The New Orleans Saints sit at 3-3 after an ugly loss to the Houston Texans, and they remain well positioned in an NFC South with no real front-runner.
But that wasn't the messaging coming from team leaders after another frustrating game filled with miscues and missed opportunities in the red zone.
"I told the team in there, we’ve got to do a better job of executing our jobs," head coach Dennis Allen said. "And if we’re not executing our jobs then we need to find somebody else that can execute those jobs. It doesn’t matter who you are.”
The call for accountability was echoed around the locker room. Derek Carr in particular said he was "livid" coming off the field, his final pass going for an interception after three failed shots at the end zone as the Texans sent unrelenting pressure against a patchwork offensive line.
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Carr threw the ball 50 times, completing 32 of them for a season-high 353 yards. But the number that mattered was 0-for-3, which was what the Saints went when it came to scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
"I couldn’t care less [about the yardage]. I just want to win," Carr said. "That’s all I care about is winning football games, and if we don’t do those details right every single time, especially when the game is on the line, that’s when it matters most, then we’re going to have this feeling more often than not.”
Missed details were clear on more than a few plays. At one point in the first half, Rashid Shaheed ran a wheel when it was clear that Carr was expecting something else. That moment didn't ultimately cost the team as he and Shaheed hooked up for a long touchdown a few plays later. On another play it looked like Carr and Mike Thomas weren't on the same page. Rather than attempt to extend the play or escape the pocket for a legal throwaway, Carr oddly dumped the ball into the turf with no one anywhere near it. Grounding
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A similar moment occurred on that final drive, when it looked like Carr had a chance at Shaheed but the ball went one way and the receiver went the other.
“We were on the wrong page and that’s on me," Carr said. "The communication of it, I’ve got to clean that up for him and make it better for him.”
But it wasn't just the offense that didn't look quite right. The Saints' stout defense got gashed throughout the first half. The Texans run game accounted for 90 yards in the first half, with Houston putting 17 points on the board against a defensive line that spent too much time reeling. DE Cam Jordan explained in the postgame there were no major adjustments that changed their fortune in the second half, it was just a matter of playing better and with more energy.
"There’s only one way to feel," Jordan said. "We’ve got to get this s**t together.”
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The question now is how the Saints respond to the challenge with little time to stew over a negative result. The Saints have to turn around and face the Jaguars on Thursday Night Football.
“Just like DA said, there’s hungry guys in this league, man," said DT Khalen Saunders. "All around the league, on this team alone, on the practice squad, I mean everywhere you look, there are guys who are ready. I mean, if that doesn’t motivate you, you might not need to be here.”