Saints and Kellen Moore’s Offense Have ZERO Answers in Loss to Rams. Picking studs & duds.

Saints and Kellen Moore’s Offense Have ZERO Answers in Loss to Rams. Picking studs & duds.

Well folks, welcome inside Black and Gold. Steve Geller, Jeff Noak coming to you after a Saints 34-10 loss to the Rams back from La La Land. Jeff, how were things out there? What was the whole scene like? Right. scene like right after the Dodgers just brought home well were bringing home a World Series title. Yeah. Can we can we just talk about the uh the Dodgers winning because that that seems a lot more interesting of a conversation than uh having to talk about the Saints game. Is that something you do? We’re doing a limited edition Dodgers podcast. Yeah. It’ll just be a oneoff let’s just talk about the Dodgers game. Um but no, I mean that that was fun. I enjoyed that. The funny thing was on the way home we had to we sit sat on the plane on the tarmac for a while and the reason was the Dodgers who take two planes because they have one plane for their team and one plane for everyone else. Uh they blocked us in. We couldn’t get to the to the we couldn’t get by them. They had to tow us. They had to tow us around the Dodgers two planes and and all the crazy. Anyway, but yeah, that was a bad game. It was a bad football game. Um I I don’t know how else to put it. This is a bad football team playing bad football. Um, I have a lot of negative things to say. I don’t have many positive things to say. I did come up with a few because that’s my shtick is even after the worst games, I come up with some positive things to say. But you ran 40 plays in an NFL football game. You held the ball for 16 minutes. 16. The the Rams almost had matched your time of possession on one drive in the third quarter. Oh yeah. This Saints team, it’s like just when you think you’ve seen it all kind of thing or that when you could expect less, they fi they find a new low which hurts, right? And and here’s the thing, like I went into that game and you can attest to this being like, “Guys, this is probably going to go badly.” Yeah. Right. Like why why was I trying to set the standard for that? Cuz like I expected it to be bad. I didn’t expect it to be that bad, you know? And we’ve seen the Rams over the last three years, you know. This reminded me of the game in 2023. Remember even like they’ve won four of their final five games. That was a Saints team that down the stretch of that season was playing well and they still went out to LA and got wrecked by this Rams team. It’s just a good team. It’s a good offense. It’s a good coaching staff. Matthew Stafford is a good quarterback. And when you face that type of team, it just, you know, it they did to the Saints what the Saints did to other teams during the Drew Brees Shawn Payeyton era, right? Like it it reminded me of the times they would face like the Panthers in like week 15 and the Saints were 10 and or 12 and three and the Panthers were five and 10 or the numbers don’t match up, but you get the idea. And it’s like you knew that this was going to be a 20point win. It was just a question of how you got there. And this felt like that because that’s a team with a plan. That’s a team with ambitions. It’s a team with the quarterback and the defense and the coach and the scheme. And you are a team that has none of that. Um and that’s and that’s how it looked and that’s what it was. Yeah. Was that terrible, you know, the cliche of JV versus varsity and that that’s what it looked like. Bobby has said that like after six different games this year. This one really did though. It’s like all of his rants are like all of his rants start with like I don’t know. Don’t you have to score points to win? You really do. Every single one. You really do. Sometimes I sometimes I you know I the old one like the one from two weeks ago will autoplay and I’ll have to listen to it for 30 seconds before I realize oh this isn’t the current one. This is the old one. But it’s sounds exactly the same because it’s all the same stuff over and over again. Um, yeah, it’s really sad to see a lot of the same things and not just offensively the ineptitude to score, but with defensively for me, I just got so fed up and and tired of the the tackling issues and it seems like uh Saints guys just for some reason they bounce off of defenders. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s it’s wild to me. Well, I think late in the game they were just gassed, you know, and demoralized. Like the fourth quarter of that game was when when the other team has the ball for 47 minutes, you’re not going to And it’s not it’s it’s the defense’s fault for not getting off the field. I mean, like I think it was early on two though, right? Huh? I think it was early on two, though. Oh, well, yeah. Puka, like I that’s why I kept talking going in like my X factor, can you tackle Puka? They can’t. Nope. They cannot. And they can’t cover Devonte Adams. They can’t tackle Puka. the tight ends are just running by themselves. The Rams ran 13 personnel on like uh 40 something% of their plays and they scored four touchdowns since three tight ends on the field. So, it’s not like a it’s not like oh this is such a dynamic offense we can’t keep up with it. They’re just better. They have a better plan. Um and so I’m down on a lot of stuff that there’s a few things that I’ll point to that went that went reasonably well and we’ll do that in the final segment. I’m going to be really angry in the second segment. In the first segment, I kind of want to talk about, okay, just some general stuff. I want to get into the trade deadline and like who do we think should be moved? How aggressive do we think the Saints will be? We’ll get into that in the first segment. But yeah, it’s just you want to, and I’ve talked about this a lot, like you look at the Panthers last year and they had a really rough start to the season. We we we did it for them, right? Like they came to the Superdome and they got trained. It was a train wreck for them against a team that ultimately won five games. But by the time you got to the second half of the season, you’re like, “Oh, that team’s playing better.” You know, that the football is improving. You’re you’re getting closer to winning. And I see this Saints team is getting further away. And that’s the most frustrating thing is you don’t see the progress. You don’t see the the scheme kind of settling in, players settling into the scheme. You don’t see development of young players. I think Yonas Sanker, he had a really nice stretch to start his career. he has been, you know, just not even visible because he’s been so far away from the action over the last couple weeks. So, you know, it’s just there’s so little to be happy about. And uh and and and I don’t blame people for looking at everything on this staff, on this front office, and saying, “Why is it still here? Why are you sticking with this?” Like, “What about this is working?” Because so little of so so little of what the Saints and the Pelicans this entire organization from top to bottom so little of the decisions they have made have actually come out in the positive like you could I mean what what’s worked what has worked over the last five years for either organization and how much has actually changed because of that I was bummed out from the game too cuz I thought you would at least get a better read on Tyler Shuck and it’s still like an incomplete on the report card for him. I I I didn’t see way enough. I you barely it was like about I got a glimpse of him at an extended practice and then it was over. Yeah, it did. It felt like a preseason like like a joint practice more than a game because Yeah. It’s like oh you had a nice completion haul and it was a fumble. Oops. Okay. All right. And then he’s gone. Oh, he got him into the red zone. Actually, let’s take him off the field for this fourth down. We don’t need to see if he can do it. Let’s see what 35-year-old Taesm Hill has. Well, why not? It’s the fourth quarter. We’re the game’s over. Why not give the ball to Taesm Hill for no reason? Anyway, that’s that’s that’s a I have a whole Kell Moore bill I want to get into. So, that’s the this this cold open