It’s TIME TO CHANGE New Orleans Saints’ Approaches After Three-Phase Failure Lead to Seattle BLOWOUT

It’s TIME TO CHANGE New Orleans Saints’ Approaches After Three-Phase Failure Lead to Seattle BLOWOUT

The New Orleans Saints offense desperately needs more creativity, but that won’t just come down to the play calling. We got all that and a little bit of land yap for you on today’s episode of Locked on Saints. You are Locked On Saints, your daily New Orleans Saints podcast, part of the Locked On. Your team every day. Oh, what is good Huda nation and Huda family? I am your host, your friend Ross Jackson, New Orleans native, your New Orleans Saints expert and credentialed member of the media covering those New Orleans Saints as the Saints beat writer over at louisianaaports.net. Now, on today’s episode of Locked on Saints, we’re going to go through phase by phase after a three-phase failure by the Saints in their game up against the Seattle Seahawks. So, take a look at special teams, which is not up to the standard that it once was. Defense, which needs to figure something out when it comes to its pass rush, and the offense, which could use more creativity, but it’s not as simple as just calling different plays. We got all that coming up for you on today’s episode. We appreciate you very much, whether it’s your first time or your next time being here with us this time, making us your first listen, and being an everydayer here on the show, which is a proud part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team everyday. Today’s episode is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if that first $5 bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head over to fanduel.com today to get started. The New Orleans Saints offense is in need of some more creativity in order to really be able to take advantage of what it is they’re trying to do, which is open the offense up. The New Orleans Saints are sitting at a 4.4 yard per play average so far this season. And that’s number 28 in the NFL. Only better than the Cleveland Browns, the Carolina Panthers, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Tennessee Titans. Not necessarily the teams that you want to be in conversation around if you’re any team in the NFL, let alone a young rebuilding team that’s at the beginning of a multi-year process, but of course has aspirations of things moving a little bit faster. At this rate, things aren’t going to move very fast for the New Orleans Saints. And so adding a little bit more creativity or rather being able to take advantage of a little bit more creativity is going to be a big part of the New Orleans Saints finally being able to do that. And that takes complimentary football. I’m not going to start jumping around the defensive side and the special teams side. But there are certain things around defense and special teams that has not necessarily allowed the New Orleans Saints to open up the offense the way that they want. I’ve seen a lot of speculation that Kell Moore and the New Orleans Saints offense are not dialing up deep shots. They 100% are. They’re in the plays. They’re built in. But when you’re down 14 points before the 8-minute mark uh passes or just as the 8minute mark passes in the first half, defenses know what it is that you’re going to do and they keep a shell over the top with two deep safeties to take away all of those routes. That’s exactly what the what the Arizona Cardinals did as well. We saw the San Francisco 49ers play a little bit more middle of field coverage and the Saints take a little bit more advantage of that. But obviously going up against Seattle that was not available for New Orleans because of the massive hole that they were dug into because of their inability to move the football on offense, their inability to stop the football on defense and their special teams failures as well. So, the New Orleans Saints did not put themselves in position to really take advantage of the creativity that Kell Moore has used. Uh, they have used play action. They have been using things like RPOS’s as well as zone reads, things like that. Not so much the zone reads or read options as much as maybe we thought that we would see, but they are using RPOS’s and they’re absolutely using motion. It’s part of one of the things and as well as tempo. Those two things in particular are things that have shown that this Saints team or have kind of exposed the cracks in the foundation when it comes to discipline, penalties, things like that. One of the things that the Saints have not been able to really get going with is their second action or rather are their second action opportunities. Uh scramble drills, being able to throw the football after a play breaks down and the quarterback gets on the move. the g general rules and guidelines that are a part of that and the Saints have to do a little bit of work in terms of that. Spencer Rattler highlighted it after the game up against Seattle. I asked Kellen Moore about it on Monday and he echoed the need to be able to continue to build on what they can do once a play breaks down because you got two parts of a play. You have the play that is on time and you have the play the part of the play that is not on time. And the Saints right now when the play is not on time, whatever the guidelines are, whatever the rules are, they’re not working. And so the Saints have to get away have to figure out a way to figure that out as well, which could add a little bit more creativity because it lets you play a little bit of that playground brand of football that works in today’s NFL. Let’s go a step further as we always do here on Tuesdays where we dive into a little bit of the deeper analytics. Uh not only are the