The New Orleans Saints are sitting at 5-4 and in first place in the NFC South after an uneven win over the Bears. There's a bye week in sight and another backup QB on deck.
But as positive of a scenario the Saints appear to find themselves in, things change quickly in the NFL. That's why the team understands there's a lot on the line when it heads up to Minnesota this week, as Saints GM Mickey Loomis explained on WWL this week.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints GM Mickey Loomis in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
“I think, No. 1, I think we have to play better than we did this last week, because the same level of performance may not get a victory for us. We have to play better and obviously we’ve seen signs of it," Loomis said. "We’ve seen flashes of it. We’ve seen quarters that we’ve played well. We’ve seen halves that we’ve played well, but there haven’t been a lot of games where we’ve played well the entire game. So we’ve got to put one of those together."
That up and down nature has been clearly evident the past four weeks, particularly for the defense. The Saints have allowed, 17, 17, 20 and 14 points in the first half of the past four games. In the second half of those game, they've allowed 20 points total, excluding a pick-6 against the Jaguars.
In the most recent win, 24-17 over the Bears, the difference was stark as ever. After allowing three long drives, two for touchdowns to Cole Kmet and another resulting in a missed field goal, the lockdown went into effect. The Saints forced four second-half turnovers of the Tyson Bagent-led offense. For the final 17-plus minutes of the game there wasn't a single offensive snap that took place on the Saints' side of the field. But that coincided with an offense that managed just 10 second-half points despite that.
"I would say, yea, we didn’t play our best," Loomis said. "There’s a lot of things left to be desired both offensively and defensively, and special teams as well. And yet, man, to get a win is a good thing."
The Saints season feels like it's on the cusp of breaking toward the positive, despite a stretch of four losses in five games prior to the recent two-game winning streak. A trip up to Minnesota provides a chance to further a grasp on the division, potential tiebreakers down the road and just a general sense of confidence. On the flipside, the Vikings are also 5-4 and playing as confident as anyone, despite losing starting QB Kirk Cousins for the year. Minnesota traded for Josh Dobbs, and he entered midway through Week 9 to lead the Vikings to a surprising win over the Falcons.
The Saints have to make sure they avoid a similar fate this week.
"It’s the perfect time to [play a complete game] on the road against Minnesota, another NFC team with the same record and ... we’ll be competing with them for a wild card spot if that’s the case or if we win the division, we’ll be competing for home-field advantage down the road," Loomis said, "so there’s all kinds of things at stake and we need to put a good performance, especially going into the bye week.”
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MORE FROM LOOMIS
On Cam Jordan's performance
“His first ability is his availability, right? Cam has been available year in and year out. He’s always productive. He’s a great veteran presence for us. He has been for a long time, and continues to play at a high level and look, the last few years I think a lot of his statistical production has come in the second half of the season and so, I’m not gonna be surprised if that happens again this year.”
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On Paulson Adebo
“I think a year ago, in training camp we saw some really good things from Paulson and expected kind of a really breakout year a year ago, based upon what we’d seen in training camp. And then he got hurt right at the end of training camp, beginning of the season and I think, look, that hampered some of his production a year ago, and, look, we saw that, the same thing this year in our preseason camp and just, I’m not surprised. I don’t think any of us are surprised by the level of production. Obviously we had such a big game with two interceptions a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, three passes defensed. I think he had some great tackles. That was a spectacular game for him, but I don’t think any of us were surprised by that, and my expectation is that he will continue to play well for the rest of this year.”
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On turnover turnaround
“That’s a credit to the coaching staff and the players themselves. They put an emphasis on this. And part of that, my experience in the league, is turnovers kind of come in bunches, No. 1, and secondly they’re a little bit related to your opponent. And so we’ve played some young quarterbacks this year and obviously they are more prone to turnovers. So it’s a combination of things, but look, we’re looking for that to continue. It’s the most impactful stat in our league relative to winning and it’s man, the more takeaways you get, obviously the better off you are.”