that ended up being a hot open, but whatever. Let’s take a quick break. We’re going to come back. We’re going to get more into the game. You know, tell us what you think. We’ll go through some comments here. Again, I want to talk about the trade deadline, who we think should move, um how aggressive the Saints should be, all that sort all that stuff. Then we’ll get into the studs and duds in the second and third segments. Just a unhappy day. The season’s half over. I’m looking at this as half empty. Um but hey, you know, it’ll end at some point. The sad November rain. Jeez. Gosh, I don’t know, man. All right, who that? Go Saints. We’ll be right back. And we are back on Inside Black and Gold. Jeff Noak, Steve Geller coming at you after the Saints fell to the Rams 34 to10. You know, it’s it’s one of those games that, you know, it’s I don’t even know if that score is indicative of the blowout that it was. I mean, the Rams, they very much called off the dogs in the second half. They they lost a touchdown from Davis Allen because he got too aggressive with a face mask. best play Yonis Sanker. I think it was made all day was getting his face mask pulled aggressively by the tight end cuz then that turned into the missed kick or I guess, you know, it’s it’s a bummer that uh Justin Reed uh doesn’t get a blocked kick because Josh Cardi kicked it so far to the right to avoid him that it didn’t just just kick it into him. Although it’s probably a smart play because if you kick it into him, it gets blocked, they might return it for a touchdown. But uh yeah, and and so I mean they should have been 27 nothing at the end of the first half before that final drive, but whatever. Um Steve, how was the mood in the in the post game? How’s Bobby doing? Is he Is he okay? Did he smoke like three cigars yesterday? Oh, he definitely tapped out early and was uh in theole went down the hallway and I guess had to go outside and smoke a cigar. I you can’t even do that in buildings nowadays, I feel like, with sensors and smoke alarms. So he probably just he just went outside and smoked a cigar. He’s like, “I’m done taking notes on this crap.” And so yeah, you could definitely tell the cannon was fed up with this game and what he was seeing. And obviously, I mean, you you start out with the you just drive that dagger in hard right away with backto backto back three and outs. Yeah. You know, it’s funny when I Sorry if I end up disappearing off screens because I’ve been hacking up a lung for the last like three days. Just my allergies are going nuts. Um, when I first started in journalism, I was at the Hartford Current in Connecticut. And this was like not that long ago. This was like 2010, 2011. And they still had like a smoking room, which was just kind of like a conference room. Yeah. That they had just said, “This is where you can go if you want to smoke in the middle of the day.” Because it was cold a lot of the time. Plus, he didn’t go all the way outside, like whatever. But like there was like one guy who still used it and he would just go in there and he was just sitting in there in a room full of full full of smoke just smoking smoking a cigar or smoking a cigarette and it was just like well that’s that’s weird. Then he would open the door and it would just be like for some reason I feel like more people are put off by cigar smoke than cigarette smoke. Yeah. I I don’t know. I just thought it was funny and and you know I don’t even have a a a metaphor or a segue for that. It’s just, you know, sometimes you you need that. You know, if there was a smoking room in the middle of Sofi Stadium, I think a lot of Saints fans would have gone in there at halftime just to get away from the game. Uh, but now it’s just a vaping room. It’s a it’s a vape room. Um, but no, I mean like it it was just that game was frustrating because for a lot of reasons like it just became so clear that okay, this is a good team. This is a Super Bowl caliber team. And we knew that going in. We talked about this. All the numbers told you that was an elite football team. On offense, you had the ball coming out fast and still the most explosive offense in the NFL. They led the NFL in explosive plays going into the game. I’m sure they lead it coming out, right? It was a defense that generated pressure as as effectively as anyone in the NFL. And over the first three possessions for the Saints, you know, it was tough to really get an idea of like is Tyler Shrek playing well because I mean, he’s under pressure on every every snap. Every snap. Every snap. and the quarterback has something to do with that. But I mean, you can’t run the ball, you can’t do anything. The third down where he kind of just chucked it into the dirt was weird. Like it was like he, you know, there’s there was a lot on tape where you look at it like sometimes he’ll see pressure and panic and there was a it was a third and one and he he had like he had room to kind of slide away from the pressure and instead he just kind of dumped it to Shahed’s feet with two defenders near him. It was that drive that started really close to the goal line. But so it was really tough. I thought he settled in throughout the course of the game. That’s like one of my only positives is I don’t think Tyler played that badly. Um and a lot of this was about you just never got him the ball in the second half to give him a chance. Uh but no, I I mean I don’t know how and I I want to talk about the trade deadline. I want to talk about the roster in this segment. I don’t know how you come out of that game and don’t feel like guys if we have deals on the table for players. We have to move them. Like you can’t you can look at it and say, “Hey, we value our veteran leadership. We value the culture. We value whatever.” When you’re going out and losing games the way you’re losing games, your culture doesn’t matter. You don’t have a good enough roster to worry about the culture, right? You don’t have a good enough roster to say, “Well, this guy doesn’t want to get traded, so we’re going to keep him around.” I’m sorry. If someone’s going to come out and offer you a fifth round pick for Alvin Chimera, I’m taking it. Like, you have gone into this season and played so poorly in so many instances that there’s no such thing as a protected player on your roster. Maybe like who who are the players that you wouldn’t trade under any circumstances on this roster right now? Uh the guy that’s hurt and Eric McCoy. No one’s trading for Eric McCoy. He’s done for the year. So, that’s out, right? So, it’s like I’m I’m only talking about players that are healthy that would actually be traded for because like what’s going to happen is a contender who feels like, hey, we need a piece here to potentially win a Super Bowl comes and trades for this guy. That’s not going to be the case for a guy who’s not going to play. So, like who are the players on this roster right now that if someone a contender came calling saying we need this player, you would say no out just outright? Nobody. Yeah, I don’t think it’s nobody. I mean, I’m not trading Chase Young. Um, I’m probably not trading Chris, and I know you disagree with me on that, but for for anything, though, like there’s like, you know, assume that you’re going to get a middle of the road deal. Assume you’re not going to get a bidding war for that player. Like, assume you’re getting, if your asking price is a second round pick, you’re getting a round below that. And you have to decide, is it worth dropping my asking price or sending him out there, right? Like under those circumstances where you’re not necessarily seeing someone come in and blow you away with an offer, would you not trade a player? I wouldn’t want to get rid of the rookie and banks. Okay, that’s Yeah, you’re not trading your first round pick for this year, right? So, yeah, you’re not trading banks. You’re not trading for Yeah, it’s it’s pretty bleak for me. I would I’m willing to listen on anything. Like, I’d trade Jawan. Um, I’m not trading Chase Young. I actually think Chase Young has been one of the few bright spots for this team. Um, and the rookies, you don’t trade rookie players. You don’t you don’t trade guys in their rookie season. It just