The New Orleans Saints aren't doing themselves any favors.
In a pivotal NFC South showdown with the Bucs, a team displaced due to Hurricane Milton, the Saints got beaten down by historic margins in a 51-27 defeat that marked a four-game losing steak and massive questions about the outlook of the 2024 season.
With Sean Payton's Broncos on tap in four days, the Saints don't have much time to dwell. With all that in mind, here's the studs and duds from a Week 6 debacle at the Caesars Superdome.
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THREE DOWN
1. Tackling literally anybody
There wasn't a lot that went right today, but Dennis Allen described the tackling well: "Atrocious."
Saints coaches made it clear they had emphasized tackling all week after a rough stretch of third-down defense that led to that unit being on the field far too long throughout games this season. That somehow got worse against the Bucs. The Saints missed tackle after tackle and failed to get off the field.
The Bucs converted on 6-of-10 third downs, but that second number alone is even more telling. The Bucs ran 72 offensive plays, but only 10 of those were third down situations. The most egregious tackling came on a 55-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Chris Godwin with three Saints players whiffing. The ball was thrown at the line of scrimmage on 2nd and 5. Instead of a tackle to force a third down, the Saints' 3-point lead they effectively stole with a massive 2nd quarter was gone. The Bucs ran the show from there.
The Bucs ran for an absurd 277 yards, the most a Saints defense has allowed in more than two decades. Of those, 136 yards came from a largely unknown source in Sean Tucker, who walked into the Caesars Superdome with 30 total rushing yards in his 2-year career. The only real success the Saints defense found was amid a rash of penalties and turnovers that stunted drives in the second quarter. The Saints fell behind 17-0 to start, and they allowed the Bucs to score the game's final 27 points. That's a recipe for disaster on a day where you needed to help out a young QB.
It's hard to imagine how things can get much better, at least from anything the coaching staff can do, in the span of the next 72 hours before the Saints play on Thursday Night Football against the Broncos. But something has to change, and it has to happen soon.
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2. Rattler's second half
I don't want this to come off as overly critical, because I didn't hate the rookie QB's day and we'll talk more about the first half below. But there's no sugarcoating it: The Bucs took advantage of a rookie playing like a rookie to close this game out.
The Saints were clearly trying to get Spencer Rattler on the move. He made a few nice throws on the run, but the Bucs largely took that part of the game away with added pressure in the second half. At times it looked like Rattler was bailing on pockets to run a bit too early rather than creating time and keeping his eyes downfield. That's not something unusual for a rookie, it's just something that's been noticeable as we've watched the young QB develop.
One area I'd like to see Spencer work on is simple touch throws. The kid has an arm cannon, but it seems like he rifles balls in that don't need to be. There were at least three instances of drops today that fell into that category, and another pass that sailed over Jordan Mims' head out of bounds. It's nitpicky but noticeable.
In the end it was what Spencer made clear he wanted avoid that was the most costly: interceptions. His first on a ball that was a bit underthrown to Rashid Shaheed on a crossing route was the most painful because of the situation. The Saints had just forced a stop trailing by just 4. The interception came on first down and a drive for points in that situation could've changed the entire outlook of the game. Instead it was a turnover that the Bucs turned into a 5-play, 63-yard scoring drive that sure felt like it put the game out of reach.
It strikes me as the type of throw that a star QB could probably get away with in college. It wasn't a bad throw, but it also wasn't a perfect throw and Zyon McCollum made a perfect, leaping play on the ball. There was a safety crashing but plenty of room to lead the ball further upfield and out of danger.
It's not the end of the world. Spencer will continue to improve and I think there was a lot more good than bad in the balance of this game. But the Saints landed in the obvious scenario that was almost the most difficult to avoid. You asked too much of a young QB in a must-win-feeling situation created by the Saints' failures to close out winnable games. Now things feel dire, and you've got to do it again in four days. Suboptimal.
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3. Holding the rope...
I don't like to question effort because so much of it is guessing what's going on inside a guy's head. These are all professionals and they're leaving everything they have out on the field, but at some point during the game today it became clear that everything wasn't going to be enough.
