NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints continued the worst of holiday traditions, like fruit cake or alcohol-free Christmas parties, by losing to an inferior team and likely costing themselves a bye in the NFC playoffs.
The Saints allowing the Eagles to run the ball directly down their throat the entire game was like watching horrible Saints defenses from Christmas past. Philadelphia ran for 246 yards and had 2 players (Jalen Hurts and Miles Sanders) each run for 100 yards.
The Saints had not allowed a player to run for 100 yards in a Super Bowl era record 58 consecutive games going into Sunday. Yet, somehow the 3-8-1 Eagles with a rookie quarterback making his first NFL did it twice? The only explanation which makes any sense is “That's the most Saintsy thing ever.”
The Saints were completely throttled on both sides of the ball as their offensive and defensive lines got dominated from start to finish. Where do you want to start this autopsy?
On the defense, the Saints knew the Eagles would attempt to run the ball to take the pressure off of Hurts making his first career start and yet their run defense was so bad I expected to see Rob Ryan appear on the Saints sideline looking sad and confused.
You know what makes a quarterback making his first start extremely relaxed? Averaging 6.8 yards every time his team runs the ball. As bad as it gets. The most surprising thing was the Saints seemed to lack discipline and the ability to set the edge against Hurts.
In plain English, that means they couldn't keep Hurts in the pocket and whenever he needed yards he'd just scoot to the sideline, usually stepping out bounds right at the first down marker. Infuriating.
The Saints' inability to stop or even slow down the Eagles' running game was so complete the rest of their performance was almost irrelevant. The Eagles only hit one long pass, which should have been called back because of a penalty, but once the Eagles got up 17-0 they were as interested in throwing the football as me having to watch one of those terrible Hallmark Christmas movies.
Sean Payton after the game, oddly to me, seemed like a guy not that surprised at what he saw Sunday.
“Clearly we didn’t play one of our better games today. That was obvious. We didn’t do a good enough job as coaches, starting with myself, coming out and getting ready.”
Maybe he was so stunned I am misinterpreting shock for calmness?
Taysom Hill regularly scheduled fumble happened right on cue, at the worst possible moment, and this time the Saints didn't get a fortunate bounce to save them. Not that it would have mattered, as it was fourth down and Philadelphia would have gotten the ball anyway.
After seeing 4 weeks of Taysom Hill, I'm concerned about a world where the Saints trust him to be their quarterback and don't have any viable alternatives.
The Eagles were the first time Hill faced an above-average NFL defense while trailing, and he summarily struggled. Taysom can win games if everything around him is working and he's not asked to do too much. It was fine for a month while Drew Brees was out, but for 16 weeks in 2021, the Saints will need better play.
A lot better.
So what exactly are we to take from a game where the Saints were without Drew Brees and their defense haven't played as poorly against the run in nearly 5 years? Big picture is the Green Bay Packers are going to be the #1 seed in the NFC because their remaining schedule is easy and asking the Saints to win 13 straight games to clinch a bye was always a mountain too high to climb.
The remaining 3 games for 2020 Saints are about 2 things – getting Drew Brees back and playing like Drew Brees – and getting the rest of the roster as healthy as possible for a wildcard game in 4 weeks.
The Saints are still in an excellent position to clinch the NFC South and finish as either the #2 or #3 seed in the NFC. That means facing either Arizona, Minnesota, or Tampa in their opening playoff game.
Just flush Sunday out of your mind. The Saints can't beat anyone playing like they did Sunday, but they haven't played that badly all year.
So, let's just call it a holiday season mistake, like that time I bought a 56 piece Clint Eastwood holiday commemorative knife set.
Sometimes bad things happen, poor decisions get made, and it's best to just keep on moving. The Saints would be wise to do so because the road ahead is a lot harder than what they just faced.
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