The Saints 1-3 record might be a little misleading.
Yes, they beat the Falcons for their lone official victory. But you have to look at who else the Black and Gold beat. That’d be the Saints.
They beat the Saints in week 2. They beat the Saints in week 3. They even went overseas to beat the Saints in London last week. It’d be an impressive run if not for the reality of it all.
You see, the Saints have been so effective at beating the Saints, that they come up just short in beating the actual opponent, the only team that matters.
The Saints are the third-best red zone offense in the NFL (in terms of scoring touchdowns), and the Saints are the third-best red zone defense in the NFL (in terms of preventing touchdowns). Usually when you are good in both of those areas, positive things follow. And they will if the Saints can just beat Seattle as opposed to themselves.
It seems like a long time ago, but the Saints started the season beating the Falcons and winning the turnover battle. In the three weeks since the Saints have turned the ball over 10 times and forced only two. They went from plus-1 in turnover differential to minus-7, currently the worst differential in the NFL. We can talk about all the statistics you want. When you have 10 turnovers in three games, nothing else really matters. The Saints lost the turnover battle with Minnesota last week, but it was close. The Saints turned it over twice and got one back. But frankly being minus-1 in the turnover battle is a small step in the right direction.
And in London it felt like the Saints defense looked more like the unit fans were expecting. They had three sacks of Kirk Cousins, an interception and eight quarterback hits. The defense held Leonard Fournette and the Tampa Bay rushing attack to 72 yards in Week 2, and held Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook and the Vikings in check for 81 total rushing yards last week.
What ails the Saints defense is allowing opponents to extend drives by way of penalties. The Saints have been penalized 34 times in four weeks, the second most in the NFL. Fourteen of their penalties have resulted in first downs. No other NFL team has gift-wrapped 14 first downs to their opponents this season. When drives get extended in that fashion, bad things tend to happen. The Saints are leading in all the categories that don’t get you “Ws.”
To end this on a positive note, the Saints are in close company this week when it comes to penalties that result in first downs for their opponents. Seattle is the third-most penalized team in the NFL with 32. Thirteen of their penalties have resulted in a first down for their opponent.
I’m not billing this as a yellow flag showdown, but something has to give. I think the Black and Gold are due.
