Let's say it together: Oof. Other than a Drew Brees chant at halftime, nothing went to plan when the Saints hosted Sean Payton's Broncos at the Caesars Superdome on Thursday.
The result was 33-10 and a second embarrassing loss in five days. The fallout is likely just beginning, but there's 10 days for some soul-searching before another game of football has to be played.
With that in mind, here are my stock up and stock down players from yet another frustrating installment at the Superdome.
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THREE DOWN
The run defense
Call it effort, call it tackling, call it whatever you want, this Saints defense simply can't stop anybody from running all over them. Last week it was Sean Tucker going off. This week it was the entire Broncos RB stable, none of whom had enjoyed much success in the 2024 season.
For a second conesecutive game the Saints allowed >200 rushing yards. I remember a time when the Saints when more than two full seasons without allowing a single 100-yard rusher. Technically no Broncos back broke the century mark today, but that's only because they didn't need to. Here's how those numbers broke down:
- Javonte Williams: 14 for 88 (6.3 YPC)
- Bo Nix: 10 for 75 (7.5 YPC)
- Jaleel McLaughlin: 4 for 35 (8.8 YPC)
- Audric Estime: 5 for 29 (5.8 YPC)
More concerning was how frequently the Broncos were able to rip off chunks on first downs, which meant getting off the field feel impossible at points. Here's how those first down runs broke down:
- Nix: 14 (scramble)
- Williams: 7 (right tackle)
- Williams: 5 (right end)
- Nix: 4 (scramble)
- Estime: 4 (left guard)
- Williams: 2 (right guard)
- Williams: 8/TD (right guard)
- Williams: 13 (left guard)
- Estime: 7 (left guard)
- Williams: 1 (right tackle)
- McLaughlin: 6 (right end)
- Williams: 5/TD (right guard)
- McLaughlin: 10 (left tackle)
- Williams: -2 (right guard)
- Estime: 13 (left guard)
- Estime: -3/fumble (left end)
That's 16 first down runs, only four were held to fewer than 4 yards. That's easy offense. Not exactly household names. But the Saints sure made them look like stars.
I genuinely don't know how you fix this sort of thing, but it's a massive problem. If the Saints can't figure out how to stop the run, they won't win many games.
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Doing anything on offense
I knew the Saints would struggle to mount much of an offensive attack with a rookie backup QB, neither of their top WRs and a patchwork OL, but yeesh, I didn't imagine it'd be this bad.
Rattler's passing line of 25-35 for 172 yards doesn't look terrible, but it also doesn't factor in an easy interception that clanked off a linebacker's hands and two fumbles that significantly impacted the final margin. The first came on the Saints' second drive with pressure coming from his blindside. It's tough to know whether he saw it or not, but either answer is a problem. If he didn't ID it, that's bad. If he did ID it and still held onto the ball long enough for it to get stripped, that's not much better. When you have too much rushers to block, and that extra rusher comes, the ball has to come out hot. It's something that you don't want to be too critical about with a rookie, mistakes happen, but man, this season feels like it's getting away and you don't have time to work through them.
The second fumble came late in the game as Spencer was scrambling trying to make something happen. That one was returned for a TD.
In general I was a bit confused by the lack of designed rollouts in this game. I'll have to go look on tape to see if they were taken way or if the Saints just went away from it.
Regardless, Spencer didn't have much of a chance in the pocket. He seemed harried all day, and for a third consecutive game the Saints weren't able to do anything in the run or screen game to slow down the rush. Rattler was sacked six times, and he definitely seemed to be feeling it late in this one.
Rattler's best moment of the day came on a broken play scramble where he got out for a 28-yard gain that set up a field goal. That drive only happened because the Saints were so desperate they went for it on 4th down at their own 30-yard line. It's unlikely we see Derek Carr in Week 8 (maybe Taysom Hill, though). Either way, it's likely we see at least one more Rattler start.
It'd be really easy to pin all of this team's woes on the defense, but until the offense does anything to give the team a chance to win, neither side gets much credit.
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DA's ticking clock
The Saints aren't the type of team to push the eject button midseason, or ever for that matter. But man, it's hard to watch this streak go on for this long and in the way it has and not feel like things are getting close to too far gone.
Dennis Allen will never question his players' effort, but I will. You can use the word demoralized. You can use the word frustrated. The success wasn't there, and for the second consecutive week there was clear give up. There were also bizarre mistakes and mismanagement. DA admitted in his postgame presser that a timeout was called prior to halftime that shouldn't have been called after an unsuccessful first play of a last-ditch drive. The offense proceeded to kneel out the clock anyway. The head coach didn't call the timeout, and he wasn't even sure who did. Wait ... what? Dude, I'm in the media looking for answers and even I feel like that's something you just keep to yourself.
There was also an awkward moment in the first half when the Saints appeared ready to punt on 3rd and short deep in their own territory. The crowd booed. The Saints then burned a timeout to bring the punter back and go for it with a bizarre lob pass to Juwan Johnson. Why not a sneak? Your guess is as good as mine. There's a lot of overthinking going on.
