The New Orleans Saints offense is in a bad way, but don’t tell Dennis Allen. Their head coach acknowledged some critical mistakes in Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons — a penalty here, a fumble there — but Allen missed the big picture in reflecting on his team’s offense.
When asked about Alvin Kamara’s postgame comments suggesting the Saints lack an identity on offense, Allen disagreed.
“I wouldn’t say we don’t have an identity,” Allen began, as transcribed by ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. “I thought we ran the ball effectively … We were able to get the ball down the field effectively.”
The Saints did run well at times in Atlanta, averaging 5.3 yards per carry as a team, but they converted just 6 first downs with rushing plays. And their success in this game doesn’t reflect what we’ve seen throughout the season. Their 148 rushing yards were the second-most we’ve seen all year from New Orleans, nearly matching the combined total from their two previous games (152). The Saints have ran for fewer than 100 yards in six games this season and their average of 3.8 yards per carry as a team ranks 28th among the NFL’s 32 teams.
Allen continued, via Terrell: “I think we have explosive players on offense. I think we’ve proved we can be explosive on offense. Defensively we do a really good job of taking the football away. There’s some areas in both phases and all three phases that we have to improve on. I think we have a fast, explosive offense and I think we have an opportunistic defense.”
Now this is where Allen is losing us. It’s true that the Saints have generated some big plays this year — they’re tied for the league lead with 9 receptions of 40-plus yards. But that’s an uncommon benchmark to use for “explosive” plays, which most football statisticians agree are gains of 20-plus yards through the air and 15 or more yards on the ground.
And the Saints are lacking there. New Orleans sits right in the middle of the pack with 33 receptions of 20-plus yards; the Houston Texans lead the league (54), while the New England Patriots have the fewest (19). Derek Carr may have connected on a few heaves to Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave here or there, but he isn’t consistently picking up chunks of yards.
The run game is even worse. It’s an outright liability this season, which is so disappointing given all of the resources invested in the offensive line, blocking tight ends, and running backs through payroll and draft picks. Wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. jetted around the edge for a 29-yard run on Sunday that was the longest rushing play of the year for the Saints. Their 8 runs of 15-plus yards are tied for fourth-fewest in the NFL. Expand your lens to 25 or more yards and they’re tied for dead-last.
But just like Allen, we risk missing the big picture by focusing on one phase or another to this extent. The Saints are putting up tons of hollow yardage by failing to end drives with points. It’s great that Blake Grupe can be trusted to kick four or five field goals on a single afternoon but they must end drives with touchdowns. That’s been a problem for them all year long.
The Saints just can’t score touchdowns. They rank 29th in red zone efficiency with 17 of their 40 possessions ending with touchdowns after reaching the opposing 20-yard line. They’re struggling to score on big plays from outside the red zone, too: they’ve scored just two touchdowns from distances of 30 or more yards. They rank 19th in points per game (20.8), which is below league average, but take out their defensive and special teams touchdowns and the offense looks even worse.
So, no: it’s not fair to describe the Saints as an explosive offense. Not when they aren’t consistently picking up chunks of yardage and scoring points. Those positive impact plays have been too few and too far between for New Orleans this year. And it shouldn’t be that way. Not with a highly-paid quarterback, running back, and offensive line full of first-round draft picks. Not with the longest-tenured offensive coordinator in the league. This team has real and serious flaws that should worry the Saints’ decision-makers. But to hear Allen tell it, they’re just a couple of penalties and turnovers away from keeping pace with the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys of the world.
