The New Orleans Saints have been a roller-coaster to this point in the season, but it's time for that track to start pointing up a lot more consistently.
At points it's been a slow-starting offense with too many errors, at other times it's been a slow-starting defense that forces second-half heroics. Somewhere there has to be a Saints team that puts it all together for a straight-up beatdown, right?
That's what I'd love to see this week against an overmatched Bears squad, led by a UDFA at quarterback in Tyson Bagent. With that in mind, here are the top three things I'm watching when the Saints host the bears in Week 9.
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1. FASTER STOPS
Each week when the defense is discussed in the locker room, we talk about how getting a faster start in games will be important for this team going forward. But that's really not a good choice of words.
What the Saints need to do is get faster stops, as in -- get off the field -- earlier in the game. New Orleans has allowed 17-plus points in each of the past three first halves, and it's too consistent to be an energy issue. It's starting to feel more like preparation.
I'm not saying that to suggest the work isn't being done, moreso that there's just only so much you can do. In a lot of instances this week, the Saints will be working off just a few weeks of tape on the quarterback in the offense. Last week it was Gardner Minshew. This week it'll be Tyson Bagent. Next week it'll be Josh Dobbs. Two weeks after that it'll be Taylor Heinicke.
The biggest issue to me has been appearing to be caught off-guard early in the game, and particularly when it comes to the scripted part of the opposing offense, where they'll tend to get more creative. Once the opposing offense settles into their gameplan, the Saints have shown to adjust well and lock down. In the first half of the past three games the Saints have surrendered an average of 13-plus first downs and 18 total points. In the second half? They've allowed just 13 third downs, total and just one red zone trip.
So it comes down to getting in the work to prepare for what you can and react well to what you can't. That's what I'd like to see improve this week in a game where the Saints should feel like a heavy favorite. This is a confident team right now, and doubling down with an all-phases win would go a long way.
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2. JAMAAL WILLIAMS TIME?
While not quite as stark, the Bears situation in this game kind of reminds me of the Broncos-Saints game back in 2020. Denver didn't have a quarterback for that game, and the Saints played in a way that made sure if the Broncos got into scoring territory it'd be on their own merit.
This time it's Tyson Bagent on the opposing sideline, and although Taysom Hill might throw a pass, it's Derek Carr under center for the Saints. I don't think you keep everything completely close to the vest, but I do think this is a game that profiles well for Jamaal Williams, just like Latavius Murray went off in that 2020 game.
Assuming the Saints do the job early, they should expect to be playing with a lead. They'll want to impose their will on the ground, but unless it's completely necessary I'm not overloading Alvin Kamara. There could be snaps handed to Kendre Miller, though he's questionable with an illness. It's possible he doesn't go at all.
So what do you do? Well, I think the pitch count is off for Jamaal Williams and he showed his more traditional juice in Week 8 after knocking some rust off from a hamstring injury. If this game goes a certain way, I could see Jamaal getting 15-plus carries, and the Bears feel like the type of team that could get demoralized early. I want to see the Saints establish the run and the OL get mean.
So I'm looking for a big game from Jamaal. I think he'll convert on short yardage all day and break a few big runs. I'd love to see 100 yards and a TD for Jamaal (his first in a Saints uniform). If the Saints get anything close to that, there's no way they lose this game.
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3. CAN CHRIS OLAVE GET RIGHT?
The good news about Chris Olave is that he's absolutely not in denial about where he's been the last few weeks for the Saints. He's in a slump and things have just been a tick off. Nowhere was that more obvious than on a potential touchdown pass in the third quarter against the Colts. It was a beautiful route, a perfect throw, and then an incompletion in an embarrassing way.
There are other examples, but only one solution: He's got to snap out of it.
What better game for that than a showdown with a Bears defense that's allowed the second-highest passing yardage total in the league and has a league-worst 10 sacks? Talking in the locker room this week, Olave said he thinks with one big game where things go right and he can build confidence, and he'll be right back where he wants to be.
I'd like to see that happen in Week 9. I don't need spectacular catches, because we know he can do that. I want to see an all-around complete game. Clean routes, full effort, no drops. Move the chains and catch more of your targets. They're going to keep coming, that's perfectly clear. Neither Olave's QB or head coach has indicated anything but confidence in the second-year pro.
And when you consider that this offense has rolled up 400-plus yards in three consecutive games without peak Olave, the prospect of getting him rolling is pretty exciting.
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LAGNIAPPE
The Saints don't lose when Taysom Hill gets ground in the rushing attack, but is this the game for it? I'd guess not. I think this is where you keep things simple between the tackles and allow Taysom to rest up with minimal work. He dealt with a chest injury last week. This week it's a hip. If this game isn't within one score, I don't expect to see a ton of Taysom on offense. ... So who does it make room from if Taysom's role is limited? We already talked about Jamaal Williams above. But I also think it's time for Juwan Johnson to get in on the action. I don't need anything massive, but I'd sure like to see the gameplan push the ball his way a bit more than we've seen thus far. ... James Hurst is back this week, and it sounds like he's going to be getting back to work at left guard. That says two things, one being that this team is very happy with what they've seen out of Andrus Peat at left tackle. It wasn't what I expected coming into the year, but hey, don't mess with success. But if Hurst takes over at LG after what I'd argue are the Saints OL's best two games, it's a good tell on just how much they like James. Max Garcia has been playing well in his absence. Whatever the Saints choose, the depth on the left side is impressive. ... Lou Hedley has been better than a lot of people think, as long as you believe what the Saints are telling you. The kicks are rarely pretty, but they've got a point in that you can count on one hand how many of them have actually been returned. In the punt game it's all about the net numbers, and Lou's have been middle of the pack, but at the top of the chart for rookie kickers. He's been proficient at downing the ball inside the 20, and that's definitely true. But he's got to be more consistent, particularly on kicks from deep in Saints' territory. Either way, the Saints are sticking with him. He's got to improve and they expect him to. ... How do the Saints handle DJ Moore? I'd guess they use Marshon Lattimore as a shadow, but they've shown to this point that they're perfectly fine playing sides. I still think when you go into a matchup against a team with a legit WR1, you keep Marshon on him, but we'll have to see how that develops during the game.
