The New Orleans Saints are 0-1 on the season, but they certainly didn't lack for entertainment value with the way this one finished.
The Saints fell 20-13 to the Cardinals after the three shots to the end zone fell incomplete, one nearly a spectacular grab from Juwan Johnson. There were ups, there were downs, there was yellow laundry EVERYWHERE. Oh, where to begin.
With all that in mind, here are my stock up and stock down players from an ugly season-opener that, if nothing else, kept my attention until the final second.
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STOCK DOWN
1. TOO. MANY. PENALTIES.
I don't even know if this technically qualifies as a stock down. I guess my stock would be in composure? But it's not often you see a team with a 13 on their penalties line. But that's what the Saints had in this one.
What was interesting is that so many of the mistakes were procedural that it somehow only amounted to 89 yards. There were actually 16 penalties if you include the ones that weren't accepted. Just ugly all around. Center Erik McCoy will take full responsibility for two directly on him, but there's plenty of blame to go around.
Heck, let's just make the list:
- Kool-Aid McKinstry: DPI, 13 yards
- Chris Olave: Illegal shift, 5 yards
- Cesar Ruiz: offensive holding, 10 yards
- Team: illegal shift, declined
- Team: illegal formation, 5 yards
- Demario Davis: defensive holding, 5 yards
- Dillon Radunz: offside, 5 yards
- Erik McCoy: ineligible downfield, declined
- Jonah Williams: facemask, 15 yards
- Nathan Shepherd: offside, 5 yards
- Chris Rumph: holding (kickoff), 10 yards
- Taliese Fuaga: offensive holding, declined
- Cesar Ruiz: false start, 5 yards
- Dillon Radunz: false start, 5 yards
- Asim Richards: false start, 5 yards
- Team: illegal formation, 5 yards
"That was simply not good enough," head coach Kellen Moore said. "That doesn’t meet the standard in any way. We had a bunch of penalties on both sides of the football in the pre-snap world and that’s all under our control.”
Agreed. But here's the thing. One time and we can say let's fix it, Week 1 jitters, whatever. If it becomes a trend, that's a terrible reflection on coaching. Alvin Kamara was the lone person to point to the frequent use of tempo as a potential trouble point, we'll see if that lightens up over the next few weeks so things can tighten up, because I agree with Spencer Rattler on this.
"I think if we cut those penalties in half we win this game."
Related
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2. 3rd down defense
There were a lot of things that went wrong in this game, but none were more impactful than the inability to get off the field on third down. Arizona ended up 6-13 on the day, but a lot of those misses were rolled up late in the game as the Saints defense seemed to lock in.
There are a few ways to look at this. On the one hand the Saints forced 9 third downs of 7 yards or longer. The bad news is they only got off the field on four of them. You read that correctly ... the Cardinals were 5-for-9 converting on 3rd and 7 or worse. You just can't have that if you want to be an effective defense.
The bulk of the problems came in the first half. On one play it was a pass interference by Kool-Aid McKinstry to extend a drive. He pulled Harrison's jersey despite appearing to be in good position. The next two were conversions on 3rd and 10 and 3rd and 11 on the same drive that ended in a touchdown. The result was a time of possession that was tilted by more than 7 minutes. The Saints only had three legitimate drives in the first half, excluding the final play where they ran out the clock in the second quarter.
The issue struck again in the 4th quarter with the Cardinals backed up to their own 5 and facing 3rd and 11. At absolute worst this should be a scenario where the Cardinals punt from a backed-up position. Nope. 12 yards to Harrison and the drive continues. Arizona got the ball out to their 41 before a Blake Gillikin punt, turning what should've been excellent Saints starting field position into a drive starting at their own 17.
This isn't hidden yardage. It's very real yardage. The Saints won't get off the field on 100% of these opportunities, but they need to be a lot better than 44%.
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3. Strong Kool-Aid
There will be easier matchups for Kool-Aid McKinstry, a second-year DB who's probably getting asked to do a bit too much right now. But it's looking like the Courtland Sutton struggles weren't a mirage. Bigger, physical wide receivers could be a trouble point.
We saw it multiple times in this game, particularly in the first half, with Marvin Harrison Jr. doing whatever he wanted as the Cardinals stretched things out to a 17-10 halftime lead. Marv was quiet after halftime and I'm eager to see the all-22 to find out if the Saints rolled more coverage his way. That would also explain why Trey McBride came on strong in the second half.
I think Kool-Aid will be at his best in matchups that aren't quite as physical. I think one of the reasons he was effective throughout camp is that the Saints don't -- or at least didn't -- have a receiver who really tested him in that way. I expect he'll get better, but the lumps he'll take along the way will be tough to watch. That's just the deal with relying on young players.
