NEW ORLEANS — The frustration level is high and rising. Sunday, after the postgame interviews, I interviewed our Saints analyst, Nick Underhill for Fourth Down on Four.
I asked Nick, how gloomy should Saints fans feel right now?
Nobody's happy at 2-4. No Saints fans are booking Super Bowl hotel rooms right now...but how gloomy is an appropriate question to ask right now.
Nick said it depends on whether you think it's partly cloudy or partly sunny, because those two realities exist simultaneously.
The fact is, the Saints' offense did a lot of things right, and absolutely took steps in a positive direction.
It's also equally true, that bad teams find ways to lose, and the Saints found a new way to lose Sunday.
The level of gloomy is up to you.
#4: Free Running
The Saints ran the ball extremely well. The Bengals were 7th in the NFL, allowing less than 100 yards a game rushing.
Sunday, the Saints ran 34 times for 228 yards. The Saints are now the NFL's 7th best rushing team, and trending up.
They controlled time of possession, and they converted a terrific 47% of their 3rd downs, if they did that every week, that would be top five in the league.
And they did not turn the ball over. Whether you're partly cloudy or partly sunny...there were significant positive strides forward offensively...and the Saints did that against the defending AFC champions.
#3: Dead Zone
What they didn't do well on both sides of the ball was red zone efficiency.
Offensively, the Saints got it into the Bengals red zone five times and got one touchdown.
20% is terrible, like, worst in the league terrible.
But this is a new problem because, before this game, the Saints got touchdowns in 80% of their red zone trips. Even after this game, they're still sixth-best in the NFL at 65%.
But I meant a new problem as in a new way to lose. And defensively, the Bengals were 3-for-3 in the red zone, which is horrible for the Saints.
One came on a 3rd-and-goal at the nine, one came on a 3rd-and-8 at the 19. You have to get stops in those situations.
Now look, some of that is Joe Burrow is a terrific quarterback, and he found ways to escape and make plays.
And this was not a problem in the first five games, in fact, before this game, the Saints were only allowing touchdowns on a third of red zone trips.
Cincinnati was 3-for-3, another new way to lose.
#2: D-valued
At number two..and I think the most alarming thing of all...the Saints' defense has not been the unit we thought they were.
They're 28th in the NFL in points allowed...that's a lot. 19th in Sacks, 23rd in takeaways, and opposing quarterbacks are having great success against them, as they're 24th in the opposition's quarterback rating.
And bottom line...these are not the numbers of a playoff team.
They're significantly below average across the board. For all the talk about the offensive problems, if all this doesn't turn around the Saints aren't getting close to the playoffs.
So, we're back to where started.
#1 How Gloomy
Bad teams find ways to lose. This week, some really inopportune missed tackles and red zone rottenness were the new culprits.
But here's the partly sunny to end on...the NFC south is a mess. Despite shooting themselves in the foot multiple times, the Saints are one game out of first.
In their next nine games, you know how many teams the Saints play with winning records right now? Zero.
You know how many of these teams are better than Cincinnati? It's my opinion...but I think none.
And if you saw the game, the Saints were not overmatched.
They outgained the Bengals by 51 yards...and won the turnover battle, and still lost.
Over the next nine games...they will not be overmatched.
Will they keep finding ways to lose or build on the positives and win a chunk of 'em?
Partly sunny or partly cloudy...your call.
And that's my four takeaways from the frustrating loss to the Bengals.