We’re ten weeks into the season and Dennis Allen’s team is hurting itself in many of the same ways we saw three months ago. The New Orleans Saints showed more of the same problems in their sloppy loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers: missed tackles, procedural penalties, and botched assignments. There hasn’t been much positive growth to speak of.
Let’s talk what went right, what went wrong, and what’s the bottom line:
What went right?
The Saints pass rush was surprisingly effective, sacking rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett 6 times (a season-high) for a loss of 37 yards. New Orleans was also credited with 7 quarterback hits on the afternoon, frequently pushing Pickett off of his spot. The problem, and we’ll talk about this in greater depth shortly, is that the secondary wasn’t up to snuff when Pickett managed to get a pass off. He converted a first down with 9 of his 18 pass completions. And sometimes Pickett just took off on the hoof, which was its own unique challenge.
But we’re talking positives right now, and a great player to highlight is tight end Juwan Johnson. He led the team in receptions (5) and receiving yards (44), also catching their lone touchdown pass. He’s really come into his own this season as a big-play threat, though the Saints could do a better job involving him on vertical routes instead of quick shots going into the flats. He’s exactly who they can point to as a young player on the rise.
What went wrong?
The Saints defense didn’t do many things the right way. They missed what felt like dozens of tackles and allowed the least-explosive offense in the NFL to make gains of 36, 36, 26, 23, and 22 yards over the course of the afternoon, largely because of poor plays in run defense. Even usually-reliable tacklers like P.J. Williams were swatted aside by a Steelers run game that hasn’t, well, run on anyone all season.
Now about those penalties. The Steelers were given 6 first downs through fouls on New Orleans, with the Saints drawing 10 penalty flags for 74 yards. Two of those were defensive pass interference fouls on cornerback Paulson Adebo, who is looking just as grabby as he was a year ago but without the ball skills that served him well as a rookie. He’s regressed hard. This was a rough game for rookie corner Alontae Taylor, too, who missed multiple tackles and was fouled three times: once for defensive holding, again for illegal use of hands, and another time for defensive pass interference. He’s got to learn from those mistakes.
As for the offense: we didn’t see the Saints put the ball in their best players’ hands. Alvin Kamara only had 8 carries, many of them going directly into the teeth of the Steelers defense for little gain he was only thrown to 4 times, catching 3 passes for 19 yards. What’s egregious is the reduced role for Taysom Hill. The do-it-all tight end had 3 carries, gaining 1 yard, while attempting 1 pass (which was incomplete) and not drawing a single target as a receiver. He’s one of their most electric talents, but the Saints haven’t even tried to get him involved with any volume since he scored four touchdowns in a single game early this season.
And what's the bottom line?
The bottom line? The Saints are one of the worst-coached teams in the NFL right now. They’re not prepared well enough to overcome injuries and rookie mistakes and spotty play at quarterback. They’re committing the exact same penalties from the same players who were at fault early this season. Their coaches aren’t putting their best playmakers in a position to win — a moonshot to Kevin White late in the game was intercepted, but it shouldn’t have even gone White’s direction with both Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry active (they combined for 6 receptions and 77 receiving yards).
Dennis Allen acknowledged that the penalties and mistakes need to be cleaned up after the game, but come one. We’re ten games into his tenure. More than half the season is behind us and his version of the Saints is a miserable affair. The Saints are playing badly and nobody is taking action to do anything about it. Poor luck with injuries can’t be helped, but teams win with weakened rosters every week. Why can’t Allen even field a competitive roster? How much longer are the decision-makers in New Orleans going to tolerate it?