Kool-Aid is a quality NFL corner, I'm just not sure he's CB1. This was a bit of a trial by fire, so I'm eager to see how he bounces back next week. The 49ers don't exactly have a murderer's row at the WR position. Still, hard not to be disappointed in this start for the kid.
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A few more
Ah man, Blake Grupe, why'd you go and do that? After a near-perfect training camp, the short kick woes struck again, this time from 37 yards. It's possible something went wrong with the operation, but as consistent as Blake has shown to be, he does seem programmed for a handful of inexplicable short-range misses each year. As a rookie he missed two inside 30. Last year it was a whiff from inside 40 and a couple missed PATs. The way the game shook out it didn't "cost" the team a win, but it sure feels like the air went out of the building after a 14-play drive ended with no points, and the end-of-game scenario probably plays out differently. For example, they probably go for it rather than kicking a field goal on 4th and goal from the 5. Hopefully this is the one hiccup and Blake locks in, because that's a frustrating way to start. ... Blake Gillikin flopped in this game. Boo. ... Kellen Moore made a few questionable decisions in this one, most notably the choice not to call timeouts to set up a 2-minute situation at the end of the first half. He explained it away in the aftermath, but the reason was clear: He didn't trust his QB and/or offense to run the situation. There's no way around it. The Cardinals had three TOs and he wanted to avoid a situation where they got the ball back, but that's simply coaching scared and you can't operate that way. If you trust Rattler enough to play him, you have to trust him in that scenario, too. If you don't, the other guy should be playing. Make a decision.
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STOCK UP
1. Juwan Johnson
Recency bias is one hell of a drug, but sorry, y'all, I'm just not playing that game. I'll start this by saying: Yes, it is supremely frustrating that Juwan Johnson couldn't hold on to the game-tying touchdown. But it's being talked about like players should routinely be expected to high point a ball at full extension and make the catch as two defenders crash in, one raking at the ball and the other decking the TE in midair.
That's a brutally difficult catch. It's still one you want Juwan to make, and one he'll tell you he should've made. But I've seen people saying "that's the catch you got paid to make." It's a catchy line, but that's all it is, objectively. What he got paid for was to be a highly productive, consistent and reliable target for the Saints young quarterbacks. For the vast majority of this game that's exactly what he was, and I'm not going to let one disappointing moment color the rest of it.
You know who was the leading receiver in this game? It wasn't Marvin Harrison, who caught a 45-yard bomb at one point. It wasn't Trey McBride, a 1,000-yard receiver from last year who made several big plays. It was Juwan Johnson, who caught 8 passes for 76 yards. Here are the situations:
- Q1: 1st & 10 ... short right +11 (first down)
- Q2: 2nd & 5 ... short left +4
- Q3: 2nd & 10 ... short middle +12 (first down)
- Q3: 3rd & 7 ... short right +11 (first down)
- Q3: 2nd & 7 ... short right +6
- Q4: 3rd & 13 ... short left +6
- Q4: 2nd & 4 ... deep left +21 (first down)
- Q4: 1st & 10 ... short right +5
That's four catches that went for first downs and another two that set up 3rd and 1 situations. He also hauled in Rattler's long gain of the day, and did a lot of his work through contact.
I had one person tell me they'd trade the other 8 grabs for that 1 catch. Again, that's a good line and all, but without those other 8 catches (or at least six of them) that 1 grab is likely coming in garbage time. It's not all going to be perfect. Hauling in that final ball would've taken his day from excellent to epic, but it doesn't erase the rest.
Just for perspective on what those numbers would mean, if Juwan averaged 8/76 over 15 games (baking in two missed games just to be reasonable), he'd finish the season with:
- 120 catches
- 1,140 yards
That's the type of usage and production he was paid for. If he can make a few spectacular plays in the process, fantastic, but what you need is consistent production. That's what he's getting paid for.
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2. The run game
I went into training camp feeling like the run game had to be a major factor for this team to have success, but I came out of the preseason seriously concerned about whether that was even a possibility. The OL wasn't moving people, there wasn't much room being created between the tackles.
That didn't seem to be a problem in this game, at least as long as the Saints were dedicated to the run. Alvin Kamara put up 45 yards on 11 carries (4.1). Kendre Miller pitched in with 24 yards on five carries (4.8) and Devin Neal was productive with 9 yards on his 2 carries (4.5). My only complaint was they got away from it too early.