doesn’t happen. Um, you know, like it’s rare to see a player get traded in their second season. That’s why to me the Devon Bailey trade is a unique circumstance because he’s in his second year and it’s again, it’s rare to see a player with that much team control get traded. Does that guy play? He does play. Here’s the thing. Like, we can talk about, oh, they didn’t use this guy. They didn’t use this guy. They ran 40 plays. They had 40 plays on offense, right? Like, who gets used? It doesn’t matter. Like, the usage doesn’t matter when you don’t run any offense. Like, whatever your plan was going into that game, it didn’t happen because you didn’t run enough plays, right? So, like the funny thing is I see people saying, “No, they abandoned the run.” I don’t think they abandoned the run. I actually think they were dedicated to the run to a fault up until the point that Alvin Chimera fumbled. Because here’s the thing. Yeah, you only ran the ball 14 times, but that’s almost 50% of your offense, right? You only ran 40 plays and you turned the ball over on one of them. So, like I actually think Kell Moore was trying to stay dedicated to the run. And Alvin, the player who’s supposed to be a team leader, the guy who I talked to earlier in the week and said, “Hey, holding on the ball is about pride.” Well, he fumbled, so maybe he wasn’t proud enough. I don’t know. It’s just there’s so little play by the defender, but I know that’s no excuse, but man, that was a great punch out by the guy. There’s always punch outs. There’s always punch outs. Like, I mean, the fact is the guy just sized him up for like three yards. Yeah, right. It was like that. Yeah, the super punch coming on in. Maybe don’t expose the ball. I don’t know. Like, like uh it’s something that you can’t let happen and you let it happen. Um so, I don’t know. Like all I all all that my point is like Shahed I’m trading Warner I’m trading if I get an offer on a Deario if I get an offer on an Alvin I’m trading them like I get it maybe you don’t want to go get traded at a certain point you’re not providing enough um you know like there’s young players that we could you can build around you could say hey I want to keep Chris Ave you know they’re probably not going to trade Jawan Johnson they signed him to a three-year contract and he has been one of the few players like we can complain about Jawan Johnson all we want but at the end of the day who’s been productive on the team and he’s one of those guys, right? I mean, he’s got two touchdown catches, you know, like when it’s you can say a lot of it’s in garbage time, whatever. Like there’s very few productive players on this team to this point, you know, I’d trade Cooks. Like I think if if you don’t come out of tomorrow make having made two to three trades at minimum, I’ll be very disappointed in the in the direction of this team and how they are handling the situation that they’ve contrived because let’s be real like this situation has been created. This didn’t happen to them. This did not happen to the Saints. The Saints created the situation that is in front of them and they have to respond to it in a way that makes sense. You can’t sit there and be like, “Well, if this happened, if this happened, I don’t care what other alternate realities could have happened to you.” Like, what if Shawn Payeyton never left? What if whatever. It doesn’t matter. You’re where you are now, and all you can do is react to it. And you know, I I just think there’s way too much there’s way too much comfort in bad decisions being made with no blowback at all, with no repercussions for players aren’t doing enough, coaches aren’t coaching well enough, decision makers aren’t deciding correctly. Like I just think that at a certain point a statement has to be made that the direction of this team is changing and all and what you did this offseason was going coach but do so much of the same like you changed your schedules, you changed this, you changed offenses, you changed defenses, but the the rudder of this team still seems firmly planted in the same direction. And that’s what’s frustrating to me cuz that that clearly was not working. But I just I don’t I don’t know what’s changed. No. And I I hate to be the, you know, even more of a Debbie Downer, but it feels like it’s it’s worse right now. I I I would I’d kill for Clint Kubak and Derek Carr. Clint’s doing a great job out in Seattle, right? Um Sam Donald loves him. No. And and I do think and I think that’s why this I think this trade deadline is important because that’s where you send a message because I think this team needs a message sent that like you’re changing the culture and we’re doing that actively. We’re being proactive, right? It’s not like one of my biggest complaints about the Kell Moore era is so much of it seems to be reactive. Like you what you’re doing next is being dictated to you by what’s happening and not what you want to see happen. Um, so we’ll see. You know, like I don’t like the energy I’m seeing on the sideline. I don’t like the energy I’m seeing on offense. I don’t like the creativity I’m seeing. I, you know, like I I don’t I don’t think players quit, but you don’t have to quit to play bad football. And they were playing bad football on defense yesterday. Disinterested is a nicer way, I guess, to say it, right? I I mean, defeated is what I would say. like they didn’t quit, but they like you could see in your their eyes it’s like we know we’re not winning this game and we’re just trying to survive it. Um and uh yeah, but that’s that’s kind of where I am. the um like you mentioned going into it, it’s like I I was taking LA with the points if I had if I was the betting man going into the matchup knowing what the kind of buzz saw the Saints were running to offensively and defensively and sadly like it played out worse than you you probably imagined just because I didn’t see a 24 point loss come in. Yeah, I mean I I I don’t think the margin, you know, it’s the 24 points isn’t the issue to me because it’s like it 24 points is not what that game was. That was a that was a 40 point blowout if the Rams got their stuff together, right? Like they could have put up 50. Um but that’s just, you know, they they they were methodical enough on offense that they didn’t have to. I mean, how long did they have the ball at the end of the game? Like when did their last drive start? because that like the the second half of the fourth quarter they had the ball like after that interception from Shuck. The Saints didn’t get the ball back, right? Um yeah, their final possession started with 533 left. The Saints conceded that game. They didn’t even use their timeouts, right? So like the margin is what it was. And like that’s why again going into that game I was like remember when they went up to Buffalo they were 16 and a half point underdogs. I was like that seems excessive. I feel like they’re going to play a better game than that just because I think they match up better against a defense that’s really going to allow for some positivity on offense. I hate the fact that I like what Shawn McVey and the Rams are doing. Yeah. No, he’s a good team. They look good. They’re a good team. Like they’re my Super Bowl pick right now based on what I’ve seen, right? because there’s a lot of teams that have kind of, you know, it’s it’s funny because it’s like the the Chiefs are now just kind of ascending back into really there again. Yeah. Uh but and the Commanders have have completely man that’s brutal what happened to them yesterday. Marshon toss ACL Jaden Daniels a dislocated elbow. Um on the same like basically situation that RG3 got hurt which is crazy. Um, there’s been tons of complaints about that field. I know. Well, it wasn’t about the field. I mean, he didn’t dislocate his elbow because of the field. I guess not, but yeah. Well, I mean, Marshon’s ACL I I don’t know. I didn’t see the play where it happened, but uh, no, it’s it’s it’s tough, man. And, you know, we’re halfway through the season. There’s a half of a season to signal change and to play better. But that’s why I think this week is important because I think you have to signal to your roster and you have to signal to your fans that what we’ve seen over the first half of the season is unacceptable. No, you can’t let the Panthers look like the Rams. Well, it’s not even about the game this week. Like the game this week is the game this week. I expect them to play better. I do like I expect them to kind of come back home and they can’t play worse. Yeah. Right. Well, they can play worse, right? Uh because if they play the way they did against the Rams against the Panthers and the Panthers blow them out, that’s worse. Um because it’s like the Panthers are not a Super Bowl contender. They should they’re a good team to beat the Packers, but could we possess the ball less? Yeah, that that would be tough to do. I think this was like one of the They almost set a record. Um but I think I mean so someone in the local media, the Luke Johnson, someone put out I think it was 13th fewest time of possession all time. