The New Orleans Saints haven't done much right over the last two weeks, and that's manifested in a total of 10 points and pair of double-digit losses.
Things looked a little more hopeful in a 25-10 loss to the Raiders than a Monday Night Football shutout against the Packers, but that's not saying a ton. This week marked the team's 11th loss of the year and a continuation of a frustrating theme of not playing complete games, which Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi broke down on WWL Radio this week.
“It’s been a situation where really the last few games here we’re just not producing enough points on offense and unfortunately it’s two-fold, we haven’t done a good enough job of getting off the field the last two games and in the first half on defense and that’s really affected the time of possession against us and we’ve had very limited amount of plays," Rizzi said.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Darren Rizzi in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
For the third consecutive week the Saints were held to 20 or fewer offensive plays in the first half. For the second consecutive week the Saints allowed both a 17-play drive and a drive that went 96 or more yards for a touchdown. Against Green Bay in Week 16 the Saints had the ball for 3:03 in the first quarter. Against the Raiders that number dropped to 2:33.
It was also a second consecutive week that the Saints had a chance to get off the field on third down of the opponent's opening possession, only to blow that chance by jumping offsides. In this instance it was an automatic first down and the Raiders ran 14 more plays before settling for a field goal after a Saints goal line stand.
The Saints also sacrificed an opportunity on 4th and 5 at the Raiders' 37 early in the game due to a false start. Instead they were forced to punt. In all it was 10 penalties for 85 yards, and an even bigger impact when factoring in the plays negated. They were plays highlighted exhaustively in team meetings this week.
"They were killers, there’s no escaping it," Rizzi said. It is what it is.”
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MORE FROM RIZZI
On failing to stop the run
10-year veteran Ameer Abdullah went off for 115 yards on 20 carries, the first 100-yard rushing game in his 141-game NFL career. Abdullah is the 6th 100-yard rusher allowed by the Saints this year.
"I’ll give them credit, [the Raiders] did a nice job schematically, running the football, but you know, it’s something that we’ve been too hot and cold on all year and we haven’t been good enough, you know, yards per carry and that was the story again yesterday," Rizzi said. "You know, we’ve been hot and cold in that area, because there have been games earlier that we did a good job. ... but the last couple, not good enough.”
On Spencer Rattler's day
“You look at his first half statistically like you said and he actually played a really clean half. I think he had one throwaway on purpose, another drop and so that’s his 13 throws in the first half and, you know, then you look at the second half. I think on the day we had 7 or 8 balls that were dropped that need to get caught. We had a couple of pass protection breakdowns where he actually made some plays with his feet so, you know, I’ve been asked a couple times about evaluating his overall performance yesterday. It’s a little bit of an incomplete because, you know, it’s a little bit unfair to judge him in some aspects because he was kind of having to move on the run and then he delivered some balls that should’ve been caught. Now, he certainly had about 3-5 throws in the game that we pointed out today, you know, in front of the team that he’s got to make in some big situations. ... We’ve got to get rid of those 3-5 throws a game that are negative because there really are some things that he’s done well.”
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Could Carr and Kamara still play this season?
"[Alvin Kamara] wants to play. I can’t speak on contracts and bonuses and all that. I have absolutely no idea and I’m not lying when I say that. If he’s got an incentive, I don’t know about it. But I know this guy, you know, Alvin has been unbelievable since he’s been hurt. He’s wanting to get back. He wants to finish the season. He’s doing everything he possibly can, you know, from a rehab standpoint to get back. We’re not just gonna throw him out there just to have him go out there and get 50 more yards, that’s not gonna be the case. If he can play and be effective then certainly we want him out there, because he’s a game-changer.
...
"As far as Derek goes, Derek tried to simulate what a game would look like last week with his left hand. It didn’t go great from a grip strength standpoint with that left hand, that was in the middle of last week. We’re thinking about doing that one more time here to see if there’s any possibility that he can do that, but the same thing, we’re not gonna put him out there in harm’s way if he’s not able to function at a high level. We’re not gonna throw him back out there and listen, I know there’s probably some fans out there, you know, why the heck would you play Alvin Kamara, why the heck would you play Derek Carr. These guys want to play, you know, and it’s my job to respect their wishes. Both these guys are captains, they’re leaders, they’ve been unbelievable for our locker room and the fact of the matter is we’re 5-5 this year with Derek Carr as our starting quarterback, we’re [0-6] without him. That’s just – we can slice it and dice it however many ways we want. The bottom line is we’ve won 5 games with Derek at quarterback, we’ve lost five and three of those five games that we lost were by 3 points or less, because he gives us the best chance to win."
On facing Bucs in Week 18
“There’s a lot going on in this game. You’ve got a team that’s, you know, if they win, they’re in, they win the division. You’ve got a division, obviously a huge rivalry for us. You know, we’re trying to bounce back and finish the season strong after not playing very well the last two weeks. ... Really at the end of the day it comes down to us making the corrections from the last couple of weeks. As I said, we love a challenge, you know, we need to finish up this season on a strong note and that’s really, you know, what our goal is this week, put a great week of practice together, go down there with a great gameplan and go out and execute it and I love the fact that it’ll be a great competition.”