Hebert: Saints hit new low in loss to Rams, but who takes accountability?

Hebert: Saints hit new low in loss to Rams, but who takes accountability?

Well, I I don’t know. JV versus varsity, whatever. We want to set the tone, get the ball first. We go uh three straight, three and outs. I knew it was going to be a long day when I saw that come about. You know, control the e and flow of a game. Time possession. They had the ball almost 28 minutes more. You can have awesome defense. You uh when you’re scoring 10 points, you’re not going to win too many games. So, what now? We’ve had three against Tampa and now 10 against the Rams. who’s uh definitely an NFC contender. I thought like the Bills games, the Rams are just playing around with us. Uh but they did it more convincingly cuz these numbers are unbelievable when you look at third down red zone and all that. So it’s not even frustrating. I said, “Damn it, I’m not even taking notes no more. I’m go smoke a cigar. You not to cry at stuff. You’re going to go run errands.” No, you kind of mockingly make jokes at your own team. It’s not a joke cuz this is reality. The Saints are one and eight. You might say, “Oh, but Bob, you got to be patient.” Uh, no. Okay. Well, I guess we could be patient back in 1967 when the team started out 1 and8 or uh 1980. Oh, I think that’s when the bags came out and that’s when we dropped the S on the name and they became the ants. They were 0 and4 till they finally won. So, uh the one and eight start is the club’s second worst in franchise history. I mean, we just uh the bad news instead of bad news bears uh bad news ain’t uh I mean it’s that bad. It’s humiliating. If you’d have told me which person United States Okay, I’m going to give you 23 points in the Saints and you still don’t cover. This is the National Football League. It’s supposed to be pros versus pros. Well, short and hell don’t look like that uh with the Saints right now. Okay. What’s the common denominator as of late right now? I think uh okay, we have a new coach. You know, first year coaches can’t get fired. Kell Moore is not going to have Shawn Payne’s personality, and he never will. The GM has to come in the picture. The general manager who got these players and who’s running the team. No. How can you not be held accountable? And and it’s just tough love. It’s the pros. It’s not just like we got to sugarcoat this. No, you demand people and you want the product out there that you want to support. So, it’s just the way it is. No, the product is just, hey, you have to win. If you don’t win, then changes have to be made. And you said, well, how long do we have to be uh patient? The NFL, again, like I said, first year head coaches get fired. Uh that’s just the way the NFL is. Uh why we didn’t even belong on the field of the Rams. They had 30 first downs, not 20. We had 10. Third down. We’ve sucked on third down offense. We even worse. Now we’re only 22%. We went even low 30s. We were two of nine. They were where you want to be. They were seven or 14 50%. Okay. What about fourth down? Okay. How about be aggressive? Uh we were aggressive two times 0 for two. They were aggressive on fourth down 100%. Two for two. Red zone. Uh you’re not going to beat anybody. Uh we were one of three 33%. That needs to be you need to do that times two. I’m not saying you got to be 100%. That needs to be like um 65 to 70% getting touchdowns. Well, uh they were 80%. They were four or five goal to goal. Oh well, we got to punch it in. Uh they were four for four 100%. It’s just ter It’s just horrendous. It’s terrible football. It’s the same song and dance. Uh like I said, you have to score to win, but you look all that you look all third down, red zone. No, it’s the same message every week. Nothing. Offensive plays. No, this could be in an NFL game if you’re a high efficient offense. This could be a half. We ran for 40 damn plays the whole game. You remember I say you got to be 65 or more, but if you don’t convert on third down, we ran only 40 plays. Okay, we need to run the ball now. We getting so far behind, but it’s like two weeks in a row. Have we attempted to run the ball? No. We had 14 rushing attempts. Thank god we got a little spark with Taesm Hill. you know, let’s put him at quarterback. See what’s going to happen. He ran 29 yards. And ironically, that was the longest run of the season, not Alvin Chimera or anybody. We had a 19 yard run going into the game, but that was a 29 yard run, but you could see that the Rams are a contender and the Saints are the worst team in the NFL. Bobby, what are you talking about? We’re better than the Titans. We’re better than the Jets. We’re better than the Dolphins. I don’t know. We got to play them. We got to wait and see. All I know going into this game and we didn’t win, uh, we got shellacked. We had the number one overall pick. So, I don’t know. Don’t they give the number one overall pick the team with, uh, who’s the worst? There’s no lottery. No, there’s no lottery. It’s not like the NBA. No. If you worse, you get to