The New Orleans Saints have seen this movie before, for 4 weeks in a row in fact.
One coach even remarked jokingly that the Saints should just start spotting the other team 14 points, because that's what the defense has allowed on the opening two possessions of each of their games over the past month, dating back to a Week 3 drubbing in Seattle.
"That’s the difference between OK teams and good teams," Davon Godchaux said after the 25-19 loss to the Patriots. "Good teams find a way to win games like that."
Godchaux did add that he does see his group as a good team, but one that hasn't proven it yet in a 1-5 start to the season. In this game it was Drake Maye eluding pressure, converting third downs and finding long touchdown passes on the first two drives. The first was a 53-yarder to Demario Douglas who appeared to get lost in coverage, the second a ball on the run to Kayshon Boutte who wrestled it away from Kool-Aid McKinstry in tight coverage.
The Saints offense moved the ball and even found a 16-14 lead late in the first half, but that was answered by another Patriots touchdown and the Saints trailed 22-16 at the break. Both teams managed just a field goal in the second half. Much like the 49ers game in Week 2, a critical fumble as the Saints drove for a potential go-ahead score swung momentum and the home team never found it again.
"This is the NFL. It’s rarely going to be blowouts," Godchaux continued. "It’s going to be 3-point games all the time and we’ve just got to find a way to just close it out and unfortunately we haven’t done that the last couple weeks.”
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He's not wrong. Of the Saints' five losses, only two have been decided by more than a touchdown. The Saints have had go-ahead scoring opportunities in the 4th quarter of four of them. It's something that can and will be viewed as a positive, but also a refrain that can start to get tired as the close losses mount.
“Just frustration," head coach Kellen Moore said of the mood in the locker room after the result. "Obviously there’s opportunities. I think everyone can feel that. We had our opportunities in this game, we just didn’t get it done.”
The Saints aren't coming apart at the seams, but it's not difficult to imagine that scenario. When a team is 1-5 the bonds in the locker room and the culture get tested, particularly in the first year of a new head coaching tenure. The vultures start circling for potential trade deadline moves, and the Saints would be foolish to not at least pick up the phone and listen about several key players.
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But this is a franchise that values its veterans. Those players, such as Justin Reid, understand their role in these moments.
"We’re not going to allow this to turn into something where we’re going to start pointing fingers at each other," Reid said. "And I know that ... the internet is going to be one to tear us apart, but the most important thing is that the team stays a team on the inside of the building and that’s what I’m going to continue to push, because as long as we stay together we’ll always have a chance and I think that if we eliminate the mistakes we have a chance against anybody.”
How this group navigates the next few weeks will be telling of just how true that is. Scattered around those veteran tentpoles are a host of young players being asked to step into bigger roles, particularly in the secondary. Reid is playing alongside a rookie safety in Jonas Sanker and a rookie cornerback in Quincy Riley. Then there's second-year pro Kool-Aid McKinstry on the opposite side and Alontae Taylor in the star role, who basically qualifies as a seasoned vet as a 4th-year player.
Perhaps its fitting that this team now needs to ship out to Chicago for a date with the Bears and a defense led by former Saints head coach Dennis Allen. Can this year's group handle similar adversity better than its predecessor?
"Every man in the building knows what it takes to win," Reid said, "we’ve just got to go out there and execute better."