The best way to sum up the first 6 weeks of Saints defensive performances is an all time mom and dad cliche: I'm not upset, I'm just disappointed.
Because this Saints defensive group hasn't been flat-out costing you games, but it hasn't been winning them, either. Any reasonable person would have expected more.
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The stats alone aren't pretty (No. 29 in points allowed), but it's the situational letdowns that really drive the point home. In the past five weeks, there's been a notable collapse and big play allowed in each game. Four of them were pivotal moments in losses, another nearly cost the lone win in the last five games.
Week 2 vs. Bucs, game tied 3-3 with 11:48 remaining: Bucs go on 9-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ends in 28-yard TD to Breshad Perriman
Week 3 at Panthers, Saints trailing 13-6 with 12:19 remaining: Saints just finished off a 10-play scoring drive to cut the deficit to 6. Two plays later, Laviska Shenault takes a screen pass 67 yards to the end zone.
Week 4 vs Vikings, game tied 25-25 with 1:45 remaining: Wil Lutz hit a 60-yard FG to tie the score late in London. The first two plays of the Vikings' next possession were a 14-yard Dalvin Cook run, and a 39-yard pass to Justin Jefferson to set up the go-ahead field goal. This game also included a long drive for a TD after the Saints went up 22-19, which was finished off easily by Jefferson as well.
Week 5 vs Seahawks, Saints leading 31-19 with 14:16 remaining: Geno Smith hits Tyler Lockett for a 40-yard TD; on the second play of the Seahawks' next possession, Kenneth Walker broke a 69-yard TD run to the end zone to take a short-lived lead (Taysom Hill's 60-yard TD sealed it for Saints).
Week 6 vs Bengals, Saints leading 26-24 with 2:10 remaining: Joe Burrow hits Ja'Marr Chase (who breaks two tackle attempts) for a 60-yard touchdown
The bigger issue might be that the issues the Saints are having aren't complicated. Tyrann Mathieu only needed 12 words to sum up what happened on that fateful Ja'Marr Chase TD in Week 6.
"It was two missed tackles, you know, touchdown," Mathieu said. "It was really simple."
The defense also hasn't made enough game-changing plays. Mathieu has the Saints' lone interception of the season back in Week 4. Former Saints players CJ Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Williams (now on IR) each have three of their own to this point in the season.
In fairness to the defense, the Saints offense failed to cash in on four of its five red zone trips. But Andy Dalton and a ragtag group of backup receivers engineered six scoring drives and 26 total points. That should've been enough.
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I know that's a painful rundown, but it's truly the story of this season. And that's saying a lot, considering Jameis Winston played through two losses with back fractures before sitting out the last three.
For perspective, the Saints scored 25 points or more in 33 of their 48 games from 2019-'21. They went 28-5 in those games.
So far in 2022 they've done that in four of six games, and they've gone 2-2.
The team will want to get things sorted out and healthy at quarterback and wide receiver, though that likely will be difficult with a quick turnaround and date with the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football. They were also without star cornerback Marshon Lattimore, and that will likely be the case again. None of Lattimore, Jarvis Landry, Michael Thomas or Adam Trautman would've practiced on Monday if the Saints held one. The good news: Chris Olave is off the injury report entirely. He's been fully cleared through the concussion protocol on the Saints' end, and it'll come down to the independent neurologist for whether he can get cleared in time for Week 7.
The silver lining: No on is running away with the NFC South this season. The Bucs are currently at the top of the standings at 3-3 and everything the Saints hope to accomplish can still be in front of them if they get on the winning track.
"It's not a time for for panic. ... But listen, the message is: Just keep grinding; keep working," Dennis Allen said. "We haven't made enough plays to win these games, but we've given ourselves opportunities to win, and you've got to give yourself that opportunity to expect to be able to win at some point in time. So we just got to make one or two more plays to push ourselves over the hump."
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Whether the offense can hit its stride or not, it shouldn't take 30 points from the offense to win a game, but it would have in Weeks 4, 5 and 6. That's gotta change before this team can get over any humps in 2022.
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