Everything seems to be going wrong for the New Orleans Saints. The starting QB is hurt. Next up is a date with the Seattle Seahawks. Does that all sound familiar?
It should. It was the scenario in the 2019 season after Drew Brees went down in a deflating loss to the L.A. Rams. That injury was a thumb issue that required surgery. Things felt bleak.
That's when Alvin Kamara took control -- with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback -- for a comfortable win in a hostile environment that got a playoff-bound season back on the tracks. That team went on to win its next six games.
For that type of turnaround to happen this season, it'll have to start in practice, where the team knows it has to be more accountable in cleaning up trouble points. That's been the case this week, AK said.
"It starts with the captains. Me being a captain on offense, [Ryan Ramczyk] and Jameis [Winston] and Andy [Dalton], guys like that just stepping up and being like, 'Yo, that's not acceptable. We can't keep doing that,' " Kamara said. "Because when we do it in practice and don't say sh**, then it ends up happening on Sunday. And then it's not like we could redo on Sunday, you know, you end up losing. And that's what’s happened."
It's a familiar refrain, and one that's been echoed by head coach Dennis Allen and anyone else who's had a hand in it. The sources are among the most frustrating. Kamara is one of those players, with a fumble for a touchdown against the Panthers. Mark Ingram has two fumbles of his own. Deonte Harty has one. Andy Dalton has another, and Jameis Winston has accounted for five interceptions in his three starts. It's a point of emphasis this week. It's been a point of emphasis previously, and it will continue to be, Allen said.
"I think sometimes you get a guy that's trying to make a little bit too much happen and loses sight of protecting the football. And so we try to show instances of how the ball gets taken away in our league and try to make our guys aware of it," Allen said. "And ultimately, we just, we got to improve in that area."
This year the record is 1-3 and Kamara is also nursing an injury. He says his return in Week 3 was probably a bit too early. His rib issue still wasn't right and it kept him out of the Week 4 loss to the Vikings in London. Health can often mean everything in the NFL, and nowhere has that been truer than with the Saints' star running back. Since the start of the 2021 season he's missed six total games. The Saints have gone 0-6 in them, though admittedly all but one have come with a backup QB in the game.
But he says, now, he feels healthy and it's time to get the season back where it's supposed to be. That'll likely require an end to the turnovers (11/most in NFL) and (34 for 319 yards/most in NFL) that have dogged the Saints through four weeks.
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"I don't feel like we've gotten beat yet this season. We've beaten ourselves, every game," Kamara said. "So I mean, it's just as simple as correcting those small things."
If that can happen, A Kamara return against Seattle would likely be a major element in ending the current three-game losing streak. In that 2019 matchup Kamara rolled up 161 yards and two touchdowns. When the teams met last season he torched the Seahawks in the receiving game with 10 catches for 128 yards and a touchdown, along with another 51 yards on the ground.
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While it's possible Winston could return this week, he was absent from another practice on Wednesday. Until he gets through a practice, the assumption has to be at least another week with Dalton at the helm. If that’s the case it’d mark the 6th QB Kamara has played with since the end of the 2020 season (Drew Brees, Winston, Trevor Siemian, Ian Book, Taysom Hill and Dalton).
But it's about playing to the strengths of each passer when they're in the game. Kamara joked that one of Dalton's strengths is certainly not using his legs, considering he's "slow as hell." But it's about knowing how to win regardless of who's in the game.
"I mean, that's all across the board, for every position, playing to the strengths," Kamara said. "But we find a way to get it done. Everybody gotta pick up the slack, wherever that may be and we just keep rolling. It's football."
As Kamara and his teammates have all pointed out, there's urgency. That doesn't mean there's panic. There's never panic, Kamara says. A win would make that feel a bit more true across the Who Dat landscape.
"We still have a lot of goals we want to achieve this year, and they're not out of reach," he continued. "You know, it's just a little blurry right now, but we correct these mistakes and get going and we'll be fine."
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