On those final few Bucs drives it was pretty clear that nothing the Saints did was going to prevent points from going on the board. That's been the case too often this year. The red zone defense is stout and that's continued to be the case, but if there's space, the Saints won't be close enough. If there's a battle to be won and a line to be held, the Saints will be driven back. If it's about will, there too often seems to be more of it on the other side.
I won't go so far as to say the Saints defense quit in this game, but they were very clearly defeated long before the clock struck zero. The defeat looked like it was mental as much as it was physical.
Related
I have no interest in singling anybody out. You win as a team, you lose as a team, you get embarrassed as a team. No one in black and gold Sunday had much fun -- at least outside of a second quarter that feels like it exists in an alternate reality from the rest of that game -- not the players, not the coaches and definitely not the fans. I point this out because the longer this losing streak carries on, the louder the outcry will be for change and the hotter the seats of the coaching staff become.
I pride myself on being pragmatic. I have no interest in pandering for attention. When it comes to hirings and firings and signings and cuts, I always try my best to view it through the lens of the people involved, not the volume of the yelling. Coaches don't get fired -- at least not by competent organizations -- because some hard-luck losses have piled up. If you can't pick a course and stick with it when adversity strikes, you weren't built for success to begin with.
That said, there is a very real and obvious way for a coach to lose his job, and it's by losing the locker room. I don't think that's happened yet with the Saints, but it's not difficult to spot when it does. Look at the Chargers last season and a coach in Brandon Staley who was constantly referred to as being on the hot seat long before it was probably true. The Chargers had scuffled to 5-7 with losses in 4 of 5 games, but it wasn't until they went to Las Vegas and got embarrassed 63-21 by a Raiders team that got shut out the week before that a move had to made. The team made a statement. The front office didn't have a choice.
I don't think the Saints are there yet. There's too much pride in that building. There's too much leadership on this roster. Still, that only goes so far. When your calling card is defense and at every turn that you need your defense to go win you a game, the opposite happens, it becomes really difficult to justify staying with the status quo.
Either that dynamic changes soon, or a lot of other things will be changing before long.
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A few more
WR hands weren't good enough. I expect to hear about this team doing tackling drills on defense and ball security drills on offense. Chris Olave was hit in the head before dropping his ball on the fumble-6, so he gets a pass. But Cedrick Wilson had a ball fly directly through his hands. Bub Means also had a ball knocked out that was ruled incomplete, but robbed the Saints of what would've been a key first down early in the third quarter. Got to be better. ... Chris Olave concussion No. 3 is a concern to me. I'm not going to criticize him for it, obviously, but we're now talking about a guy who has had three head injury in as many NFL seasons. That's not good for anybody, though we don't know the severity. Regardless, clearing the concussion call is difficult enough in a full week, four days feels impossible. ... Rashid Shaheed changes games, but he frustrates me at times. I've seen him stop on too many routes where he doesn't seem to think he's getting ball. I don't know if his hip is bothering him, but that's back-to-back weeks we saw a ball that had a chance fall incomplete after Shaheed slowed up midroute. I don't like it. ... I don't know exactly what the Saints training staff could be doing differently, but it's getting harder and harder to see this constant parade of trips to the injury tent and back to the locker room as simply coincidental and bad luck. Find some answers.
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THREE UP
1. Rattler's first half
We talked about the bad stuff above, so we also need to mention that Spencer Rattler looked every bit of the hyped rookie in the first half of this game.
Bear in mind how badly this game started for the Saints. The Bucs took the ball first and went 79 yards for a touchdown in 8 plays. Rattler took the field for his NFL debut, rolled out and immediately found Juwan Johnson up the seam for a 27 yard gain. The crowd goes wild. Then the wheels fall off.
The next play was a quick screen to the left. Rattler said he was rushing and never got the laces, fumbling the ball but falling on it for a 2 yard loss. The next play a quick throw out right to Olave. The ball gets punched out for fumble that was brought back to the house.
