerns to be had about the Saints offense based off a particularly ugly performance, but that’s a problem for another day. Let’s dig in:

Saints at Washington Week 5 game recap: Everything we know from 33-22 win

Saints at Washington Week 5 game recap: Everything we know

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Whew. That was wild. The New Orleans Saints hurt themselves with a ton of negative plays and penalties going into the fourth quarter against the Washington Football Team, but they ultimately strung together enough minor successes to pull away with a crucial road win. Here’s everything we know about the 33-22 victory:

Twitter reacts to Saints’ 27-21 upset loss to Giants

Twitter reacts to New Orleans Saints’ 27-21 upset loss to Giants

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The New Orleans Saints’ surprising loss to the New York Giants resulted in a wide range of reactions from NFL fans on social media. With divisive quarterbacks like Jameis Winston, Taysom Hill, and Daniel Jones involved that figures to always be the case:

Saints vs. Giants recap: Everything we know about 27-21 loss

New Orleans Saints vs. New York Giants recap: Everything we know about 27-21 loss

That’s painful. The New Orleans Saints lost their first game back in the packed Caesars Superdome in more than 600 days by playing not to lose instead of going for a win in the fourth quarter, allowing the winless New York Giants to walk into their building and outcoach and outplay Sean Payton’s team. Here’s everything we know about Week 4’s disappointing game: