Saints Report #9 - November 10, 2019

Those who follow the NFL were surprised at the Saints success in the first half of the season,  As the bye week occurred at the half way point of the season, the Saints sported a tasty 7-1 record.  They appeared to be the NFL’s most talented and deepest team.  On many power rankings (for what they’re worth) they were second to the equally surprising San Francisco 49’ers, and it looked like the Saints could be playing the 49’ers in the dome in December with home field advantage in the playoffs on the line.

So, when the hated rival Atlanta Falcons came to the dome on Sunday, the Saints had their destiny in their own hands.  They proceeded to drop their destiny like a hot potato.  On a weekend where Sean Payton got engaged, his Saints failed to engage and the Falcons dominated them 26-9.  The Falcons, 13 point underdogs with a 1-7 record inexplicably decided to show up for the game, and administered a sound whopping.  The Falcons deserved this win.  They had a great game plan, and ran the ball down the Saints throat from the opening kickoff.   The Saints run defense had been stout all year, but they got sliced and diced on this day.  With the running game established Matt Ryan flew the friendly skies with an equally successful passing attack.   

The offense was no help.  Every time it looked like the Saints might get something going, they would shoot themselves in the foot.  They got penalized 4 times for hands to the face, obviously the result of a league-wide “penalty of the week” memo.  (I saw it called in other games too.)  They roughed the punter.  They dropped passes, as their lack of a legitimate receiver to play opposite Michael Thomas was evident.  But, it was both lines that got pummeled on this day.  It seemed like every big 3^rd or 4^th down play ended with Drew Brees on his back, looking at the ceiling of the Superdome.  He got sacked 6 times, and it didn’t help that New Orleans couldn’t and wouldn’t run the ball.   Alvin Kamara was largely left out of the offense until late in the game. 

A couple of other observations:

Marshon Lattimore left with a thigh injury and he had been shadowing Julio Jones until that point.  You could probably say this about most teams, but the Saints struggle against teams with two great wideouts.  (Rams, Falcons.)

Lattimore is a legit lock down corner and if he is out for awhile, the Saints defense will continue to be challenged.

The Saints offense has been inconsistent.  Don’t let the record fool you, or the Bridgewater success story. When Bridgewater played for an injured Brees, the defense had some great games.

The Saints 7-2 record features the following offensive output:  30, 9, 33, 12, 31, 13, 36, 31, 9.  That’s 4 games with less than 2 touchdowns scored.  That’s atypical of the Payton/Brees era. For contrast, here’s what they were scoring during their 10 game winning streak in 2018:  21, 43, 33, 43, 24, 30, 45, 51, 48, 31.  We don’t know which offense is going to show up, the invincible one, or the invisible one. 

So, what’s wrong?

Mainly, the Saints need a consistent 2^nd receiver option, and they need to commit to the run half of the time.  Many teams have 3 dangerous wide-outs.  The Saints have one.  Brees may trust Ted Ginn, but Ginn has never been a threat to catch 8 balls in a game.  He’s good for 2, maybe 3, and his hands have always been suspect.  Emmanuel Butler was the talk of training camp, but has been marooned on the taxi squad, after dropping a couple of passes in the preseason.  Maybe it’s time to give him a look.

Here are the receiving totals for the year:

Wide Receivers:

Michael Thomas               86

Ted Ginn                           20

Tre’Quan Smith                  6 (injured)

Deonte Harris                      3

Austin Carr                          1

Kenny Kirkwood                 0  (injured)

Lil Jordan Humphres           0  (cut)

Tight Ends

Jared Cook                          21

Josh Hill                              15

Taysom Hill                          9

Dan Arnold                           2

Backs:

Alvin Kamara                      41

Latavius Murray                  25

Zach Line                               5

Dwayne Washington              1

That’s right.  Our third string quarterback has almost half as many receptions as our second wide receiver. By contrast the Rams look like this:  Woods - 38 , Cooks - 27 , Kupp – 58 for a total of 123, and all are deep threats, which Thomas is only rarely.   

I was hoping the Saints would take a run at AJ Green, and maybe they did.  Maybe they made a call to Josh Gordon.  Maybe Antonio Brown is waiting by the phone.  Somethings got to Ginn.  

When you lose, its usually because you either a) turn the ball over, or b) your weaknesses get exposed.  The Falcons exposed some weaknesses, and Sean Payton will have to scramble to get them fixed, as the whole league took notes today.

Now the Saints take a 2 game division lead into 3 straight division games, culminating with a rematch with the Falcons on Thanksgiving night.  A noon mealtime is suggested so there is plenty of time for digestion.  Another game like this and some people are going to be sick.