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Like that that’s how feudal it was. Um and that’s not and that’s the thing like that’s not only on the offense, that’s on the defense, too. Uh because it’s like yes, you’re not possessing the ball on offense, but you’re also not getting them the ball back on defense. Um and in situations where it’s like, hey, you scored after halftime. If they get a stop there, you’re down 10 points. You get the ball back to your offense. Maybe they make something happen. Even kick a field goal. It’s a one possession game. instead you allowed a 10 or a 16play 10-minute touchdown drive that effectively ended the game. Uh like after that drive, it was like, “Okay, maybe Tyler Shuck can put something together. Maybe you can put some points on the board. You’re not winning.” Like you needed a stop there coming out of halftime to prove that you had a pulse. Yeah. And instead, they proved the opposite. They proved they were dead in the water. It reminded me of like the Bills in third quarter. I remember the Bills got the ball and sliced and diced their way down the field and it was like, “Oh, we we really didn’t have a chance.” Yeah, that’s that’s exactly that’s exactly what it was. But no, like my my point is like tomorrow at the trade deadline is when you have a chance as an organization to signal, hey, that’s not how we play football. That’s not what our organization is. And if that’s how we’re going to play, then we’re going to change things. we are going to rebuild this roster actively, not passively. And not doing that is is just a signal that you’re okay with what’s happening. You know, maybe they’re getting insulting offers. I don’t know. Then you take insulting deals like I don’t know what to tell you. You do something. You signal change in some way. And I don’t think you need to fire coaches. I don’t think you need to do that. I think, you know, you knew going in this was going to be kind of a take your medicine season. That’s what I called it at the start. That’s what’s happening right now. Medicine doesn’t taste good. But you do also have to, you know, you you know, you don’t get better. If you’re sick, do you just take medicine or do you like I don’t know, drink some Gatorade and and change your habits a little bit, you know, like like I don’t I don’t know. Like you got to do something other and and uh yeah, so we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. And I what I’m worried about is that that doesn’t happen and what that signals for this team because and I’m just going to say this like I’ve had multiple people after interviews with Deario Davis this year be like it’s so you know it’s so interesting he’s in such a good mood like he’s not doesn’t seem he does not seem to be upset about the fact that the Saints are one and six one and seven one and eight and to me and and my read on that is like Yeah, he’s resigned himself to his fate. Like, at what point do you just stop not trying? He’s playing hard, but what do you do? Like, I think he’s given up on the fact that this is what it is now. Like, how long can you rage against the machine until the machine wins? Because that’s what’s happening. Alvin Chimera, same situation. You have players that are still playing hard, that are going out there, but morally they are defeated and you go into every game feeling that way. And it’s not a slight to those players, it’s a slight to the situation. It’s a slight to what’s been allowed to happen in this organization. Um, and yeah, and that’s harsh, but that’s just where we are. Yeah, that felt like some dirt being thrown right on top of me right there, Jeff. I’m really I’m really low now. Yeah. And and again like I Demaro Davis is I think he has 80 tackles. Like he’s having a good season. It’s not about whether he’s out there playing hard. It’s about like if this was if you had this season 5 years ago, you would have veteran players standing up in the locker room every day screaming and being like, “Hey, this is not how we play football.” When’s Have you heard about like guys standing up in the locker room and being like, “This can’t fly.” No, because this is what it is. It’s a bad football team with with familiar names. No, that that’s why I say I mean I really if if somebody’s calling for any of these players I’m I’m for sure listen there’s no one there’s not that person I’m like you can’t have them and hang up the phone. Exactly. There’s maybe like two or three players that you know I’m not moving because I feel like they can be that productive like outside of the rookies and the guys that you’re going to put on the field to replace the other guys. So, right. But all right, let’s wrap up that segment. Let’s come back and do our studs and duds again. Jeff Noak, Steve Geller coming off of the Rams beating out, beating up, beating down the Saints 34-10. Um, and yeah, let’s do it. Who that? Go Saints. We’ll be right back. and we are back on Inside Black and Gold. Jeff Noak here alongside Steve Geller. We we just ranted and raved about uh all the things that tick me off and and then some. Uh and uh we’ll see what happens over the next day or so if the Saints re rebuild their roster a little bit, but we’ll have to wait and see. Until then, studs and duds time. Stock up, stock down players. We’ll start with the stock down so we can end this podcast with a little bit of positivity. Uh but first, Steve, give me your your number one stock down uh from from the game yesterday. My number one stock down, I would go with Coach Moore. Um just really overall disappointment. I’m still not seeing enough from this offense. And then the plan coming out with the rookie just completely failed miserably to open up and just set a terrible tone uh for the game you you just couldn’t pull out of. And man, it it just it’s been tough seeing so far because he came in with a lot of hype being this this offensive genius. And unfortunately, we’re we’re waiting to to enjoy that genius. Yeah. They just, you know, there hasn’t been a feeling on offense that it’s getting better, right? Um and like, you know, it’s it’s not a perfect situation. You know, we knew that going in. Um you know, you you’re talking about two quarterbacks that definitely don’t have sky-high ceilings, right? Um, like I think he he did maximize Spencer Rattler in a way that I probably didn’t expect as much of over the first six weeks of the season. Like I felt like he got some pretty good quarterback play. Um, but it was a low yield safe offense at its best. Um, you know, I think once people started to to key in on what you were doing, it didn’t work. I mean, like the tempo thing only h like it’s like it it doesn’t it’s not an offense. Like you can’t just run tempo offense all the time and say this is how we operate. Like this is not a this is not a basketball team. You just can’t just like fullcourt press all game and like as much as they want to do their basketball analogies and they want to play like the Pacers, it’s just not how the NFL works. You have to be able to run offense. Um and uh yeah, so no that that’s in mind as well, you know, and and like I’ve seen people say I’ll fire him. Like you’re not firing him. I think yeah, there’s a degree to which he’s a first year head coach and just like anybody on the roster, you’re talking about a rookie