NEW ORLEANS — In two weeks, the Saints have gone from sky high to the lowest of lows. Welcome to the 2021 football season.
No. 4 No Pressure
The Saints didn’t pressure Sam Darnold nearly enough in the first half. Darnold’s numbers were crazy good because he had time.
Darnold in the first half: 16-26, 216 yards, 2 TD's QBR: 145
For reference, these are his numbers for the second half.
Darnold in the second half: 10-18, 89 yards, 1 INT, QBR: 47.9
The Saints defense made adjustments and got better, but they couldn’t make up ground because…
No. 3 A Train Wreck
The offense was a train wreck.
In particular, their ability to protect Jameis Winston.
Drew Brees was not the same quarterback he had been, but one thing he could still do at an elite level is set protection. He could recognize defenses before the snap and adjust.
This year, Erik McCoy was supposed to take that job, but he’s out. Without Brees or McCoy, the Saints struggled badly in protection.
The Panthers wracked up four sacks and 11 quarterback hits and Jameis Winston has no time.
Winston’s QB Rating in Charlotte was the worst single game of his NFL career.
Alvin Kamara rushed for five yards and the Saints were 2-of-11 on third down. By every measurable stat, the offense was terrible.
No. 2 Missing too much
The bottom line is, the Saints were just missing too many guys.
Sean Payton said the fact that they were missing coaches wasn’t the reason they lost. Alvin Kamara said no one cares, but he’s right.
The Saints will get Michael Thomas and Erik McCoy back on offense. And on defense, they were missing Marcus Davenport and Tanoh Kpassangon and David Onyemata on the D-Line, Kwon Alexander at lineback and Marshon Lattimore and CJ Gardner Johnson in the secondary.
All of those guys will be back. That’s part of the reason I wouldn’t give up on this team yet.
The other part is…
No. 1 The Saints Start Slow
We’ve seen this movie before.
From 2017-20, the Saints were mediocre at the start and in all four of those seasons, a combined 3-5. Call this one another mediocre start.
But here’s the thing, from ’17 to ’20 this team was 46-and-10 after week two. That’s the best record in the NFL.
This team is still enormously talented with reinforcements coming and Sean Payton is still one of the NFL’s elite coaches.
Just like the Saints overcame a clunker in Las Vegas in week two last season to win 12 games, my guess is they’ll overcome this week two clunker as well.
I know it was ugly, but that’s my number one takeaway from the week two mess in Charlotte.