NEW ORLEANS — The 2-0 New Orleans Saints leading 17-0 at the half in Green Bay feels like 1000 years ago doesn't it?
The 2023 Saints season is in the ditch, on fire, and needs someone or something to save it.
I'm hard pressed to remember a Saints season with such promise seemingly imploding with such speed and force before Fall even arrives.
The Saints lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-9 in a game that is the worst kind of Saints game to watch. It was one of those games where you know the Saints offense was never going to overcome a 2-score deficit, but Tampa wasn't good enough to put the Saints against a wall and give them a cigarette and a blindfold and put Dennis Allen's team out of their misery.
Dreadful.
The Saints offense is as bad as it's been since Mike Ditka was roaming the sidelines and demanding New Orleans clean up the French Quarter. The Saints offense looks completely unorganized, uninspiring, and incapable of stringing two or three nice, smooth-looking plays together. Even their good plays look SOOO hard. The Saints have yet to have one of those drives where the quarterback goes 5-6 for 55 yards and the running back caps things off with a nice 11yard touchdown. You know just nice and pleasant? Receivers are open. Timing is on. Blocking is crisp.
The Saints completed 24 passes for 127 yards. Derek Carr averaged 3.4 yards a pass attempt. In 2023. It wasn't the worst passing display I've ever seen in Saints history but considering the Saints offense has Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, and Michael Thomas, it definitely was the most depressing.
How is an offense with two sure fire Saints Hall of Famers and potentially a third in Olave this pitiful?
The Saints haven't scored a offensive touchdown in six quarters and worse still they haven't been even close.
After the game my mom called me and asked, “What will happen first, will the Saints score 30 points or will New Orleans lose the ability to have usable water?” I refused to answer on the grounds that even pondering the possibility might suck the life force out of my body.
This is the state of the Saints 2023: Their final scoring drive took them 14 plays to move 49 yards to kick a field goal. That's got to be some sort of football torture inflicted upon us.
I'll admit I was wrong in my belief the Saints offensive issues could be solved with better offensive line play. The offensive line play wasn't good Sunday, but it was better as Dennis Allen mentioned after the game.
We know the Saints offense currently doesn't do anything well, but I'm not even sure what the Saints want to do on offense? Do they want to work off play action? Power run the football? Work the middle of the field?
You tell me and I'll tell you!
The Saints offense as currently constructed reminds me of playing Battleship as a kid. You remember Battleship right? It's basically just guessing locations until you hit whoever you were playing battleships with.
“A9?”
“Miss”
“B17?”
“Miss.”
The Saints offense is just Derek Carr throwing bombs and hoping for good vibes?
While the offense was rotten, the defense began to show some cracks. The Saints defense is very good, but the pass rush looks to be inconsistent and even the Saints outstanding secondary can't cover receivers forever.
The most interesting thing about the Bucs offense made the Saints current offensive situation all the more depressing.
In 2022 the Buccaneers offense was horrible even with Tom Brady. They won the NFC South at 8-9 and then got embarrassed in the playoffs by the Dallas Cowboys.
What did Bucs head coach Todd Bowles do? Did he stay the course because the Bucs had won back-to-back division titles? Was he afraid to revamp the offensive staff because Tampa in January didn't have a quarterback and looked to be one of the worst offenses in the NFL?
Nope. He completely changed course. Bowles fired Byron Leftwich and hired Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach Dave Canales to redo the offense.
The Bucs weren't anything special on offense Sunday, but they had a clear, coherent plan that played to Baker Mayfield's strengths and hid his weaknesses. Mayfield was tremendous by the way. He avoided trouble, and once Tampa got ahead, he did more than enough to keep them ahead.
Baker Mayfield, best QB in NFC South. I hate everything.
The only glimmer of hope for the 2023 Saints is Dennis Allen after the game seemed to have clear understanding of the problem.
He knows it's not just players playing poorly, “If you put it all on the execution that’d be a cop out.”
Allen also said they'd look at 'everything' this week.
Alvin Kamara was even more blunt, “We need to have tough conversations soon.”
Dennis Allen's head coaching career depends on an answer. Drastic moves? Subtle changes?
What's the move, because the Saints haven't scored over 24 points since November 20th of 2022. They haven't scored over 30 in a win since last October 9th. Next Sunday is October 8, 2023. I'm no math major but that's like a year.
A. YEAR.
Dennis Allen, you won't get a third swing at fixing your offense in 2024.
Time doesn't wait for terrible offenses.
Ralph Malbrough is a contributing writer and Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast or download the Saints Happy Hour Podcast.