The Saints were playing from behind and they had to make something happen, but I think leaning on Arizona would've been the call here. Spencer Rattler threw 46 passes. A lot of that came in the 4th quarter, but it's too much. The Cardinals were sitting back in shell coverages. The best way to force them out of that is to run it down their throat.
The good news is that I think the Saints will be able to do that this year. Miller in particular is just exciting to watch. He's got rare burst and he seems to finally, as Kamara puts it, understand the "why" behind what he's being asked to do. You can tell he's enjoying football again, and he's a weapon this team can deploy often. He's also a really effective kick returner. He's simply a good football player.
A run-first team is what the Saints need to be. For at least today that felt possible.
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3. Run stuffing
One area that I expected the Saints to be better was when it came to stuffing the run, and -- despite what the base numbers might indicate -- I thought they did that.
There's one obvious caveat, and it's the 52-yard run by Trey Benson. It was a run fit bust by the Saints. They missed a tackle, they didn't set the edge and then took a poor angle in pursuit. All that combined for an explosive play that can't be ignored.
The Saints need to figure out what went wrong and fix it, but that also can't be the lone takeaway about the run defense. We have to be able to parse out more than just the yards per carry, because there was a lot more good in the run game than bad. For instance, James Conner, the star back for the Cardinals, was limited to 39 yards on 12 carries (3.3 yards). That total included a 12-yard run, so on the 11 other carries he totaled 27 yards. He was one of the players I was most concerned about coming in and the Saints shut him down almost completely. As we noted above, the Saints didn't get off the field often enough on third and long, but they forced a ton of them. That happens because you're stuffing the run.
One of my pet peeves is trying to lump QB scramble yards in with the run defense, because it's really about the pass rush containment. Still, I thought Saints did as good a job containing Kyler Murray as any mobile QB they've faced in a long time. He's impossible to shut down completely, but he was limited to a long run of 13 yards and overall 38 yards on 7 carries (5.4). That's also a bit misleading because there were two QB scrambles that saw Kyler duck out of bounds a yard behind the line of scrimmage. Those plays go into the scorebook as sacks, but in reality they're the same as a negative run. If you include those in the run total (which is more than reasonable to do) that total changes to 9 carries for 36 yards (4.0) and if you told me going in that the Saints would hold Kyler to 4.0 on the ground, I'd call that a win every time.
In the end I'm looking for consistency and winning football. There were a few too many instances when that didn't happen for my liking, but run-stuffing is a good start. Clean up the errors that led to the explosive, find ways to get off the field on third and long and this defense can really hit its stride.
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HONORABLE MENTION
The demise of Cam Jordan might have just been exaggerated. On a day where the Saints didn't have Chase Young, Cam took full advantage. His first sack came on the third play of the day and went for -11. He split a sack with Carl Granderson later in the day and was a constant presence in Kyler's kitchen. He also had two TFLs, two QB hurries and a pass defensed. He might not be a full-time player anymore, but he's still an incredibly useful player in whatever role he's needed in. ... Alontae Taylor still owns the all-time sack crown for players wearing No. 1. When the Saints desperately needed a stop, he was the guy they sent to hunt down Kyler and he made the play. It's also worth noting that he was off the field a good bit today, but that won't be the case going forward. In this game Isaac Yiadom stayed on the field for base reps, when the ideal gameplan would be for Alontae to play those snaps when there's no nickel corner. The goal was to limit his snaps as he ramps back up from injury, but he looks good to me. ... I feel like I should've mentioned Spencer Rattler above, but I don't want to overstate how well he played. He did what the coaches asked, no more, no less. He avoided turnovers (though he was bailed out on one interception) and wasn't overly aggressive. He used his legs when it made sense and executed well in crunch time. It just feels like there are training wheels on right now and until those come off it'll be tough to truly evaluate his game. The most impressive thing to me was that he was only sacked once. I also thought this was his most consistent game from start to finish, which is something he struggled with last year in terms having massive swings in efficiency from half to half and even quarter to quarter. Spencer Rattler isn't why you lost this game, and as long as you can say that about his performances I think he'll hold onto the starting job. This was a strong day for him and he has shown significant growth. ... I was hard on the punters throughout camp, but Kai Kroeger shut me up today. He averaged 50.5 yards on his four punts, which included a 50-yard net punt, and also a 54 yard net punt that pinned the Cardinals back at their 6. Hopefully he can keep that rolling, because it's been a while since I felt like the Saints had a punter who was actually a weapon. Also props go to Velus Jones and Isaiah Stalbird on special teams, both had excellent games. ... Bryan Bresee jumped over the line again for a pretty critical blocked FG. It makes zero sense that he's able to do that at his size. But it keeps happening anyway.