Related
To this point in DA's head coaching career he's been able to pull his team back from the brink. That was the case in 2022 with the Saints dropping to 4-9 and seemingly out of the playoff race after an excruciating loss to Bucs after leading 16-3 late in the 4th quarter. DA's team then won three straight -- the only such streak of his head coaching career -- to give themselves a chance. The tiebreakers wouldn't have gone their way and they lost a game to the Panthers in Week 18 that no one seemed interested in winning.
In 2023 it was a three-game losing streak that dumped the team to 5-7 and seemingly out of it before wins in four of the team's final five games for a 9-8 finish, but again another tiebreaker shy of the playoffs.
Somehow this season feels more bleak than those other two despite far more time remaining for such a turnaround. The Saints are honestly lucky that Sean Payton's team has Bo Nix at QB, because he was terrible. A league-average quarterback probably hangs 50 in that game.
Still, a few more losses -- particularly if they look like these last two -- and I don't think even the Saints front office will be able to look beyond the results.
A few more
I'm as big a Tyrann Mathieu fan as you'll find, but Lordy when Bo Nix gives you a gift-wrapped interception to swing momentum right before halftime, CATCH THE DANG BALL. I don't know how much it would've swung the result, but ugh. Brutal. ... Where was the pass rush? Zero sacks. Zero QB hits. I mean, that can't happen. We can talk all we want about injuries, that group seems just fine, they're just not getting the job done.
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THREE UP
Alontae Taylor
I'm not going to spend too much time on any of these, because when you lose a pair of games the way the Saints did in the last five days there's really not much reason for positivity. Still, I can't help but feel like if you built the whole thing out of 11 Alontae Taylors this team would be in a very different position.
That's obviously hyperbole. Taylor is a defensive back. He can't win the line of scrimmage or be expected to stonewall the run, but he's more than willing to stick his nose in there and go at it 100% regardless of the situation, and I don't feel that's always the case for everybody. There was one series in the third quarter that it felt like Alontae single-handedly prevented what felt like a for-sure scoring drive. On first down he stood up Javonte Williams for a 1-yard gain -- something incredibly rare in this game. Two plays later he was locked up in coverage against Lil'Jordan Humphrey and forced an incompletion.
It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's incredible how rare individual defensive wins have been over the past two games. Taylor finished the game with 7 tackles. If you're questioning anyone's effort, it won't be his. However this defense looks in the next few seasons, he'll be an important part of it.
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Kendre Miller
We've been waiting to see Kendre Miller get involved for the Saints, and he did exactly what you'd hope. The kid had burst. He made defenders miss even when the blocking didn't exist. He looked like a legitimate secondary option in the run game to spell Alvin Kamara and potentially take on a lead role in the future.
The issue is that he had all of two carries until racking up four more on the game's final drive. He finished the game with 36 yards on 6 carries. I didn't get an answer when I asked Dennis Allen if Kendre was on a snap count, but he did confirm that he was impressed with the second-year pro. I was, too.
Perhaps we can now move past this odd and frustrating paradigm where one of the increasingly few players who can potentially be dynamic in this offense is held out for obscure reasons. Let the players play.
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Jake Haener
OK, I get it, Jake got in the game on the final possession when the Broncos had pulled a few starters and might not have been as invested as they'd been all game. But I don't care, he led an impressive drive and I'm really fishing for things to be even remotely positive about.
One thing that I will say is that Sean Payton never really called off the dogs. The Broncos were bringing zero blitzes up until the buzzer, and twice on that final drive Jake ID'd the pressure and used it to his advantage. The first time he checked to a different play with the line fully gapped up, hitting Cedrick Wilson on 3rd and 1 for a big gain.
Denver tried it again, Jake trusted his protection, got the ball out fast and hit Wilson again for his first NFL touchdown.
It's subtle, but it's one of the reasons that I thought Jake was a bit ahead of Spencer Rattler at this point in their respective careers. He's got a quick release and handles pressure well. He's not going to scramble quite like Rattler, but I think he showed on that drive why he might have a better chance for success with this injury plagued offense. Just for perspective, here were all of the Saints' drives in the game:
- NO 8: 4 plays, 40 yards, punt (1:58)
- NO 32: 4 plays, 18 yards, fumble (1:49)
- NO 30: 3 plays, 5 yards, punt (1:10)
- NO 21: 11 plays, 62 yards, FG (5:33)
- NO 30: 3 plays, 5 yards, end of half (0:16)
- NO 30: 3 plays, 3 yards, punt (0:51)
- NO 30: 3 plays, -1 yards, punt (1:31)
- NO 19: 8 plays, 47 yards/-25 pen, punt (2:55)
- DEN 48: 4 plays, 8 yards, TOD (0:56)
- DEN 47: 6 plays, -1 yards, fumble (2:04)
- NO 21: 11 plays, 69 yards, TD (2:44)
One of these things is not like the other. The issue with arguing that Jake's drive shouldn't matter because of "garbage time" is ... what do you call those two drives preceding it, both of which started in Broncos territory? I don't know if you make the QB switch, but I think you have to give Haener credit for what he was able to do there, even with the game well out of reach. He took advantage of his opportunity.
Honorable mention
Good for Drew Brees. He had fun -- at least somebody did. ... Props to the gameday ops crew for getting the script of Brees' chant on the scoreboards, by the way. That could've been an absolute disaster otherwise. ... Willie Gay forced a punt and recovered it. There weren't enough good plays in this game to ignore that one.