quarterback, right? You’re you’re going to be a little softer on the rookie quarterback as he learns how to do the job at the NFL level. I think the same thing is true of a of a head coach. And I’m hopeful that over time you see a better version of Kellen than we’ve seen. I just see a guy who it feels like he’s a little overwhelmed, you know, like it seems like everything he’s doing is like happening in the moment. Like I don’t see plans. I don’t see, you know, like your offense if you can’t like like teams script their offense to start games. Your first 15 plays are plays that you spent during the week practicing and this is you picked them because they’re going to work in this game plan and that like they suit what you’re trying to do in this game. If you can’t have like like first down I mean it’s not even a first down like it’s like nothing worked. Nothing. The only play that worked was Taesm Hill running for 29 yards which is not a game plan play. It’s just a play right like and then after that you left him in for two like like these are the things that drive me nuts. It’s like yeah you get that 29 yard run from Taesm Hill but like why would you leave him in there to run two more plays? Like I I like I don’t see how like what do you think’s going to happen? And if you’re going to leave him to run two more plays, have him run three. Because what I’m not going to do is bring in the rookie on third and long, right? Like in what universe? Like you go into the game and you come out of the game saying, “We want to put our players in positions to succeed.” Is that what taking your quarterback off the field for first and second down is then throwing him into third and nine saying, “Good luck.” The hilarious thing is he actually converted on that play on a dangerous throw to Brandon Cooks who went up and made a nice catch. But like that’s the situation you’re going to put your starting quarterback in, your rookie quarterback in his rookie debut is just like, “Yeah, here’s a free third and nine. Good luck.” um later in the game uh at in the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach, you ended up with a fourth and two in in the red zone. And instead of saying, “Hey, we’re trying to develop a young quarterback. Let’s give him an opportunity to to execute in a fourth down scenario in the red zone.” You take him off the field and you run Taesm Hill again. In a game that’s over, in a game that has nothing left but to develop a quarterback, you take that quarterback off the field so you can run a like a a a play that we already know what works. We already know what it is. We don’t need to practice this. We’re not developing this. It didn’t work. And like what what benefit is there to take Tyler Chuck off the field in that the process, right? Seriously, like if it doesn’t work, you’re in the same boat. You’re losing the game either way. Let the quarterback like work. Um, and it’s just like I just don’t feel like the logic behind a lot of these moves is there and I don’t feel like it’s been planned in advance on anything. It’s like, oh, okay, where how do we get Tyler Shuck into the game for his first extended NFL action? Well, we’re going to wait until the second drive of the third quarter. We’re not even going to mention it to him at halftime. Just to make it clear, we weren’t planning on this. And then we’re going to throw him out there and have him throw the ball 30 times. Really? Okay. And by doing that, you set up a scenario where your only two options are you don’t start him against the Rams and you make it look like he played you just came out of the game feeling so negative about his performance that you just couldn’t possibly start him. Or you do the optical thing that makes sense and you’re like, “Hey, we’re going to change to him at quarterback. We’re going to see what he has.” and you make it so your rookie debut comes on the road against a Super Bowl caliber Rams team that’s going to eat you alive. That’s your plan. That’s how you got to this point. Like come on, man. I’m telling you, they just might as well just taken your lumps with Spencer Rattler over the last two weeks and gone with Tyler this week. Like it’s just it drives me nuts and I don’t understand. It just feels like a coach who’s overwhelmed and just trying, grasping at straws, trying to make something work. And I’m I’m just hoping it’s something where the fact that they want to throw him into the the sizzling hot inferno to start out the gate. So things now start to ease up a little bit. You hope? Well, yeah. And if that I wish that’s how it was that that’s what was happening but in no like they didn’t even talk at halftime and say hey maybe we’ll go to him here. No that’s just what’s happening. It’s not that you wanted to do that. It’s that your decision making got you to a point where that was the only option. And and sure, maybe ultimately getting him throwing him into the fire and having him take his lumps now so that in three weeks when you’re back home and playing the Falcons, he’s he’s ready. Sure, maybe that’s the result, but like there’s a certain point where you’re just sitting there at the beginning of the season and you should be like, what do we not want to do? Like what’s the what’s the scenario we want to make sure we avoid? You know, uh and I don’t I guess that didn’t happen. So, the bad thing is that’s what’s going to they’ll they’ll build them up. The Saints will win in the Superdome against the Falcons and you think folks will be happy and then it’s like, “Oh, we’re ruining our draft pick.” Yeah. See, I I’m never I’m not going to be that way. I’m never I’m never like that. I don’t I don’t do the ruining draft pick thing. I I value winning games. I do. And I value learning how to win games. And I will never ever be like, “Oh, that was a bad decision to win a game.” Now, that might ultimately be what happens, but in that moment, you have to go play your best football. Like, there’s nothing else you can do. You do not tell guys to go lose games. Now, again, we talked about this, like you’re at the trade deadline tomorrow. Like, there’s things you can do to make your roster not worse, but like have stand less of a chance to win games that is not tanking. That is just doing what you have to do. Asset management. Um, that’s that’s that’s the only, you know, there’s occasionally instances where you see actual tanking and it’s obvious when it’s happening. It’s week eight or week 17. I think at that point there was only 17 games when the Eagles pulled rookie Jaylen Herds for Nate Sudfeld in the second half of a game they were probably going to win. Like that’s tanking. And when that happens, it’s obvious. In this case, it’s like if you go and win games, you go and win games because you’re playing well. And that’s a positive. Like, why are we so negative about the Rams game right now? It’s not that this Saint ain’t lost. It’s how they lost. If they won that game, I’d be I would have been thrilled. I don’t care about the draft pick. The draft pick is going to be there. Whether it’s a second pick, a fifth pick, a 10th pick, it matters how you get there. And you know, the funny thing about that game that I just referenced is Doug Peterson, the coach who who co-signed taking Jaylen Herz out of the game, got fired anyway. So, doesn’t matter. But, no, I I agree with you. It’s just like, and I’m not out on Kellen. I’m not I just I really hope that over the second half of the season, you see a an approach and and a and an offense and a team that looks like it has a plan, like it like it’s got an identity. Um because that’s been a really disappointing start to to the tenure for me. The um the hits keep rolling with this squad, man. And then, you know, with with the offense and then and then you go over to the defensive side of the football. I I could say Brandon Staley because there was so much so many issues I took on that side of the ball uh of being a problem. And like I said, you know, you mentioned it was later on in in the game that it really loosened up. But somebody somebody get back to the basics of tackling, please. Yeah. I think my stock down was was more so um the coverage and and how they handled the misdirection and you know they