While it's become clear that words aren't enough to address what's been ailing the Saints, Dennis Allen did have the correct one to describe the tackling effort in a Week 6 loss to the Bucs: "atrocious."
Saints coaches spent the week emphasizing the issue, along with getting off the field on third downs, after a similarly bad performance against the Chiefs in that regard. Pro Football Focus credited the Saints with 13 missed tackles in that game. Clearly the emphasis didn't make much of a difference, because that number ballooned to a season-high 16 in a 51-27 loss that saw the Saints defense allow nearly 600 yards, a large portion of which came after contact.
"We didn’t tackle. I think that was the biggest thing," said a subdued Dennis Allen after the game. "I thought our tackling was atrocious in the game, and so, you know, when you don’t tackle you give up explosive plays, you give up big plays and then it just kind of snowballed on us a little bit, but it was not good enough."
It's worth noting the head coach's mood, because it didn't necessarily signal anger. It signaled a coach that was frustrated and beaten, which is how the defense played throughout the entire second half of a blowout loss that the Saints led 27-24 with less than 5 minutes to go in the third quarter.
That moment in the game is significant because it was when Chris Godwin caught a ball at the line of scrimmage on 2nd and 5 for what should've, at absolute best, gone for a short gain and maybe a new set of downs. Instead three Saints defenders with clear shots at the Bucs WR either whiffed or bounced off the tackle. The result was a 55-yard catch and run for a touchdown that wasn't set up to happen. The Bucs took the lead and never looked back with the Saints offense led by rookie QB Spencer Rattler unable to mount a scoring drive.
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“You’ve got to tackle" said WWL's Deuce McAllister in his postgame breakdown. "That’s what it comes down to. It’ll help if you can get Pete Werner back. ... But I mean, you’ve got to tackle and so whether you’re talking interior, whether you’re talking linebackers, being able to put a safety in there, man, you’ve got to figure it out, because if you can’t tackle in this league, obviously you can’t win, because teams, they’re gonna say hey, look, we’re gonna run the ball. We feel like we can run the ball completely to you.”
The results of those issues where clear to see. The Bucs dominated on the ground, particularly in the second half, to the tune of 277 rushing yards. Second-year UDFA Sean Tucker rolled up 136 yards an a touchdown on his own, averaging 136 yards a clip. He came into the game with just 30 yards to his career in 16 games.
A week earlier it was Kareem Hunt just weeks removed from rejoining the Chiefs going over 100 yards. Before that it was Falcons RB Tyler Allgeier averaging 7.5 yards per attempt. The week before that it was Saquon Barkley with 147 yards and two TDs on just 17 carries. Outside of a two-game stretch to open the year that feels like it was played in an alternate reality, the Saints have repeatedly been taken to task on the ground.
"When it comes to the defense ... that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job with our guys," Allen said. "I’ve got to make sure we understand what we’re doing, we’ve got to do more tackling drills, whatever the case may be, but it was not a good defensive performance at all, and look, I mean, that needs to be an area that we can count on. It’s been an area that we can count on, but right now it’s not.”
Whatever drills the Saints want to employ, they'll have to do it quickly. They've got barely 72 hours before they have to face the field again as they try to end a four-game losing skid that's erased all the positive vibes from a 2-0 start that took the league by storm. They'll have to, most likely, do it again with starting QB Derek Carr. They'll have to, most likely, do it without star WR Chris Olave, who is in the concussion protocol.
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Use any word you want to use to describe it, the Saints are in a precarious situation, and the only way out is to win games.
"It’s challenging," Allen said, but, you know, you can’t sit here and sulk and moan, you know, we’ve got to figure out how we’re gonna get better. I told the team in there, we’ve got to get better and we’ve got a short period of time to do it and everybody needs to look at themselves, coaches, players, everybody and make sure we’re doing everything that we possibly can to get this thing going in the right direction, because right now it’s not where we want it to be.”
There are a lot of ways the Saints can look to go about fixing such a glaring issue. But however they do it, it has to happen fast. Another accurate description Allen had for how this game developed was that it "snowballed" on them in the second half. With Sean Payton and the Broncos arriving on Thursday, the Saints better figure out how to fix their issues, otherwise the snowball of this season could quickly turn into an avalanche.