Undisciplined.
That's what Zach Strief, the Voice of the Saints and a former Saints offensive lineman, kept coming back to regarding the Black and Gold's performance during a 37-30 loss.
“They played better than we saw in Las Vegas,” Strief said. “I think you saw improvement on both sides of the football in this game. I think what's most disappointing is that, for a team that is largely veteran and largely returning, they've just been incredibly undisciplined the last two weeks.”
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The Saints had 8 penalties for 83 yards Sunday night, and that was actually an improvement from the previous game (10 penalties, 129 yards).
“When you play good football teams, that's going to get you beat,” Strief said. “It just kind of is what it is. That's been an ongoing problem for the Saints. We lose the turnover ratio, and it came at a huge point in the game where they had an opportunity to make a run at the end.
“You can't play undisciplined football,” Strief went on. "You can't give up those penalties. You can't continue to kill yourself on the back end. You can't turn people loose in the secondary.”
The Saints are now averaging 110.3 yards in penalties per game, the only team in the NFL in triple digits. The next closest? The Arizona Cardinals, who are averaging 82.3 penalty yards per game. The cumulative effect is starting to get to players, too, according to Strief.
“I think we're in a situation where you're starting to see some guys hesitate a little bit,” Strief explained. “I think you're starting to see some guys be a little afraid of penalties and kind of backing off. I think we saw that on the touchdown to Mercedes Lewis with Malcolm Jenkins just wanting to not get called for pass interference.”
Strief believes there is plenty of blame to go around for the back-to-back losses, but this is the bottom line for him.
“At the end of the day, the story of this is the lack of discipline.”
Of course, he isn't writing the Saints off yet, though.
“This is still a very good football team that is still going to make a run in the playoffs,” Strief said. “They've got things they need to work on, and I think it's surprising considering the continuity that this group has compared to most teams, to watch them come out of the gate here and kind of falter.”
New Orleans will get a chance to show they can clean up the penalties against the Detroit Lions this Sunday.