Another week, another uniquely frustrating loss for the New Orleans Saints.
This time it featured a 21-0 deficit before all the fans had even settled into their seats and an unsuccessful rally, another that had to be finished by Jameis Winston following a Derek Carr injury, in the Saints' 33-28 loss to the Lions to drop to 5-7 and officially lose control of their playoff destiny.
With all that in mind, here are the stock up and stock down players/groups after another frustrating Saints loss.
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STOCK DOWN
1. TE Juwan Johnson
Juwan Johnson is an easy guy to root for, or at least he had been throughout his career. The year 2023 has not been kind to him, at least not on the football field.
He was rewarded with a new contract and, for good reason, had high expectations placed upon him as he came into the year as the unquestioned TE1. The response has been 18 catches for 142 yards and one touchdown. That total only accounts for 8 games, with four others missed due to a calf injury, but it's still not a pretty picture.
The lack of production was magnified this week when a ball from Derek Carr on the Saints' first offensive play hit him directly in the hands and deflected away for an interception. The Saints were down 14-0 before they could blink. Another 3-and-out and that deficit ballooned to 21 midway through the first quarter.
Criticism can land on Carr for missing A.T. Perry open on the other side of the field, but he was rolling to the right and taking what should've been an easy 5-8 yards to his tight end to get a drive started. Juwan had two more targets in the game that may or may not go down as "drops," but were certainly catchable.
Jimmy Graham and Foster Moreau both impacted this game in positive ways. Any way you slice it, it's tough to not be disappointed in what we've seen from No. 83 so far.
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2. Defending TEs
The impact of the section above becomes even clearer when you look on the other side of the ball and see yet another tight end detonating on the Saints' defense. This time it was Sam Laporta with an absolutely absurd line of 9 catches (on 9 targets) for 140 yards and a touchdown.
He was the security blanket for Goff all day long, and that included a third down conversion that prevented the Saints from getting the ball back for a chance to win the game.
Add that to the list of NFC North tight ends, along with T.J. Hockenson with the Vikings and Cole Kmet with the Bears, that had huge days against the Saints. If you go back to Week 3, Luke Musgrave was wide open all day and Jordan Love failed to get him the ball. At the time it seemed like an aberration, but it's now a clear trend.
That inability to stop the TE position is what made the explanation so frustrating. Dennis Allen said the Saints chose to take away Amon-Ra St. Brown, which they did reasonably effectively. The Lions star WR had 2 catches for 49 yards and a TD. But since when did the Saints abandon man-to-man principles in order to bracket a WR? I understand you don't have Marshon, but if I'm devoting extra defenders to a player, it's the one I have a demonstrated ability to not be able to defend.
Either way, the TE position has been a nightmare for the Saints all year, and today was just another chapter in that.
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3. The openers
The Saints haven't scored a touchdown on an opening drive all season and Week 13 was the most extreme example, with a TO on the first play.
But it wasn't just the one play that didn't work. The Saints went 3-and-out on the next two possessions, then had a 5-play drive and one first down before a punt on the following possession. Teams will typically script their first 15 or so plays, and that's when your offense is supposed to get into some interesting looks that should be able to catch a defense off-balance.
Those plays for the Saints generated 22 total yards, one first down, 3 punts and an interception.
The next drive, where you'd have moved beyond the script? 13 plays, 94 yards (which included a 10-yard penalty), five first downs and a touchdown.
I don't know what all goes into writing the "script" in these instances, but suffice it to say that movie would never get made.
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HONORABLE MENTION
I'm not being facetious when I say this: Derek Carr's health. Count me among the number that thinks he actually had a really nice game once things got untracked in the second quarter. He led multiple scoring drives, threw a red zone TD like we've been asking for and set up his run game for success near the goal line. The problem is that I'm not sure he'll be able to get through the rest of the season, and he certainly doesn't appear like he'll be good to play in Week 14. For the third time this year he left a game with an injury, and for the second time in a month that injury was accompanied by a concussion. Derek Carr is incredibly tough. He doesn't quit. He probably doesn't protect himself well enough at times and, to be honest, the booing is a bit much. That said, at a certain point you have to protect a guy from himself. Hopefully the Saints coaching staff and medical staff understand that.
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STOCK UP
1. Red zone offense
We talked about it all week, the Saints are one of the worst red zone offenses and the Lions were one of the worst red zone defenses. Whoever bucked that trend should have a great chance to win the game.
Welp, the overall take was wrong, but not because of the red zone offense. The Saints went 4-for-4 on red zone opportunities, with Alvin Kamara scoring two TDs, Taysom Hill plowing in for one and Jimmy Graham hauling in another.
If it wasn't for two mind-numbing turnovers deep in their own territory and an injury to Derek Carr in the second half, that efficiency probably would've been enough.
In the end we asked for improvement in that area and we got it. The mistake was thinking this year's version of the Saints couldn't undermine that with mistakes and failures in other areas of the field.
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2. LB Nephi Sewell
No one should've been expecting perfection from a second-year UDFA thrust into his first significant action due to the absence of Pete Werner, but things could've gone a lot worse.
Nephi didn't make every tackle. There was at least one play where he released LaPorta into wide open space (that might not have technically been his error) and the Saints generally struggled to tackle all game, as has been an issue for several weeks.
All that said, I came away impressed. Against a Lions squad that puts the onus on linebackers to get off blocks and make tackles in space, he did that more often than not. Sewell's 8 combined tackles was tied with Paulson Adebo for the team lead, and his two TFLs led the team. He's as big a reason as any that this Saints defense was able to right the ship as this game wore on.
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3. LB Zack Baun (the pass rusher)
Zack Baun has been around for a while now and his draft slot has put a much higher set of expectations on him throughout his career, but I can't help but feel like he's continually been misused.
The Saints clearly have felt the need to up the pressure the past couple weeks, and that's put Baun more into his element. He looked very effective rushing the passer in this game, at one point showing excellent bend to get around the right tackle for the Saints' lone sack of the day on Jared Goff. He had another hurry in the game and also had a TFL.
I've always wondered why the Saints have never really gotten him more pass rush opportunities, and this game just reinforced that.
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HONORABLE MENTION
Jimmy Graham was active. He got one target. He got one touchdown. The usage mystery continues. ... Alvin Kamara continues to do Alvin Kamara things. This season has gone horribly, but it's not for anything he's done. At points it feels like he's dragging this offense kicking and screaming to competence, and he became the franchise leader in rushing touchdowns in this game (twice). ... I could copy and past that last section and use it to describe Taysom Hill. It certainly wasn't his most efficient day, but 13 carries is his career high. I'm pretty sure this team would have a better record if it just went with the Taysom Hill offense full time.