Saints just sitting at 4.4 yards per play, which is number 28th in the NFL, they’re also 29th in the NFL with just five net yards per attempt. So, net yards per attempt. What that is is that it takes your total number of passing yards on a season, subtracts your sack yardage, and then divides that remaining uh total by the number of passing attempts that you have had. So, it takes into account sacks and protecting the quarterback, the Saints right now, 5.0, exactly five yards of or five net yards per attempt, excuse me. Number 29 in the NFL. And again, the teams just below them, Carolina, Cleveland, Tennessee, the same three teams M or the same teams minus Cincinnati when it comes to yards per play as well. So, not the class that you want to be in if you are the New Orleans Saints. Here’s the something that the Saints can continue to build off of. And this is a big part of the also not necessarily pushing the ball downfield uh piece of the equation. Spencer Rattler with a 2.49 second time to throw. It’s the second fastest in the NFL amongst the 30 quarterbacks that have taken at least or had at least 50 passing attempts so far this season. So, they’re getting the ball out quickly when those timing routes are working, but they’re not necessarily able to push the ball downfield in that time. And so finding ways to get quick uh options downfield, not facing quick pressure, holding up a little bit better as an offensive line in terms of that protection and then looking to get the ball downfield, I think are all things that the New Orleans Saints would certainly benefit from as they move forward. As they go into the rushing game, the Saints right now, uh number 22 in the NFL in yards per rush, that’s a very basic stat, the amount of yards divided by the amount of rushes. Very, very simple. But we can go a little bit of a step further. yards before contact. Saints right now number 28 in the NFL. Yards after contact number 12 in the NFL. So what does that mean? That means that a lot of the rushing yards the Saints are picking up. And this is something we’ve hounded on over the course of the first couple of weeks as well, but we’re coming back to it here because same thing is the truth. The Saints rushing yardage is being picked up and created by the running backs, not by the offensive line in front of the running backs. that has been a big issue for the New Orleans Saints really for a little while now, but certainly has been a big issue for New Orleans over the course of this year. So, maybe another opportunity there to look at some potential creativity and finding ways to be able to get some yards before contact, freeing up what you can do in the run game. The Saints abandoned the run game early in week one up against Arizona, stuck with it in week two, and then maybe didn’t get away from it when they needed to in week three. Although I don’t think that in that third or fourth quarter going away from the run game would have helped them close the gap at all. Uh but it was curious to see the Saints sort of lean in after going for it on fourth down twice early with one of those being erased by penalty. Um to go from that to kicking field goals late in the first half when you’re down a bunch and then running the football again when you’re down a bunch in a blowout. Those are some interesting calls. So, be interesting to see how the Saints now take that going into this Buffalo Bills game on Sunday and try to figure out what they can do to try to bring in a little bit more creativity and help to open up that offense against a very good Buffalo Bills football team on the road. It’s going to be a challenge. Now, the New Orleans Saints need complimentary football in order to really be able to maximize the offense, which is why we turn our eyes to the defense next, which needs to get something figured out when it comes to generating pressure. We got that coming up for you as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints, part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked On Saints brought to you our friends over at 5Hour Energy Caffeine. Just got a major flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy Shots because they deliver the tasty caffeine that you need in 17 bold flavors. Each of those 2 oz shots is packed with the caffeine of a premium 12oz cup of coffee plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. My favorite thing about 5Hour Energy is that portable size, right? Take them with you on the golf course, take them with you to work, take them with you on a workout, wherever it is that you need, you’re going to be able to take those with you. One of my favorite playh flavors, blue raspberry. Blue Raz tends to be my favorite for a lot of things and that’s not uh out of the ordinary or any different when it comes to 5hour energy. So enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. Go grab your favorites that you know that you’ll love or get bold by trying something new in store or at www.5ourgy.com or Amazon today. All right, family. The New Orleans Saints need to continue to dig and dig and dig so they can start to more consistently put pressure on opposing quarterbacks if they want to start to show some improvement and growth before the season is over. We appreciate you very much for being here with us as we continue through our deep dive here on a Tuesday. Take a look at some of the more important but not so standard in uh analytics that kind of give you a little bit of that kind of help to tell the story of the game uh in the most recent week. And so we’re taking a look back at this 44 to13 loss up against the New Orleans Saints with an eye towards the future. The Saints right now um 23.8% 8% of the time on