The New Orleans Saints played just well enough to give fans hope before things fell apart in Thursday night’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. But these things happen when a legit playoff team matches up with a squad that isn’t quite ready for prime time.
So what can we learn from Week 7’s game? What went right for the Saints? What went wrong? And what’s the bottom line? Let’s break it down:
What went right?
The offense finally showed some real signs of life. Michael Thomas won on a couple of contested catches in the fourth quarter including an incredible grab on his touchdown reception. Alvin Kamara continues to rack up yards with 62 on the ground and 91 through the air. Taysom Hill came through in several clutch moments. At times late Thursday night, this almost looked like the Saints offense a lot of fans grew up on. We just didn’t see it often enough.
But the defense deserves real applause. They only allowed two Jaguars conversions on third down — off of 11 attempts. The defense forced takeaways, showed up big in several critical running plays, and for the most part they held up in coverage. It was enough to keep the team in this game all the way through to the end.
Let’s share a word of recognition for the New Orleans offensive line, by the way. Not necessarily praise (they still allowed a ton of pressures), but their efforts should be recognized. Expectations were so low they were touching the floor going into this game. The line was missing each of the starting tackles and their top backup, with multiple blockers called up from the practice squad at the last minute. And they did enough to keep Derek Carr clean while opening some running lanes. They vastly outperformed expectations, even if the group was far from perfect.
What went wrong?
Where to start?
Dennis Allen’s decision to reboot the kicking specialists may have been too rash. Blake Grupe missed another field goal (pushing it too far right, as has been a trend for him this season) and Lou Hedley’s punting was far off the mark. He put up just 30 net yards on one of his final punts on the evening from deep inside New Orleans territory after the return. These performances have been substandard. There’s no going back to Wil Lutz, but it’s worth giving Blake Gillikin a call.
Offensively, we’ve got to talk about the slow start. The Saints managed just six points in the first half. And that’s after they were given two free possessions in Jacksonville territory off of a defensive fumble recovery and a muffed punt. That Pete Carmichael still can’t strike when the iron is hot and when his unit is in scoring position speaks volumes. Derek Carr threw inaccurate passes. Chris Olave cut his routes off too early far too often. Even Alvin Kamara ran into his blockers more often than we’ve ever seen. The play calls were bad, but so was the execution. Poor passes were thrown and poor effort was made to catch them.
And what's the bottom line?
This is the same flawed and consistently inconsistent team that we expected going in. Sure, some of those vulnerabilities were different than imagined — kicking has become an even bigger problem, but the offensive line is a little better than expected, for example — but at the end of the day the core weaknesses for this team are the same.
Dennis Allen remains one of the NFL’s least-aggressive head coaches. He’s still kicking the ball away when he ought to be going for it, either on field goal tries or on punts inside enemy territory. What’s the point in spending all those years working to earn another head coaching opportunity to get on the headset and have the chance to make these decisions if he’s just going to shrivel up in the moment? Last year the excuse was that he didn’t trust his quarterbacks to execute in high-leverage situations. Allen can’t say that after working so hard to recruit Carr and sell him as the savior for the offense.
And this still isn’t an offense fans can have much faith in. With the game on the line facing fourth and goal, Pete Carmichael kept Jimmy Graham on the sidelines with Keith Kirkwood on the field getting his cardio in. A classic Graham fade route was instead run by Chris Olave, who wasn’t able to come down with the ball. That illustrates just how out of sorts this whole operation is. The Saints can’t get the personnel on the field who are best suited to executing the play calls. They’re being too clever by half. And it’s costing them winnable games.
This Jaguars game wasn’t a must-win in the sense that anyone’s job was on the line (even if Carmichael and Allen should both be on the hot seat by now). It didn’t have the season in the balance. The Saints are going to get 10 days’ rest before a three-game series of vulnerable opponents, two of them in the conference, and then a respite in their bye week. They could absolutely win those three games and go into the bye with a 6-4 record despite this loss. It may have not been a must-win matchup, but a victory sure would have made an important statement to build confidence in the team’s direction. Instead we’re left asking the same question as after every other loss.
Can Carr take this team where they want to go? Can Carmichael? Can Allen? It’s hard to believe in them after losing four of their last five games.