pick first like the Titans did last year. Well, uh, that’s where we at right now. Now, we go to Carolina, man. Carolina, the way they roll and they can run the ball the way they they smash in the mouth. They’re five and four right now. They’re probably going to be a touchdown favorite. I don’t know how Vegas is going to put that, but who would have thought? Who would have thunk it that Carolina that they’re training way better than the New Orleans Saints are right now? No, it was so. But Steve, I have to disagree with you on this cuz it was hard. It was one of those kind of games. And don’t give that uh uh diamond in the rough. Ain’t no diamond in the rough. Look where we drafted him. He’s the future quarterback maybe. So, you got to give like when who in the hell is this for the Saints? You know who played hard and earned his keep? He’s diamond in the rough. Jonah Williams who that nation fans say, “Who in the hell is Jonah Williams?” Diamond. He’s the diamond in the rough. Fifth year veteran out of Wever State, you know, out of Utah, Weaver State, a free agent we got from Detroit. But guess what? We cut him. We had to activate him in the practice squad. He had the best showing. He had a nice sack. He had three total tackles, two unassisted. He had a quarterback hurry and two tackles for a loss. So yeah, we bragging on Jonah Williams who our own fans don’t even know who in the hell is Jonah Williams. That shows you how bad it is right now for the Saints. Okay, Puka Naku. I’m tired of talking about him. I butcher his name all the time cuz just so frustrates me. He’s like a running back receiver. Can we tackle him? The one who tackled him hard. A good thing we knocked him out. He’d had well over 100 yards. uh the Demario Davis kind of landed on his shoulder, but he had 98 yards from scrimmage and like I said, we had to knock him out. Well, today he had uh eight targets, uh seven catches, so 95 yards. He had that one run on the goal line for three. So, and then can we still cover the tight end? I don’t think we ever could cover the tight end. It don’t matter who we play. They had four of them. The Rams have four uh tight ends. Is it a law firm or what? Ferguson, Allen, Higgby, and Parkinson. It’s like a damn law law firm. Nobody knows who them tight ends are for the Rams and all they did was kill us. They had 10 catches, 114 yards tight ends. Now, I heard of Higgby. You know, you try to say, “Well, who is the rookie?” The the draft, right, from Oregon. Yep. They got the real Oregon tight end. Oh, wait. Joan Johnson, he probably scored a touchdown for us. He looked good that played. He had a long gain 12 yards. But look at it’s like yeah the law firm the law firm gashes along with uh Puka Nua and Devonte Adams. Devonte Adams he had a couple of touchdowns five catches but we go I was out there in practice in Irvine they man like what um it was a Hollywood type like practice too late on him. No no that that everybody’s up on the training block to me. Uh, we don’t tackle and we might tackle every now and then, but we’re so inconsistent doing that. To show you how bad it’s been, I got to find this on my notes, Steve, cuz now Matthew Stafford. Okay. What? Matthew Stafford in nine games against the Saints, he’s thrown 23 touchdown passes. So, it was like either two plus. He was going to get for sure two. So, he did get the plus. He got four. So, ended up with four touchdowns, no picks. Quarterback rating 141. Like I said, Shock uh 81 quarterback rating. You know, it it just goes on and on and you look and it’s just you can’t sugar coat anything. It’s just a bunch of if you try and sugar coat it, just a bunch of BS. And um now he was active. Justin Reed uh he finally had like double digit tackles. I don’t know if that’s good for your safety. You know, we always used the Demario Davis. He had 13 total tackles along with Justin Reed. I think Chase Young had a nice sack. He had a quarterback hurry, a tackle for loss. Uh Brian Brezie, uh a couple of quarterback hurries, but you could probably put on one hand how many uh players on the Saints that the other teams would want. And you could probably say, “Oh, we want them as depth, but maybe not as a starter.” Well, again, I say, uh, who’s in charge of getting those players? So, that’s why you have to hold everybody accountable. uh uh you have to you have to look in the mirror. You can’t be like um well, it’s going to get better. It’s going to get better. And I said to be uh patient, but it does matter how you lose. This is embarrassing just like it was the Seattle game. That’s an embarrassing loss that was both on the road and the Bucks game to score. But our defense played good against the Bucks. But I think if you have a hard-fought game, you know, like the 49ers, the Cardinals or kind of the would a could have, should a time change, get within one score. Are we ever within one score this game? No. Again, the Rams were playing with us. It was like, oh man, the score is only 20 to 10 in at half. How in the hell that happened? You know, it’s