defense. Are they generating pressure? According to Pro Football Focus via our friends over at True Media, which is where you’re getting a lot of these numbers, by the way, that’s number 21 in the NFL. And so, the the 21st pressure percentage in the league. Now, different analytic sites will have different numbers and things like that. So, I’m just working with this set for right now so we don’t end up throwing a bunch of numbers out there that aren’t necessarily necessary, but this is something that the Saints have to get fixed. I mean, this was a team that went into week three tied for tied for second place with most sacks in the NFL and came into this game up against Seattle and had a pretty hard time getting pressure on the quarterbacks, getting pressure on uh Sam Darnold in particular. And that was a part of the reason why. And and even here’s the other thing too. When they even got pressure on Sam Darnold, they weren’t able to finish at the quarterback and so those turned into big plays. We saw that immediately in the uh in the first half or in the first quarter, first drive actually, first defensive drive. Two different things that happened. Uh we saw Brian Brazie get back into the end zone or get back into the back field on Sam Darnold but couldn’t finish the play. Sam Darnold escapes. He finds Jackson Smith and Jigma. Bam. It’s a 29yd gain. A couple plays later, third and eight, Isaiah Stalbert, who was another one of those young players that got some opportunities even early on in this game. A guy that I really, really like, all 6’1, 215 lbs of him, pushed through the starting center uh over in Seattle, got his hands up, knocked the ball away, would have forced the opportunity to get the defense off the field on third and eight, but then it was a penalty, an unrenecessary roughness penalty that erased that. And then after that, the Saints struggled to get pressure. And so the inconsistency there created some issues. Now, there are a couple of things to consider. Right? After a point, you get so far in the lead that all of a sudden you just kind of run the football or you kind of throw these short passes and treat that short passing game as an extension of the run game. All of that is true, but it’s just another example of the complimentary side of this. It’s why we’re looking at all three phases, but kind of blurring the lines a little bit in between, too. Because if the defense keeps scores off the board and the special teams keep scores off the board, then the offense has the ability to be creative and play those mixed downs, that mixed down football that Kell Moore likes to talk about to where you have rund downs and passing downs and nothing’s an obvious rushing down, nothing’s an obvious passing down. And for the Saints defense, they’re creating opportunities for the opposing offense to play those mixedown opportunities. And that is keeping the pass rush at bay because there’s not a lot of needing, you know, uh, an obvious passing down. I mean, uh, Seattle didn’t, they got what, 41 points in before they converted their first third down because they rarely even got into third down opportunities. And so when you’re playing that, you’re not in mixed down situations. You’re not in third and longs. you’re not in third and middles where you feel like this team is going to have to throw the football and that ends up making a big big difference as well. So, finding ways to maybe get a little bit more creative in terms of that too, running more stunts, more twists, choosing to blitz a little bit more. Those could be some opportunities there that we’ll look to see if Brandon Sale starts to incorporate in his defense. Brandon Sale is an aggressive, good defensive coach and so I think eventually we’re going to start to see him change a little bit of what it is that he is asking these players to do in order to be able to help maximize them a bit more. I was asked by our good friend Matt Mccona who hosts a locked onlu podcast and of course is over at louisianaapassports.net. He and I were on radio together on Monday afternoon uh over on U after further review and he asked me do I think that this team is better with Chase Young in the lineup in addition to on the offensive side guys like Trevor Penning and Tali Fonga and I gave as honest an answer as I could. I said I think they have the potential to be better but just because you have the players doesn’t mean that you have to play. Those are different things. And so I think that it does get better in terms of your potential by getting Chase Young back, which ideally the Saints find a way to do this week after he’s missed three weeks with that calf strain. Uh but you still have to be able to perform. And much like when Brian Brezie got to Sam Darnold, but couldn’t finish the play, you can get to the quarterback all you want if you can’t finish the play. Those guys are running scrambled drills really well. to the point to where Kell Moore was highlighting the things that the other teams are doing well in scramble drills and talking about his own teams need to improve in that area. You can see the value of it going up against New Orleans. Couple of other things to keep an eye out on. The Saints are typically just kind of middle of the pack in most major stat categories. Passing yards allowed, rushing yards allowed, rushing yards per um per rush, all that kind of stuff. But they are number 36, excuse me, 26. There’s not 36 teams in the NFL. uh number 26 in the league on third down conversion. So still a place uh on defense that they’re struggling third down defense. Now here’s something I thought was really interesting against the New Orleans Saints pass rush. So getting back to this 2.96 seconds is the average