After another punt and Bucs field goal the Saints found themselves in a 17-0 hole before they knew what hit them. That's when things got going. The next Saints drive was 11 plays for 56 yards and a field goal. The Saints then forced a backed up punt that Rashid Shaheed returned for a touchdown. 17-10, back in business.
The next two drives started deep in Tampa territory after Paulson Adebo and Johnathan Abram interceptions. The first ended in a field goal, the next a beautiful read and throw to Bub Means for the first touchdown pass of Rattler's career and the first lead of the day. After a Bucs score, Rattler then led his most impressive drive of 7 plays and 70 yards in 2:52 for a 27-24 lead. That was probably what you'd call the last good thing that happened for the Saints in this game.
I list all that to say: A lot happened in the first half of this game, good and bad. Spencer remained poised and he gave you a chance. When you're parsing out a rookie's day it can never be all or nothing, you have to weigh the good with the bad and move forward. What's being done well that you can build on, and what's being done poorly that you can fix. The name of the game is development, and I felt like Spencer showed the tools of a guy that can be developed. He certainly says all the right things in that regard.
We'll have to wait and see how true that ends up being.
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2. Bub Means has juice
I don't know if it's because he dealt with an injury throughout a lot of camp or if it's because he drew one whole target despite being active for four of the first five games. Either way, we kind of stopped talking about Bub Means.
Mason Tipton burst onto the scene in camp and A.T. Perry was a more familiar name, one that is now a member of the Broncos practice squad. But Means was a 5th round pick this season, and when Olave went down with his injury, he was the one who stepped up and looked VERY comfortable working with Rattler at QB.
That's no surprise. These guys worked a lot together during the offseason and into the regular season. I'd wager that there's no Saints player who's caught more balls from Rattler this offseason than Means. The former Pitt Panther showed what he could do with his opportunity.
The line doesn't jump off the page with 5 catches for 45 yards and a touchdown, but the tape tells the story. Two of those completions came on third downs to keep a drive alive. Another converted a first down on 2nd down, and another was a first-down pass for a touchdown. Sometimes you'll see a five-catch day that didn't impact much in the grand scheme. In this case it was a young player showing he can step up in big moments and make physical catches, something I haven't seen enough of to this point in the year.
Means is already built to be physical in the NFL in his rookie season, and his agility is impressive at that size. He doesn't have the top end speed you might look for, but in a system with a guy like Shaheed, I need other things.
It's unlikely we see Olave or Carr on Thursday. I expect another big day for Bub, and maybe a glimpse of the future.
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3. TEs actually can catch passes
I'm excited about a game where Juwan Johnson and Foster Moreau split five targets, and that should tell you just how far my standards have fallen for what qualifies as an impressive tight end day.
Still, I've been calling for more involvement from the TEs in the passing game and that definitely came to fruition in this game. Moreau had 2 catches for 54 yards, while Johnson had 3 catches for 48, figures that ranked first and second for the Saints in terms of yardage on the day.
When those guys can stretch the middle of the field, things open up. Foster's long catch set up the go-ahead touchdown before halftime, which Alvin Kamara bulled into the endzone. I just think the Saints have been too reliant on Olave and Shaheed in the passing game to this point of the season and it's become predictable. Rattler showed in this game that not throwing to the TEs has been a choice.
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Honorable mention
Just another ho-hum day for Matt Hayball. Six punts that went like this:
- From NO 37 to TB 21 (no return; net 42)
- From TB 45 to TB 10 (no return; net 35)
- From 50 to TB 8 (no return; net 42)
- From NO 44 to TB 8 (no return; net 48)
- From NO 27 to TB 32 (1 yard return; net 40)
- From NO 24 to TB 18 (11 yard return; net 47)
Six punts, three of which were downed inside the 20, one of which went for 58 and four of which had a net gain of 42-plus yards. One of the kicks below that mark was downed at the 10. The Saints made the right call on their punter, so I'll continue to give him credit. ... Rashid Shaheed is an elite punt returner, and he really jumpstarted the Saints today. At some point it'd be nice if the Saints won a game where he returned a kick for a TD, but it's such an elite weapon.