A large part of what made the Saints loss to the Falcons in Week 12 was that it all felt so familiar.
The Saints went 0-for-5 in the red zone, continuing a frustrating lack of efficiency in the most important area of the field. That's what WWL color analyst Deuce McAllister pointed to in his post-game breakdown.
Listen to the full breakdown from Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"You’re not figuring it out," McAllister said. "You know what you’re doing. You’re not executing in the red zone. That’s your problem. You know what you’re doing, but you’re not executing."
Those missed opportunities manifested in a variety of ways. Whether it was through drops, routes that simply weren't run at all, a pick-6, a fumble near the goal line, penalties -- it all happened on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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The only saving grace for the Saints: At the end of the day, you still control your own destiny with six games remaining, the final of which will be a rematch with the Falcons at the Caesars Superdome. Both teams are 5-6. If the Saints win out, they make the playoffs. If they don't it'll take some help.
All they can do is turn around and look to get things back on track in Week 13 against the Lions.
"You can say that you don’t need any help and you truly don’t need any help by anybody," McAllister continued. "But you’ve got to figure out a way to win a game. Can you figure out a way to win a game? It’s hard to win in the NFL because you have to be able to go out and execute."
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MORE FROM DEUCE
On failure to stop the run
“You knew Atlanta was going to run the football. They found the zone play that they liked and they kept running it over and over and over again. They won the line of scrimmage. That’s where the game was lost. There was a couple times that the Saints were able to get a little pressure on the quarterback, but he was swift enough to move and just buy some time and you don’t come up with a sack, and then there was a drive or two where the Saints looked like the Saints of old as far as just being physical. But you lost the line of scrimmage. That’s what happened and Atlanta was able to kind of do some of the things they wanted to do, and you ended up getting beat.”
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More on red zone woes
When you don’t execute, you see the margin where hey look, no touchdown here. You get down here, you don’t execute, uh, it’s a penalty, it’s another penalty, it’s a turnover. That’s all execution. We can talk about the struggles or they’re not doing this. You are moving the football. It’s not all of a sudden, oh, we can’t move the football. You had over 400 yards of total offense. You’re moving the football. You’re not executing in the red zone. Everything shortens. Everything is quicker. Everything happens faster. You have to understand what you’re doing and too many guys or let’s just say offensively, you don’t know what you’re doing.”