time to throw against the Saints defense for the 30 quarterbacks that have at least 50 passing attempts. All right. So, 2.9 seconds is how much time a quarterback typically gets before throwing a football uh in the going up against the Saints. There are only two quarterbacks in the NFL right now out of that group of 30, Caleb Williams with the Chicago Bears and Gino Smith with the Las Vegas Raiders that have a longer time to throw than that. Caleb Williams at 2.99, Gino Smith at 3.05. Everybody else, every other one of those 28 quarterbacks in the league gets the ball out faster than the time to throw that the New Orleans Saints allow because of the lack of pressure that they get. That’s going to be a big thing to keep an eye out on moving forward. The Saints have got to be able to get quicker pressure. Not just get pressure, but get after the quarterback within 3 seconds, within 2 and 1/2 seconds on average. finding ways to do that would would help them out massively. It’d be a monumental difference if they figured out ways to get quick pressure as opposed to pressure 3 4 seconds into the snap. Um, Saints got a good game out of Pete Warner in the run game last week up against Seattle. 13 tackles, led the team there, led the game in tackles, however, continues to struggle in coverage. Three catches allowed with 50 plus yards during that time. I mentioned Isaiah Stalberg, the young linebacker who got a little bit of an opportunity. Expect him to continue to get more opportunities as the season goes on. Not necessarily at the detriment of anybody else, but he’s a guy that they they gave a shot along with young rookie Quincy Riley and he ended up having a couple of impact plays in his moment, even though one of them got erased because of penalty. These are things that the Saints like that they’re seeing from a guy like Isaiah Stalird. So, just another player to keep an eye out on. But until they get everything fixed pass rush-wise, doesn’t matter who they put out there. That’s got to be one of those big things that they adjust and start getting home to those quarterbacks a little bit sooner, a little bit earlier, and a little bit more consistently for sure. Coming up next, let’s go to special teams where the standard is not the standard that you once knew. We got that coming up for you next as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints, part of lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked on Saints is brought to you by friends over at FanDuel, America’s number one sports book and the place that you need to go because right now FanDuel is making sure that every weekend’s kickoff is set up big with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can place just $5 for your first $5 bet. And if that bet wins, you can get $300 in bonus bets used across the app on odds, lines, props, spreads, stuff that you’re used to, but also more player props. Uh uh same game parlays for a bigger payout, uh live betting, which is one of my favorite features. One of my big things that I always recommend, and I’ve recommended it a bunch here on this show, is you take your first $5, you go and find a big spread in the NFL, and you bet on the money line. Well, this weekend gives you a pretty good choice. The New Orleans Saints 16 and 12 point underdogs on the road up against the Buffalo Bills. So, you’re ready to play? Download the FanDuel app today by using your phone, heading over to fanduel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. Let’s get it. Who that nation? The New Orleans Saints special teams unit does not look like the New Orleans special teams unit of the recent past. I said that the standard isn’t the standard that you knew. And actually, I don’t think that that’s true. I misspoke when I said that. I think the standard and the expectation and the aspirations are all still very high. There’s no doubt about that. However, the performance is not up to snuff. The performance, the execution, those things are not working. You look at the or are not up to the standard of where they used to be. So, it it’s the rising to the standard that’s really seems to be the issue here. And a a pretty good example is the blocked punt on Kai Kroger up against the Seattle Seahawks where a free runner number 23 came right off that left edge because of what Kell Moore described as people not being on the same page when it came to that side of the protection unit. and that that wasn’t just one player, but instead the group of players that all kind of either got confused or weren’t on the same page or all kind of expected somebody else to do something, whatever it might be, that there was some confusion in terms of being able to execute that. So, yet another thing that this New Orleans Saints team will have to continue to work on in the upcoming weeks, but just something that is, I think, symptomatic of a larger issue, which is that the execution on the special team side just simply isn’t there. Here are some examples, and we’ll kind of roll through this rapid fire, but then probably come back to a couple of these, but punt return yards allowed number 30 in the NFL. Remember number 30 meaning um third most in the NFL, right? 32 is the most, 31 is the second most allowed, and then 30 where the Saints are uh most third most allowed in terms of punt return yards at 20.7 per per return. Uh yards per kick return allowed, number 31 in the NFL. So, second most in the league. uh field goal percentage for the Saints, right? Blake groupy going out there and kicking field goals. 