Sean Payton didn't pull any punches after his Saints team fell to the Panthers 26-7, a loss that felt a lot farther apart than the margin indicated.
It's been a long time since he's seen offensive struggles quite like what happened in Week 2.
"Offensively it's as poor as we've been in a long time around here, and that starts with me," Payton said after the game.
In fact, the Saints’ 128 total yards on offense was the lowest total in the Payton era. The next fewest was 156 in a 2018 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
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Even with the absence of eight offensive coaches for COVID and several more key players due to to injuries, it was a stunning result just seven days after a 38-3 explosion against the Green Bay Packers. In reality the game played out similarly, it was just the Saints who looked like a deer in the headlights this time.
And the coach had no interest in leaning on the excuse of coaching absences.
"It had nothing to do with us being short-handed with coaches, or us being away ... those would be excuses," he said.
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KAMARA: No rhythm
Alvin Kamara couldn’t remember how many times he actually carried the ball against the Panthers. What he did know is that the ground game never really got started.
"I don't know how many attempts we had, but we have to get in a better rhythm," Kamara said. "I think it starts up front with our O-line. We have to have opportunity for It to start up front. It is what it is.”
In Kamara's case, that total was eight runs on which he could only rack up 5 total yards. He pulled in another 4 catches for 25 yards. The rushing total was Kamara's lowest output in a game since his rookie season.
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The running back position was one impacted by those coaching absences, with position coach Joel Thomas and run game coordinator Dan Roushar both out due to COVID-19 protocols throughout the week. But like his coach, Kamara had no interest in the excuse.
“It wasn’t about anybody not being here. I think it was our responsibility to still come out and play without coaches being there," Kamara said. "It's still a game to play with or without. The whole coaching staff could have been gone and they wouldn’t have cancelled the game. You have to keep going.”
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ARMSTEAD: Communication breakdown
There were a lot of issues for the Saints offense at Bank of America Stadium, but the clearest was its difficulty slowing down the Panthers' relentless pressure.
The heat and noise in North Carolina were both mentioned as issues that plagued the Saints throughout the day, and that manifested in communication breakdowns. The Panthers constantly had free rushers, with Winston struggling to find the time to throw the ball and taking a lot of big hits. The Saints QB was sacked four times and hit 11 times.
"We’ve got a lot of things to get better at, and as we go and hit the work week, communication is definitely one of them," left tackle Terron Armstead said. "But we’ve got a ton of things we need to clean up if we want to be as good as we feel we can be."
It was a drastic shift from the impressive Week 1 performance in which the OL commanded the line of scrimmage and didn't allow a sack despite an injury to starting center Erik McCoy, prompting Cesar Ruiz to shift to the middle and Calvin Throckmorton to fill in at guard. The entire line struggled a week later. One one series Armstead and right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, two of the top linemen in the NFL, drew false start penalties on back-to-back plays.
Improving that communication will be a big item to address as the team gets back to practice and with OL coach Brendan Nugent back to work after missing time due to COVID protocols.
"It goes to the game plan, the guys up front, the quarterback, it’s a collective effort," Armstead said. "That’s our number one priority to protect the quarterback and have our protection plan for those third down situations."