talk a lot about eye discipline and the Saints didn’t have it you know and this has been a matchup that Alante Taylor has really struggled in his entire career like it doesn’t matter what year it is he can he’s improved a lot since you know his second season in the NFL when he got benched but like he get this matchup just doesn’t suit him. Um, and unfortunately that’s just kind of just where you are. Um, but no, like there was, you know, you couldn’t tackle Puka Aua and and I think that forced you to be more aggressive in that coverage and so you had to sit back in kind of soft zones and Devonte Adams is just so good at finding space in zones and you know like again that’s a good offense. Um, they made it look unstoppable based on how they were playing it and and how is every tight end just open? Well, I think again again like when once one thing works, something else is going to work, right? Like everything. Well, that’s the thing like once one thing works and you can’t stop it and you have to adjust your plan to stop it, then suddenly you break something else. And that’s that’s what Shawn McVey is so good at is breaking one thing and then breaking the next thing and then breaking the next thing. And Matthew Stafford is so good at identifying it. Like even at running back, I’m like, “Wait a minute. Where do I know that name?” Blake Cororm. What do you mean? Uh, I had just forgotten about him and then it was like, “Oh, the the kid that was at Michigan.” Yeah. And was a stud over there when they won a title. Yeah, he’s a good player. Um, I think he got hurt in that title game. I can’t I can’t recall, but uh No. Yeah. I mean, again, it’s just And then, you know, by the second half, Kairen Williams is just going to lean on you, and that’s what happened. Um, I actually thought they handled the run reasonably well to start the game. They just didn’t handle anything else, you know. And then uh Yeah. No, but the defense Yeah. like I felt like the the defensive line was was reasonably successful um relative to the rest of the defense. But no, I mean like like everyone got beat. Everyone got beat. Justin Reed had a decent game, but he got beat by the tight end on a on a key third down early in the game. Um he did have really nice coverage downfield. I think it was Devonte Adams. He should had he should have had a couple interceptions. The terrible analogy of hot knife through butter was the Saints for sure because there was some amazingly orchestrated. They didn’t they didn’t do it with the chunk plays. They sliced and diced them down the field with ease though and had like nine to 11 play drives that ate up six to eight minutes and ended up with a touchdown. Well, see, I disagree. I think they also did it with chunk plays. I think they did. Not like the huge like 69 yard is what I mean, you know? Yeah, sure. I guess they didn’t have like exp Yeah, I mean, but there there was a ton of like 20 plus yard plays. And that’s in today’s NFL, a 20 plus yard play is a chunk play, right? Like this the NFL is no longer 60 yard bombs. They just they they just don’t exist anymore with the way defenses are playing. Um, you know, and and but they did I it felt like every time they needed, you know, 15, 20, 25 yards, they were just had a guy standing by himself. Cuz like again, like I I go back and I look at the Patriots game and I say like, well, in that game, yes, the Saints defenders got beat, but they were in position and it was just a question of whether they won a contested situation or not. In this game, there was no one there to contest anything. And when you were, you you you did you did stop some plays, but Devonte Adams was standing alone on both of his touchdowns. Like on his first touchdown, he ran a two- yard route and had two yards of separation. And then the Nua touchdown, just a ridiculous throw by Stafford. Ridiculous throw, ridiculous catch. That’s what good players do, you know? And and again, like that was an example of like Kool-Aid was actually there on that play. Like I didn’t it was just a like there’s going to be situations in a game against the Rams and Matthew Stafford and Pukanaku and Devonte Adams where they’re just better than you, right? And it’s not about scheme. It’s about they made a better play than you could make on defense. Uh and but that wasn’t the case a lot of a lot of the time it was just a guy running by himself. I feel like if I could play NFL Blitz with Stafford, Nua, and Devonte Adams, it’d be a pretty badass squad. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no. And I think 92 RS says, “Hey, this Staley Zone hasn’t worked all year.” And no, I mean like I like the coverage just there seems to be a disconnect in it somewhere. And here’s the thing, like you’re asking a lot of rookies to play or young players to play a lot of important snaps and so there’s going to be breakdowns. I think Justin Reed is getting very frustrated um because he’s basically having to be a coach at the same time. Uh, and yeah, so we’ll see it. Pammy Whammy says, “At this point, who are you tanking for?” That’s a good point. Uh, Angel Morales wants me to keep talking I I don’t see that’s the thing. I don’t talk I have no interest in talking Like you, this is the point that I’ve been driven to. Like I am an optimistic person. Um, I’m very pro player, right? It’s like, screw you for making me this mad, right? Like, I don’t want to be this way. I would much rather be someone else. But yeah, redeemed sauce says they’re professionals and right now they’re just cosplaying football. I don’t think that’s necessarily fair, but um I I am curious like, you know, we’re doing this podcast mid midday here and there’s still no nothing going on with the trade deadline or even like any buzzing going on with the Saints. Sorry. I get the points where like I’m halfway through a sentence and it’s either I stopped talking or I can’t continue to say you heard me on the radio yesterday. Uh you rescued me out of a sentence that I had to abandon because I was just like I I I either hawkked direct like hack directly into the microphone, right? Or I disappear from existence for like 10 seconds. We got to get you meded up. Oh, it’s just like I’m actually feeling better now. It’s just the sinuses and you know the the weather change always gets me but the allergies of the west coast. Yeah. And and changing Yeah. like getting all that. And you know, the funny thing is when I go out west, like anywhere I go that’s um like dry, like well, we like uh when I went to Arizona for my wedding, I go go to California for these games, like my lips get chapped like instantly because my body is just accustomed to like wet air and then you go out there and it’s like, oh my god, what’s happening? My whole body is drying out. And then I get back home and s it’s all it’s all better like within a day. How about the trip to Montana? Montana. Yeah. Didn’t she go back there a while ago? Mont I mean that was like several years ago. I appreciate that you’re keeping track of my vacations, but I’m just jeal that’s one that’s like on my spot like I need to spend a month. Montana is a good good trip. I recommend it. Um it’s very low-key, you know, like I I I live in a city like I don’t need the hustle and bustle vacations. I like the chill vacations. Um, but oh, Cape Cod was the other one that I went recently and my lips got chapped in the middle of the summer. Just it’s like, oh, it’s not cold. Anyway, wow, what were we talking about? Um, oh, Stock down. I have one more. Um, and and I mean like I have a few. There’s more than one and we could sit here all day and talk about all the things that went bad. We’ve already done that. But Alvin Chimera’s impact in general, like it’s not about the player, it’s about what’s happening. And you you’re talking about a guy who has had six carries each of the last two weeks. This week, he had what, 14 yards? Yeah. 14 yards. In his last six his last seven games, he has rushed for three and a half yards per carry or less in six of them. Three of those games. So half of them 2.3 yards per carry, 2.3 yards per carry, 2.5 yards per carry, right? So you’re just not getting production. You’re not getting a guy who’s who’s a threat