There wasn’t much to feel good about for New Orleans Saints fans, after their team got bulldozed by the Atlanta Falcons in a surprising upset on Sunday. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was sacked six times (tying his career-worst total for a single game), and coach Sean Payton frowned in disappointment on the sideline as his team slipped and fell all over themselves throughout the afternoon.
Still, there’s plenty to learn from it. Here’s what we picked up on when reviewing the game, hopefully giving an idea of what the Saints can correct moving forward. Their rematch with Atlanta (in prime time, on Thanksgiving) is just a few weeks away. They don’t exactly have much time to let this one linger, even if it was an embarrassing loss to a division rival.
The plan to use Alvin Kamara wasn’t up to snuff
The good news: Kamara went 8-for-10 as a receiver, picking up 50 yards. The bad news: his worst rep of the day came on the opening drive, in which Kamara slipped and fell on the Superdome turf. It was a designed pass to him on a route out of the backfield and the right call against Atlanta’s defense — the closest defender was in poor position to stop him before Kamara would have reached the end zone. Instead, Brees had to take a sack on third down and force New Orleans to settle for three points instead of seven.
There’s no way the Saints were going to ask Kamara to handle fifteen or more rushing attempts in his first game back from injury, but four carries (and 11 as a team) was pitiful. The Saints have run too well lately to call 51 dropbacks for Brees against just 11 runs. This was an example of Payton at his worst, allowing himself to get one-dimensional and over-reliant on his passing attack in a game that was close for three quarters. There’s no excuse for him to have abandoned the run so early.
Michael Thomas went 13-of-14, and it almost didn’t matter
NFL teams still haven’t found a way to guard him, as Thomas caught all but one pass sent his way, picking up 152 receiving yards (the most of anyone in the game). But it didn’t translate into points, and none of the Saints’ other receivers capitalized on the attention he demanded from the Falcons defense. Tre’Quan Smith (57 snaps), Ted Ginn Jr. (48), Krishawn Hogan (11), and Deonte Harris (2) combined for one catch on five targets over the course of the game. That simply isn’t good enough to win in the NFL. The Saints have neglected their depth at the wide receiver position for some time now, and it’s
coming back to bite them.
Sloppy execution turned into too many penalties
The Saints drew a dozen penalty fouls on the afternoon, and it was nearly evenly split: the offense was flagged six times, the defense fouled five times, and special teams ace J.T. Gray gave Atlanta the ball back by running into the punter. It was an ugly afternoon for everyone involved, with the Saints breaking down in fundamental areas such as hand placement (four different players were fouled for illegal use of hands, and a big gain by Thomas was taxed for an unnecessary facemask penalty). Whether the Saints coasted through practice or didn’t prepare well can’t be said, and it doesn’t really matter. You can prepare well and still get outplayed, but they simply phoned in from an effort standpoint against Atlanta.
The Saints’ defensive line didn’t show up for work
This position group is supposed to be the strength of the defense, and they were bullied by an Atlanta offensive line that’s inferior to them by every metric. All-Pro defensive end Cameron Jordan was locked up for three quarters by Falcons rookie right tackle Kaleb McGary. Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins played 37 snaps and didn’t make so much as a tackle. Second-year pro Marcus Davenport is in his third consecutive game without so much as a hit or hurry, a huge downturn from the success he had earlier this year. The team’s best pass rusher was linebacker Demario Davis, who was lucky to come in unblocked on their only sack of the game.
