The Saints came out flat in the first half of their Sunday afternoon 24-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Saints coach Sean Payton said he didn’t think the team “did much of anything well in the first half.”
“At halftime, we came out and played with a little more sense of urgency,” Payton said. “This league is too good, regardless of who you’re playing. We have to be better and do a better job, and that starts with me. I felt we were flat. In the end, we rushed for about 70 yards and got sacked five times. They rushed for 250 yards. We miss a field goal; they make a field goal. Overall, you have to tip your hat to Philadelphia. They deserved to win today.”
The Saints trailed 17-0 at the half and Eagles out-gained them 302 to 98.
“I just feel like there were little things every drive that killed drives,” Saints quarterback Taysom Hill said. “We weren’t converting on third down. Some of those were favorable situations where we were third-and-short and manageable where you’re trying to get to. At the end of the day, I think obviously we came out flat. I think you have to credit Philly for the way they came out and played us. They got after us the first half.”
The Saints were able to pull within three in the third quarter thanks to improved play on both sides of the ball.
“It really wasn’t much of an adjustment; we played the same calls throughout the game,” Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “We executed a little better in the second half and created some negative plays and got them behind the sticks; that helped us out on third down. But nothing really elaborate or unique, we just executed the plan better. And that’s what we needed to start the game, so a little bit too late.”
Payton said it was hard to point to one specific cause of the sluggish start.
“It’s something as a coach you think about every week,” Payton said. “Are we ready to play? Did we do everything necessary to be ready to play? You evaluate your preparation, and we didn’t do a good enough job as coaches, starting with myself, in preparing our guys and getting ready. At halftime, we came back out with a little bit of juice and energy, making it a closer game. But clearly, we didn’t play one of our better games today. That was obvious.”