like, uh, okay, just look at our stats after the first quarter. I mean, did we even go on offense? It’s almost like when we moving the ball, the game’s so out of hand that it’s like garbage. A yard garbage. Garbage dad’s garbage. Yeah, we saw Shuck starting to rip things up in the third quarter a little bit. Yeah, but then Yeah, you might make a play here or there, but I’m talking about when you’re trying to do something significant when the game’s on the line and you got to get a first downs, change the momentum. No. Uh, we we we’re not doing that. And everybody’s been a piece of this protecting the football. You know, Alvin Camar is calling out, you know, basically we got no responsibility. hold on the football, you know, whether that be Chris Alb, Jawan Johnson, whatever. But then he fumbles today. No, all those little things add up and we doing what losing teams do. Uh you lose the turnover margin, then you have uh no chance to win. Uh we going to be 0 and2 in the NFC South. I’m telling you right now, come on Saints. Uh can we go to Carolina and win? Some fans would say, well uh Bobby, we really got to look in the future. It might be in our best interest if we don’t win another game. But you never want to be in that category because you are playing for your pro football live as an individual player, but you want to be you don’t want to be in that category with the 1980 Saints when you’re one and 15. You won. You won before last game. I want to say they beat the Jets in New York to get their first win and they end up one and 15. Now we were a new franchise. We weren’t as bad as the Bucks. What uh the Bucks were what 0 and 26? I don’t know why I’m thinking that. I think I think it was more than 0 and24. They were 0 and26 as an expansion team. Guess who they beat the first win? Who’s against the Saints in the dome? So I say, you don’t be categorized and like is one of the worst teams. And that’s where we’re at right now. But if we’re going to get better, we might have to just be rock bottom and not necessarily beat a team like the Titans, beat a team like the Jets or the Dolphins. So what is that going to make us feel better about ourselves? because we have three or four wins won’t in 17 games won’t make a difference how you feel about the team with only uh having one win versus that because right now we do have the number one overall pick and what I saw today they’re going to we got to still wait and be patient to see if Shuck is the guy let him play out the season and see what he does or well we got to draft another quarterback. We knew how tough the Rams front was going to be. Yeah. Yeah. I said that I’d be shocked not because I saw it in practice and when they were out there uh um that our offensive line could and we didn’t have McCoy offensive line can’t block their D line and I I I that’s just what I thought and I thought if we had a chance maybe our def defensive line could be disruptive but again when we were going against that Rams offense in training camp Matthew Stafford was not the trigger man was there was not practicing. Yeah. So no a very disheartening loss. This is to me just as disheartening as uh the Seahawks loss. I think they kind of dark horse in the NFC. You look at up and cominging uh teams and um I would just put it with with the Seahawks because um you know you look at the Bears different games uh where you’re at and this game I I I I feel like right now if we play the Rams like let’s say you know how we just saw the World Series. Oh, it went there game seven. I think it went there game seven uh with the Rams, we would lose seven games and not win one. You know, if we could This was definitely your typical Oh, looks like varsity vers JV. Yeah, I would not. No matter how many t times we played the Rams, we cannot beat them. We cannot beat them. And they’ve had our number, like I said, as of late. And uh still looking for that first regular season win in SoFi Stadium, too. Yeah. Uh, Sofi has not been kind. Anaheim used to be kind to the Saints when we went out there. Uh, but but definitely but definitely not uh SoFi uh when you break it all down. We’ve now lost, like I said, uh we’ve lost four games in a row, but we’ve lost six consecutive road games at the Rams. I don’t know uh who that nation, I don’t know what y’all think. Tell me what you feel. Uh but uh I’m very discouraged about where we’re at right now. And you only can make so many changes. You can’t get rid of all the players. So, uh, who got the players here? Who’s in charge? You got a brand new coach. So, uh, so what direction do you go? I mean, um, do you do like, uh, like who’s running the team, whatever. Do you do it? I think we trying that by committee. We have a number of general managers in the building. We have three total general managers in the Saints uh front office in the building right now trying to uh correct this and make us uh point in the right direction. Well, I think you also have to look at scouting department, huh? That’s all part of it, Scott. But then you have to look who’s in