The New Orleans Saints' 2021 season already has distinct high and low points through two weeks, but that's one of the most familiar things about this year's team.
What would be unfamiliar territory? A 2-0 start. The Saints have started 1-1 or worse each year since 2014. They went 0-2 that year, a result that was the case each of the next four seasons.
But should a beatdown at the hands of the NFC South foe Carolina Panthers feel worse than losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and L.A. Rams in Week 2 each of the past two seasons? The Saints' new quarterback doesn't think that winning culture has gone anywhere.
"This team -- we're a winning team," quarterback Jameis Winston said. "We know how to win. We're resilient, and we're going to be that. We just need to execute a little bit better, communicate a little bit better and get the job done."
The obvious difference in 2021: This is a team without Drew Brees for the first time in 15 years. It's now on Winston to put his head together with coach Sean Payton's to figure out what went wrong at Bank of America Stadium. The Saints had offensive line and protection issues exposed from start to finish, a week after looking remarkably effective in that regard in a 38-3 beatdown of the Packers.
One thing that stood out to both Payton and his quarterback was the inefficiency on first and second down that set the Saints up in difficult situations against the Panthers. New Orleans snapped the ball on second down 13 times, with nine of those plays coming with 8 or more yards to gain. Four times the Saints snapped the ball on 2nd down needing 17 yards or more to gain a first down. That added up to the just six total first downs in Week 2, a steep drop from the 22 in an efficient beatdown of the Packers.
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"Whether it was a minus play or a penalty, the negative plays whether it be through penalty or sacks or anything that’s going backwards, puts you under a much more challenging predicament on third down," Payton said. "That is the one thing, our early down efficiency has to be better."
Still, the start leaves the Saints in reasonably familiar territory -- or even above their typical resting place after two weeks of NFL football. The Saints' point differential of +16 through two games this season is the second-highest since the Brees era kicked off in 2006. The highest two-game differential was plus-44 after an 2-0 start in 2009, a campaign that ended in the Saints' lone Super Bowl title.
SLOW STARTERS (point differential)
2013: 2-0 (+8); W vs Falcons; L at Bucs
2014: 0-2 (-5); L at Falcons; L at Browns
2015: 0-2 (-19); L at Cardinals; L at Bucs
2016: 0-2 (-4); L vs Raiders; L at Giants
2017: 0-2 (-26); L at Vikings; L vs Patriots
2018: 1-1 (-5); L at Bucs; W vs Browns
2019: 1-1 (-26); W vs Texans; L at Rams
2020: 1-1 (+1); W vs Bucs; L at Raiders
2021: 1-1 (+16); W vs Packers; L at Panthers
But with recent history as a guide, it's fair to trust in Payton's ability to find the puzzle pieces and put them right where they need to be. The team was facing similar challenges in 2019, going from a pulse-pounding walk-off win over the Texans to a demoralizing loss on the road against the Rams a week later.
Brees was lost with a thumb injury that required surgery. The defense had a rough day and Teddy Bridgewater struggled to get anything going. With difficult matchups looming at Seattle and a national TV meeting with the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4, things looked bleak.
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Five weeks later the starting QB returned to a team holding a 6-1 record. And while Brees and a few other pieces of that team are no longer in the fold, the larger infrastructure that brought that group back from the brink are still out there.
One of those pieces is defensive leader DeMario Davis. Despite the injury-ravaged group looking a bit overmatched to start the day and getting into a 17-0 first-half hole, an inspired pass-rushing performance helped keep that margin within striking distance.
“We just we have a very high standard for our defense, and the first half we did not play up to that standard," Davis said. "Coming out the second half we started looking more like ourselves.”
Without Kwon Alexander, Marcus Davenport, Marshon Lattimore, CJ Gardner-Johnson, Ken Crawley, Pete Werner, Tanoh Kpassagnon or David Onyemata, the defense held the Panthers scoreless in the third quarter. At one point in the fourth quarter the Saints' offense got the ball back down 17-7 with plenty of time for a rally that never came.
But on that day it was protection breakdowns that would torpedo many a play before it ever started. Well documented communication issues emerged as a major issue to fix before Week 3, with the status of injured center Erik McCoy still unclear. The third-year player suffered a calf injury on the first drive against the Packers, and an absence against the Panthers marked the first missed start of his NFL career. He was the lone Saints player, with the exception of those on injured reserve, who did not participate in Wednesday's practice.
Despite that injury, the offensive line that helped lead the Saints on that 2019 winning streak is still intact, with the lone change being Cesar Ruiz, who stepped into the spot previously held by veteran Larry Warford. Alvin Kamara is still a star that can take over games. The wide receiver position doesn't have Michael Thomas, but the Saints have made it work at the position with lesser talent before. But most importantly, this team will have to lean on its defense.
Why should onlookers be confident the Saints can clean up those errors? Well, that's what good teams do. Good teams also make sure an issue that's spotted at the beginning of the season is identified, corrected and doesn't remain an issue as the season progresses.
"You just trust the process. You clean up the mistakes and you build on the positives," Winston said. "That's the main thing."
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With time, this group will get things turned around -- anchored by that defense. A year ago things got worse before they got better, with a Week 3 loss to the Packers. The same could hold true against the New England Patriots, a group the Saints have traditionally struggled against, though with Tom Brady taking snaps under center for most of those matchups.
Can Payton and Co. pull another rabbit out of the hat in 2021? It's the safe bet at this point.