The New Orleans Saints are 2-5 and in need of a turnaround as they enter their bye week. What better time than now?
That's how Saints head coach Kellen Moore sees it, as he explained Monday evening on WWL Radio as he broke down the Week 7 loss in Paris with Mike Hoss and Steve Geller.
"These bye weeks are tremendous opportunities for yourself as a football team," Moore said. "I think the important aspect is there’s a lot of emotions with football week in and week out and we all feel those. We all want the same things. We all want victories. Bye weeks, I think, give you a chance to slow down just a touch, evaluate things with less emotion tied to it."
Hear WWL Radio's exclusive interview with Saints head coach Kellen Moore in the player above
The Saints fell 16-10 to the Steelers, marring what was otherwise a positive week leading up to the NFL's first game in Paris. It also turned on its head the positives that came out of a win over the Giants, a game that saw the Saints roll up a season-high 175 rushing yards. In Paris the script was flipped, with the Saints managing just 18 yards on 17 carries, their lowest rushing output since 1999.
The extra time will allow the Saints for a more intensive self-scouting process to identify what's gone wrong in the ground game, though Moore won't yet commit to any major changes in the process. He points to his season with the Eagles when the Saints went into the bye at 2-2 after a tough loss to Tampa Bay. They went 12-1 the rest of the way en route to a Super Bowl win in the Caesars Superdome. Moore is hoping for a similar type of momentum shift this time around.
Moore also pointed to the Saints last year, who went into their bye at 2-8 but bounced back to go 4-3 the rest of the way.
"We have to improve from a fundamentals standpoint and I always evaluate just from a personnel standpoint, what are we asking these guys to do," Moore said. "These are great growth opportunities for us. They come in challenging times, for example, right now, just because of the record we currently have, but we can grow tremendously from this and we need to.”
The Saints' next two opportunities to right the ship will come at home, where they have not found success in the current head coaching era. New Orleans has a 3-8 record inside the Superdome under Moore, including three consecutive home losses earlier this year. Next up will be the Browns (5-2) in Week 9, followed by the Panthers (3-3) the current NFC South leaders.
Despite the tough start, the Saints still retain hope due to another down year in the NFC South and the backloaded division schedule. Four of their final five games come against division opponents.
“The path in the NFL is winning your division," Moore said, "and there’s no greater opportunities to achieve that goal than those six division games. ... We’ve got to focus on getting better from here, take advantage of the opportunity that’s in front of us and then just stack them one day at a time and this could be a fun little ride.”
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MORE FROM MOORE
How do you limit the outside noise?
“I think that’s the path in the NFL, no matter what type of season you’re having. You know, there’s seasons that can challenge you, there’s seasons that can go all the way to the end and you can win a Super Bowl. They all have adversity, they all have challenges. They all have opportunities to kind of spark things and make a run at it, and so, you know, you’ve just got to focus on the task at hand. You’ve got to focus on getting better, be very process-focused and that’ll lead you to where you need to go.”
Evaluation of Tyler Shough's peformance
“I think every game is going to have different challenges and ... I was really proud of Tyler as far as him just playing the play, finding completions. Sometimes you don’t always have to hit home runs. I thought he got a ton of completions underneath, the way Pittsburgh played us. I thought the last two weeks, you know, we had the interception in the red zone … and that’s an unfortunate one, but he’s done a really good job of getting completions, protecting the football the last few weeks and giving us an opportunity to win the last few games.”
What does the bye week schedule look like
“Recharge, reset and then we’ve got to go, and you know, we’ve got a great opportunity ahead of ourself. I think these guys, you know, there is a recovery process that’s really good for them. There’s a kind of reset, reset ourself, reframe ourself and then … next Monday we’ll have a little bit of a light workload day as far as some practice, weight room, get them going and then it’s the full week preparing for the Cleveland Browns and that’s going to be an awesome opportunity in the Caesars Superdome.“
Outlook for Travis Etienne and Jordyn Tyson
“These guys are all players, they’re all competitive, they all want to play. There’s a medical side of this that we have to evaluate and make the right decisions for the player and the team and, you know, Jordyn has been working his tail off, he’s been doing a lot of work, he’s out there. YOu guys can probably see him during media availability time. You’ll see him out there on the field going through his, you know, rehab process and so he’s moving well and, you know, this will be an important week through this bye week to put ourself in position to see what next week looks like for both of those guys.”
