NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints gave us hope last week with a fantastic performance against the Las Vegas Raiders, and then promptly backed over that hope and set it on fire and let it turn into ash.
The Saints got dominated 27-13 by the Baltimore Ravens so thoroughly the score is no indication of how one-sided the game was. The Ravens had the ball for nearly 40 minutes, yet only had 319 yards of offense. Did the Saints ever actually have the ball on offense? It never really felt like it.
That kind of thing happens when your offense only converts 3 third downs and the Ravens convert 9 of 15. The silver lining I guess is at least the Ravens didn't have any of their good skill position players, because they were all hurt, so it could've been a lot worse.
What that actually would look like wouldn't have been suitable for decent people to see.
The Saints, a team supposedly built on defense and toughness, got punched in the face repeatedly, and had no answer, no fight, and folded faster than a picnic table after a family reunion.
Saints head coach Dennis Allen, had his measured and boring post game press conference, explaining that yes if a team has 40 minutes of possession your defense will get run over, “If you allow that type of run game to stay on field for 40 minutes in a game. As the game wore on that's where you saw some of their better runs.”
Baltimore basically slowly suffocated the Saints in the most boring and methodical way imaginable. This wasn't our regularly scheduled Saints loss with self inflicted turnovers and the Saint falling all over themselves. Monday night was a superior team imposing their will on a bad Saints football team. The Saints couldn't block on offense or tackle on defense.
Everything else is pretty much details. The Saints not only don't create turnovers on defense, they can't even create the possibility of a turnover. No tipped passes, dropped interception, or ball rolling around on the ground. Oh what I'd give for the thrill of a dropped interception.
On offense, Andy Dalton was mostly terrible, but that's what journeyman quarterbacks do when they don't have much help. Dennis Allen was firm about never thinking of switching quarterbacks. Should he? Play Jameis, play Taysom, play Dalton? All three at the same time! It won't matter.
The Saints are a bad team and mediocre quarterbacks don't fix bad teams. A deflating Saints loss in 2022 wouldn't be complete without debilitating injuries to critical players.
The Saints lost center Eric McCoy, linebacker Pete Werner, and defensive end Marcus Davenport. McCoy is arguably their best offensive lineman in 2022, and Werner is unquestionably their best defensive player this year. Hopefully the Saints just tell us they have no idea when any of them will be back so as not to get our hopes up. Michael Thomas return was going to be any week now, until it wasn't and he had another
season lost to injury. Seriously Saints, we know injuries happen, sometimes those injuries are worse than thought, and players don't return. I'd rather absolutely no information on injuries. Just say, “I don't know, (insert players name) will be back when he's back. Or maybe he won't? Life's a mystery sometimes.”
Want a thought more terriffying than someone you don't like winning an election today? The Saints defense is likely to be missing 3 of their 4 most athletic players if Mashon Lattimore, Pete Werner, and Marcus Davenport for next Sunday's game.
I think I just blacked out from the thought of Pittsburgh's sad offense scoring 30 points. The 2022 Saints haven't had much go right at all since they had a miracle comeback to start the season in Atlanta. I'm not sure any team would be able to overcome the injuries the Saints have had.
It's not an excuse for a season going off the rails, just the way it is. I watched the Houston Astros win the World Series Saturday night and have parade on Monday but during their series clinching win they had one star player break a finger and another injury his hamstring. If they had been forced to play a deciding Game 7, they'd have most likely been doomed.
Sometimes it's just your year, and sometimes like in the case of the 2022 Saints, it's just not. I don't know whether the following scenario is hilarious, sad, or both. If the Atlanta Falcons lose Thursday night in Carolina and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lose to the Seattle Seahawks Sunday morning in Germany, the 3-6 Saints will kickoff in Pittsburgh with yet another chance to get into first place in the saddest and most pathetic division in NFL history.
Hope for the 2022 New Orleans Saints is like Michael Myers in the Halloween movie franchise -- it will not die, even if sometimes we kind of wish it would -- to put us out of our misery.