The Good: Passing offense
The only thing that did not look completely terrible for the New Orleans Saints on Monday night was Tyler Shough, Chris Olave, and the rest of the receivers. Shough threw for 286 yards and 1 touchdown and Olave had 8 catches for 116 yards, including multiple catches to move the chains on third down. Devaughn Vele also had a good night, catching 6 passes for 54 yards and a toe tap touchdown, albeit in garbage time. Juwan Johnson also contributed with 6 catches for 59 yards. This was about all that didn’t
go completely wrong for the Saints last night. They have their QB, WR1 and WR2, and a good TE, but that is about it.
The Bad: Defense
The Saints defense gave a pitiful effort on a night where they should have been more amped up than any point during the season. On the 20th anniversary of the Domecoming, the Saints defense got utterly dominated, surrendering 45 points to the rival Falcons. They allowed over 400 yards of offense, got no turnovers, had only one sack, and forced only two punts. The Falcons scored on six straight drives not counting the one at the end of the half, and had five drives that went over 65 yards. Neither the passing defense nor the rushing defense looked good, as Michael Penix Jr. completed 15/20 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown, while Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. ran 33 times for 207 yards (6.3 yards per carry) and 5 touchdowns. The Saints only had one tackle for loss outside of the sack and allowed 7.5 yards per play. Kaden Elliss and Carl Granderson both missed the game due to injury, but the Saints problems on defense go way deeper than that.
The Ugly: Yet another slow start
The Saints once again, for the fourth game in a row, looked totally helpless in the first half. They have not held the lead at halftime in any game this year, and in fact have trailed at halftime in 17 of Kellen Moore’s 21 games as head coach. This is clearly a coaching issue, as they have yet to show they can have the team ready to play from the opening snap. If this doesn’t improve a change may be needed after only two seasons, but if it has to happen it has to happen.
