The New Orleans Saints ended the preseason on a high note, defeating the Dallas Cowboys 27-24. After two ugly performances to begin the preseason, the victory provided plenty of reasons for optimism heading into the regular season.
However, there is one issue from the preseason that shouldn’t simply be forgotten because of a better showing in the finale. Penalties.
Through three preseason games, the Saints had 24 accepted penalties for 201 yards. That’s an average of eight penalties and 67 yards per
game. The problem was especially noticeable in the first two games.
New Orleans committed eight accepted penalties for 66 yards in its preseason-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Things got considerably worse the following week against the Los Angeles Rams, when the Saints were hit with 12 accepted penalties for 96 yards in a 34-0 blowout loss.
That’s a lot of self-inflicted damage, especially for a team trying to establish consistency heading into the regular season.
The good news is the Saints cleaned things up against Dallas. They had just four accepted penalties for 39 yards, a significant improvement from the previous two games. That’s enough to make this feel more like a warning sign than a full-blown concern.
Preseason games also come with plenty of variables. Young players are getting significant reps, different combinations are playing together and mistakes are more common. It’s reasonable to expect some of those issues to disappear once the regular-season starters are on the field together.
But the Saints can’t afford for the penalty problems to follow them into the regular season. Penalties that stall drives, erase positive plays or give opponents extra opportunities can quickly determine the outcome of the game. New Orleans showed against Dallas that it can play a cleaner game. Now they need to make that the standard.
So, is it an overreaction to be concerned? Probably, for now. But after 24 accepted penalties in three preseason games, it’s certainly something worth monitoring once the games start counting.