charge of this contract that oh listen like you the head coach like the buck stops here with uh when at LSU no matter where you at the coach is going to get too much of the glory or or the blame or whatever and if you had honcho you going to get too much of the glory or the blame. How much praise we always would give and it’s a big part of it we give to Shawn Payeyton and Drew Brees for sure. Well they ain’t here no more. How much praise we’d give if all of a sudden uh if we’d have only one loss we get boy whoever was the quarterback and the head coach man we doing a damn good job. You know the time the general manager truly gets a lot of credit is when you pulling pushing the right buttons and um you’re putting this your team year in and year out to have a chance to win like the Rams leies. Uh uh you look um the Eagles and their GM. So just look how the Packers have been run and how they have the youngest team and look how there’s a lot of hope there. Uh look how sorry sad sack uh Lions, but Dan Campbell gets the credit. I don’t even know who’s the GM for the Lions. Uh but wouldn’t you say he’s doing a damn good job? So I I’m just telling you fans want answers. They want answers. And if um you try different things and it’s the same song remade the same same song and dance and then you look well um who’s in charge and it’s just the way it is. So don’t be hating on me. Nobody get mad. Nothing personal against anybody. It’s just the way it is. This is tough love. This is professional football and and someone has to be held accountable and it’s just the way it is. I don’t make the rules. It’s like this in any city. You know, if if the Saints would be in New York right now, they’d be getting blasted that they’d be getting blasted. I think we uh southern gentlemen, you know, were we more we kinder? You know, it seems like, uh, can’t we all just get along? No. You know how we get along? You got to freaking win. If you win, you could be the biggest jerk in the world and have terrible communication skills, don’t want to deal with the public. If you win, it doesn’t matter. But then if you don’t win and and no one likes you, uh, like coach Kelly now, he’s viewed as a carpet bagger at LSU. He couldn’t relate to us and he’s trying to bring with the he’s dead up in our name here. It doesn’t work. You know, you got to kiss the babies and all that, hang out with with the common fans. There’s a bunch of different directions you could go. And again, uh, you could be considered a tyrant. A lot of people uh a lot of people in the coach Sabin’s coaching staff, man, they’re like, “Man, what a jerk.” And you could say, “Well, he’s our jerk or he’s my jerk, but he wins.” Yeah. You just have to win. It’s just the way it is. A lot of people are don’t like Shawn Payeyton, but I know Shawn Payeyton’s a winner. You might say, “But look how lucky the Broncos are. Aren’t they making their own luck?” Sometimes after a while, you might think, “Boy, the Broncos got a horseshoe of you know what. Look how they winning. Who’s been in charge of the Broncos? They turned that around. Shawn Payeyton. So yeah, you look at everything and um and it’s no personal shots on anyone and it’s all about the product and you could say there’s 70ome thousand people in the dome last 70ome thousand people in the Super Dome last home game. Are you kidding me? Now maybe that’s how many tickets you sold. And you don’t want the enemy fan base coming to town. where you got to win to keep your own folks at the games and want to be in that number or that’s their form of protest that you know I’ll buy season tickets I want the Saints to stay in New Orleans but until they show me a different product I ain’t going to the damn game and that’s just the way it is and I’m not I’m I’m not taking any personal shots at anybody and how things are run but all I know it’s a bottom line business what you’re saying you have to win A and if you don’t win, uh, you have a lot of haters out there. Ain’t nobody can show you no love. And that’s just it’s that PE class. And it’s not I even think we kind of nice to the sense that I am at times. Well, man, the team played hard how we lost to the Cardinals and 49ers. But no, the bottom line did you win or lose? I always tell you I’d rather win ugly than boy boy look at how entertaining that was when we lost the game. You have to win the game and you have to turn around. And the schedule is going to get a lot easier now. But uh again, right now, if we were picking, we’d be the number one overall pick because you think the Titans and the Jets or the Dolphins, whatever, uh have it have has it bad right now? How can we say we uh they have it worse than us? No, that’s just where we at right now.

The New Orleans Saints fell 34-10 to the Rams in Week 9, and it was another ugly performance to accompany Tyler Shough’s starting debut. But how does the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert see it? Here’s what he had to say after another debacle out west.

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