57.1% number 31 in the NFL, second lowest in that case. Net yards per punt, which takes into consideration not just how far Kai Kroger is punting, but also the return yards that are being led up. The Saints dead last in the NFL when it comes to that metric 32 allowing 32.2 yards or rather having 32.2 yards per uh net yards per punt so far this season. And then finally opposing starting field position where the opponent is typically starting with the football on average right yards yard line wise. This is a part of the hidden yardage game. Ideally, the further back a team is starting, the better off you are as a defense because that’s more yards that separate where that offense starts and where the end zone is. It’s super rudimentary, but it’s a very important thing. And this is one of those things that NFL teams pay a lot of attention to, especially when it comes to special teams in what they call the hidden yardage area of the game. You talk about flipping the field, the Saints have done the opposite of that. Right now, when it comes to opposing starting field position, the average for opponents is the 33.2 yd line. So, their 33 yd line, that’s number 29 in the NFL. That is the uh in that case the fourth the fourth worst starting field position to surrender for an NFL team. And so for New Orleans, they are putting themselves in position not to have to defend a portion of the field to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they’re still not putting themselves in position to have the benefit of defending a larger portion of the field in terms of what it is across the NFL that is considered, you know, the average, which is right around sort of the 28 to 30 yard mark. And so the Saints are hovering around a 3 to 5 yardd difference there. And I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but remember that’s an average. So the difference between that could be starting on the 13 yardd line at one point, but then also starting on the four, but then allowing an opportunity to start on the 45 yd line on another point, and then your average would still hover around that mid30s area. And so you would like to see the Saints not be in that situation. And so for New Orleans, I think this is going to be a big thing that they need to be able to address as they move forward. Finding better ways to clamp down when it comes to punt coverage in particular, forcing some disadvantageous starting field position for opposing teams. Yes, having cut JT Gray does not look like it’s paying off for the Saints so far. However, if the goal here is to manage the growing pains and try to come out on the other side with younger options at that position, then there’s opportunities to build that. There’s chances to get that done. However, uh the Saints are not off to the greatest start when it comes to that right now. So, that’s got to be a big thing that they continue to get fixed up. Net yards per punt continues with that as well. That’s not just about the punter, that’s about that coverage unit, too. The 95 yard punt return by the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday was a franchise record for Seattle and could have probably been called with a block in the back. But you still have to have those opportunities to get downhill and go to make some of those plays, make those tackles, and wrangle those ball carriers. If those gunners can’t get there, they can’t be the first two tacklers can’t be the last line of defense. And if you look at the way that that punt return broke out, and you might say Kai Kroger maybe outkicked the coverage a little bit. His 61yard punt was one of the 10 longest distance punts in the New Orleans Saints history in terms of distance. Like several people tied at 61. Several people tied at a couple of other numbers as well, but one of the top 10 longest distances in history for the New Orleans Saints. So he might have outkicked the coverage there a little bit. Some of us are lucky enough to do that in our life, but uh when it comes down to it, have to make sure that your first line of defense is not your last line of defense when it comes to your special teams play, especially in punt coverage. All right, coming up in tomorrow’s episode, Film Watch Wednesday, we’ll dive into after looking at the analytics here. We’ll dive into some of the film and what it has to tell us about that performance up against the Seattle Seahawks. Thanks for being here, y’all. Don’t forget to check out the Insider program for more bonus and exclusive content. And of course, check us out on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network every day. Appreciate you very much. As always, make it a part of your day, part of your routine for saying yes to me and the show. If you see me, please say hi. And if you need anything else on your New Orleans Saints in between these episodes, make sure you follow me on your favorite social media, Ross Jackson na. Hit me up. Let me know what the family’s doing. Let them know how you living. Let me know how you moming them. And trust Nation, I’ll holler at you.

The New Orleans Saints offense needs a creative spark to ignite their struggling unit. Kellen Moore’s playcalling faces scrutiny as the team ranks 28th in yards per play, struggling to capitalize on deep shots and second-action opportunities.

Defensive woes plague the Saints, with a pass rush generating pressure on just 23.8% of plays. The absence of Chase Young looms large, but coordinator Brandon Staley must find ways to disrupt opposing quarterbacks more consistently.

Special teams performance has plummeted, ranking near the bottom in punt and kick return yards allowed. The decision to cut J.T. Gray may have backfired, leaving the unit searching for answers.

0:00 Saints Offense Needs Creativity
10:09 Defense Has to Bolster Pass Rush
19:22 Special Teams Not Meeting Standards

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