in the passing game in part because you’re just not using, right? And and here’s the thing, like you saw Kendra Miller out there earlier in the season. He was being productive. Deon Neil, he had 11 yards on his three carries. I think if you just dropped down from a spaceship in the middle of that game and you just watched how it played out, you’d be like, “Why is this guy getting all the carries?” Because he’s not doing anything with them. Um, and he’s he turned the ball over. Like, it’s because I don’t I don’t think that the issue is that Alvin just has nothing left to give either. And that’s what’s frustrating. And it makes it really depressing that he’s sitting there like, I don’t want to go anywhere else because watching the end of his career go this way just makes me sad. Um cuz he’s I don’t think his career is over. I do think he has more left to give. I just think he has gone beyond the point where he alone can elevate your offense. like in a good situation, I think that he could have a really productive season. This is not a good situation and he has passed the point in his career where he can thrive in a bad situation. Um, and so I don’t know. I’m hopeful that he changes his mind over the next day and and said or maybe he already has and says, “You know what? Let’s see if there’s a if there’s a contender out there that wants wants me and and can cuz I’d like to see him go and have success somewhere cuz it’s not going to be here. What if the Chiefs really were after him and and were willing to part with a I don’t know a a fourth? What do What do you think they give for Chimera? I’d take a fifth. And it’s not even about the value. It’s about getting something because I think I mean based on what we’ve seen this feels like it’s his last season anyway. like would he sign up? Like I just think we’ve seen enough to know that this is not going to break. Like this is the offense. Um right. Right. So I don’t know. But that’s the like I’ve I’ve gotten past the point in this season and this is really what I’m saying that I’m like, okay, maybe you can change things up and suddenly you’re going to see vintage Alvin Chimera. I just don’t think that the Saints are capable as an offense of unlocking vintage Alvin Chimera. and he’s at the point in his career where you need the offense to do that for you a little more than than just saying, “Oh, he’s so he’s so independently talented that he can thrive even when the offensive line isn’t doing the job.” Um, so yeah, I I find it hard to believe that, you know, we we we’ve seen a once stellar running back hit that 29, 30 year old wall and all of a sudden this is who he is now. I I I I don’t I don’t I don’t necessarily think it it’s that. Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t either, but the the fact is the numbers are not pretty. No. Um, but it’s like what what’s what the hell is going on with the Saints run game that it doesn’t ma it doesn’t matter. It’s like it it’s almost like oh oh yeah, we we could hand it off and I I don’t know. Uh it nothing nothing is is working and I just question back with Kell Moore on how he he’s setting up anything in this offense right now to be successful. Yeah. The fact is not looking good at all. Nothing’s working. Nothing’s working. So, it’s not just Alvin, but the fact is you’re talking about a 30-year-old running back in a in a dead season. Um, and even if he doesn’t and and and this is kind of where I’m at, like if he doesn’t want to go anywhere and you want to and you want to abide by that wish, fine. there’s a point in this season where he’s not your featured back anymore because it just doesn’t make sense for him to be your featured back and I think I’m there. Like what what do you gain from from continuing to do this? Um well, if he’s not the feature back, shoot, how many how many touches we going to see this dude get? Well, right. And that’s kind of where you’re at. And that’s why it seems like it would make more sense if he’s amendable to a trade and you find somewhere that wants to feature him. And I don’t know, I I I don’t keep track of running back depth. Uh but the Chiefs feel like the most obvious team. Uh Chargers maybe. Um because they they dealt with some injuries at the running back position. Um but yeah, so and I don’t like and I’m not I’m like the biggest Alvin Chimera fan you’ll find. I love Alvin Chimera. Absolutely. I love Deario. I love Cam. I I love a lot of these guys. But at like I said, Jeff, at this point, I’m not at nowhere. If I got to call on a player that I’m not listening to, not a one. The fact is you’re looking at a number one overall pick. So, there’s no wrong ideas. There’s no bad ideas in terms of like, oh, who who instead of Alvin Cam? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Evan Hull, let’s see it. Like Audrey, yeah, why not? Let’s see what he’s got. Like there’s no the only wrong path to take is the one where you there’s players on your roster that you don’t know about. Um and that and that’s what would be hey we’re just going to have Alvin bang his head into the wall for the next not eight games and plus the way things are looking I mean it would be a crime to go into the draft with just five picks in for this year. Yeah. Can’t happen. can’t help. But all right, let’s wrap up this segment unless you have any more. You have any more uh stock stock downs? Yeah. Um no, I like I said, I was just utterly disappointed offense and defense. That’s why I lumped in everybody kind of fell on the the umbrella of Moore and Staley for me this week. So, everybody sucked equally. Good deal. All right, let’s hit a quick break and come back and talk about the very few positive things that I was able to callull from this game. There are a few. There are a couple. So, let’s do it again. Inside black and gold, Jeff Noak, Steve Geller coming at you after the Saints lost to the Rams 34-10. Stick around. We’ll be right back. and we’re back on Inside Black and Gold. Jeff Noak here alongside Steve Geller. And yes, we do have a stock up portion of of this year program. It’s not going to be an exceptionally long one, but do have a couple things I want to point out. And the biggest one is what I call two-minute shock. Um, because we we didn’t really talk a ton about Tyler Shuck’s day because I didn’t want to save this for the positive part of the of the portion. And, you know, I think you come out of that game and you say you didn’t extend enough drives, you didn’t move the ball well enough, like there was a lot too much pressure on the quarterback, you couldn’t run the ball. But there were moments in that game that you go back and you look at and you’re like, “Okay, played well.” Um, now that obviously you want to see more throughout the first half of that game, but there’s a lot of instances in games where you need you get the ball with a two-minute situation, you got to go execute. And there is some positivity that comes out of just, hey, okay, it’s 20 to three. You could either continue to to fail or you can go down and make something happen and suddenly you go into halftime feeling like all right we have a chance. Now obviously that didn’t happen because you the Rams came out and drove went 10 minutes with the ball and you know Tyler didn’t throw a pass for like 40 minutes of real time. But that two-minute drive you got it you got it with a little less than a minute to go around the 35 yard line. You know, there was a nice play where uh you you had a nice Paul to Rashic heat and kind of an inb breakaker. Then you had a scramble drill. You found Chris on a big play downfield, which the Saints haven’t done much in scramble drills this year. So, that was nice to see. Um Tyler Fuaga, who we didn’t mention in the stock down, I thought had a really rough day. I’ll give him a break because he has a what I looked to be a pretty nasty ankle injury. We’ll see how he how he handles that if he misses some time. that, you know, Byron Young just beat him clean and just wiped out Tyler Shuck and, you know, one of the most dangerous things for a defense is when you just have a straight run at the quarterback because it feels almost impossible to make that hit without getting a penalty. Um, but he kind of he