GREEN BAY, Wis. — The New Orleans Saints and their fans are caught in place worse than the football purgatory of mediocrity or the wilderness of having no quarterback and no hope. We are in what feels like some cursed land where we will never actually witness a Saints quarterback remain upright for any stretch of time again.
The Saints led the Green Bay Packers 17-0 at halftime, and while not dominating the game as much as the score might indicate, were in complete control of it. Then on the Saints first drive of the second half Derek Carr got sacked for the 11th time in 11 quarters of football and was injured. Predicting Carr would be injured was as obvious as it was inevitable.
The Saints didn't score a single point in the second half and lost 18-17.
The Saints have an offensive line is so problematic, it only took them a little more than 10 quarters to put the entire season in peril.
It isn't just the 12 sacks the Saints have allowed, they are also averaging just 3.4 yards a carry and that's with Taysom Hill averaging 6.6 yards! To make Saints Sundays more fun I'd suggest taking a drink every time the Saints give up a sack or have run that goes for less than three yards but that'd put lives at risk.
The Saints have invested nearly $200 million in contract extensions to Cesar Ruiz, Eric McCoy, and Ryan Ramczyk and they drafted Trevor Penning 19th overall. It might seem comparable to when Warner Brothers spent $90 million to make the Batgirl movie and then burned all the tapes instead of letting the public watch it.
The Saints after Carr got injured had five offensive possessions and the only one that lasted more than six plays was their final one which ended in a missed Blake Grupe field goal. It was eight plays.
The Saints offense even before Carr was hurt had devolved into, “Let's see if Chris Olave can do a magic trick.”
An offense with Olave, a healthy Michael Thomas, and an electric Rashid Shaheed should not be averaging 17.5 points a game. By the way, Shaheed had 1 rush, 2 targets, and no catches. Could we get the guy responsible for 2 of the Saints 5 touchdowns the ball – I don't know – a couple times more than ZERO catches?
The defense continued to be incredible, but incredible is not perfect, and demanding one side of the ball be perfect every week never really works. See Drew Brees and the 2014-2016 Saints if you have any questions about that.
Green Bay and their head coach Matt LaFleur had a really nice game plan to attack the Saints defense and once the Packers stopped stepping on rakes the entire first half, their offense started to function.
Jordan Love wasn't really that great because the Saints defensive backs played remarkable coverage all day. A 17-0 lead is always just a couple mistakes or a pass interference call from complete evaporation. The Saints offense being adrift at sea let the Packers just hang around until a couple penalties and a two-point conversion had the game in doubt.
Alontae Taylor is a budding star at corner and while the pass rush wasn't as dominating as it was the first two weeks, Packers quarterback Jordan Love only had two decent drives which weren't penalty aided. The Packers managed just 95 yards rushing on 26 carries and that included 39 yards of scrambling from Love. The brick wall run defense combined with the Saints talent in the secondary means the Saints defense is incredible and it's going to keep them in games.
The good news for the Saints is Derek Carr's injury doesn't appear to be season-ending and he could be back in weeks, not months. The bad news is the word is out on the NFL streets the Saints offense can't block a soul and defenses are going put the Saints offense in absolute hell until that's figured out.
I've always thought the most difficult problems for a head coach to fix in season are major ones on the side of the ball he doesn't coordinate. Don't believe me? When did Sean Payton ever fix one of those terrible Saints defenses during a season? This is defensive minded head coach Dennis Allen's task; fix the offensive line or the 2023 Saints season dies. Debacle-filled offensive lines get quarterbacks sent to the hospital and promising seasons turned into burning trash.
The Saints already did the first part, will they avoid the second?
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.