brushed that off. It was a it was a huge hit. He got the penalty, got the yardage, brushed that off. Either the next play or two plays later, he finds Jawan Johnson. Uh, the third progression, it was a nice play. He kind of got through his reads, found Jawan over the middle of the field. delivered the ball to him inside of his frame, which is important, right? Because when you’re a big guy in the middle of the field standing still, the second that ball’s coming to you, everyone’s breaking towards you, right? So, if you don’t get him the ball inside his frame and you force him to extend, right? And we’ve seen Jan have trouble catching basses. I get it. But the best thing you can do for that player is allow him to catch the ball inside his frame so that he can immediately tuck it, brace, and then turn up field and maybe make something happen. And that’s why he was able to turn that into a touchdown. If he has to reach over his head, if he has to go outside, he’s fighting the ball, then he’s trying to protect himself, he probably just goes down, right? So the accuracy was nice to see and he turns that into a touchdown. And that’s a positive moment for a young quarterback that is looking for positive things to happen, right? We knew going in that was going to be a struggle from start to finish. So, I I do have to take away some positivity out of that and say, “Hey, you needed him to execute in this scenario. The defense let him down coming out of halftime. We don’t know whether you know, you get the you get him the ball back in a good situation.” He goes and drives. Obviously, Alvin Chimera fumbled on that first drive of the third quarter, so can’t put that on him either. In the first, he had a nice completion to Jawan to start that drive. He had them set up moving the ball and then the fumble. So, like, yes, there’s struggles. There’s stuff you got to fix. There’s stuff you got to get better at. But that’s the deal with a rookie quarterback. You don’t expect to be perfect right away. So, you kind of have to pick and choose and say, “Okay, you know, like I I see a lot of people saying like, “Oh, was he better than Rattler?” I I don’t know. But I do know he looked better than Rattler did in his first career start. So, like that’s how you have to compare it. Like, you can’t say like, “Well, Rattler looked better in start 16 or whatever it was.” Um, but this is where we are. So, that’s that’s what I’ll be positive about is that two-minute drive was really nice. Um, and you just build from there. Yeah, it was nice to have a little bit of a bump of that smile. Seeing him, you know, get a TD right before the half and you come out, you’re like, “All right, 20 to 10’s not terrible right now.” It made you feel a little hopeful that all they need to do get their together at the half, come out, put some more points on the board. We know that didn’t happen, but yeah, the the that was a big point in the game and like you said, uh a positive point I should say for the Saints. Uh was his first NFL touchdown as well and yeah, just I like it, I love it, give me some more of it kind of deal. Yeah, and I think you you did see him kind of build confidence from there. Like I don’t think you know and and the offensive line gave him a little bit more time in the second half. Um and you know, he had he had some nice completions to Shahed. He had like there was the drive that they took him out on the fourth down which is one of the reasons that frustrated me is because that was a really effective drive, right? He made a couple nice uh throws to a to Shahid at the edges of the field, got you down into the red zone. Um fourth and two and you don’t give him a chance to finish off that drive. That’s frustrating to me because that’s a situation that you know if you send him out there and he makes a nice play and he gets into the end zone suddenly that’s a really nice moment. another thing you can build on and instead it’s like oh well the Taesm Hill play didn’t work and so we’ll never like it it’s just a missed opportunity for growth. Um but no I mean he moved the ball in that second half. He didn’t have the ball nearly enough to to justify saying we played well. Um back to Jeff too it’s a it’s a little wild considering with with this Taesm situation that Kell Kell’s the offensive guy and he’s a quarterback too. So, he understands even more how valuable that is for Shuck to get get that experience. Well, here’s the thing. Like, I’m sure that’s your that’s your fourth and two play. That’s the play you had circled. Hey, what’s our best short yardage red zone play? And like, yeah, it probably is, but like common sense would be like, okay, the plan is out the window. like um but either way I I do think there were some like in a game where nothing went well. If I have to pick some silver linings, it was that I thought the rookie quarterback, you know, even the the interception, you know, it was a fourth down. He’s trying to make something happen. It did look like Taesm Hill was open. He was working the other side of the field. By the time he got back, it was it wasn’t open anymore. Like that’s frustrating. Could you have run for it? Maybe. I don’t I don’t know. Um, definitely wasn’t a great throw in terms of what happened, but again, fourth down, the only thing I can’t you don’t want to see there is taking a sack and not giving your guy a chance. So, just like Spencer Rattler’s interception against the Seahawks, I’m not going to be negative on that play. Um, and and I don’t think he, you know, he had a couple throws that maybe could have been better. The one the weird one was the one to Shahed that looked like Shahed just stopped running. Like I don’t I don’t know what the deal was with that because he had a step like he was open and I think if he just runs through the route they had a chance so I don’t know what the deal was there. Um but anyway that’s that one. I was going to say and that ends the posit the stock ups. No there’s a couple more. There’s a couple more. Well one is Chase Young has got a sack in three straight games. I think Chase has been one of the bright spots. And it’s funny because the first five weeks when we were talking about, oh, the Saints are being more competitive than maybe I expected, Chase wasn’t there. And now Chase is there and you have this run of non-competitive football, but I do think Chase Young’s playing well. And you know, it’s the first time in his career he’s had a sack in three straight games. You know, his sack at the end of the first quarter, he set up a second and 18. And you’re like, “Okay, okay, let’s get this done. We’re in a good position.” Next play, 15 yard completion, Dvonte Adams, or maybe it was Pukaku, I can’t remember. And it’s like, oh, all right. So much for that. Um, but so Chase Young’s gonna be on my stock up and I do have one more if you want to hear it. Yeah, definitely hit me with some positivity. All right. I was really really critical of special teams early in the year. Really critical like because I felt like special teams was like in Seattle that you lost that game on special teams regardless of anything else you did, right? And that continued like it did not get necessarily better. You’re missing field goals. you weren’t covering kicks, you know, you like against the Giants, your average starting field position after kickoffs was like the 15 yard line, like not good, right? And so I do have to give Phil Galliano and that group credit because this is one of their better games. Um, and I thought they played well last week. Blake groupy made his only kick. So, you know, suddenly he’s made six of his last seven kicks in the last four games. Like you feel like he’s settling in. Um like if that was week one, he probably misses that 39 yarder and we’re talking like ah you know. So uh you got to like all he can do is make the kicks you asked him to take. So he made his kick. Um the Saints put Shahed which was interesting back for kickoffs for the first time. And I kind of feel like that was a reminder to other teams like no he can do this by the way. So if you’re trading for him he you’re going to get a return ace right like that’s an important part of your team. We got a lot of kickoffs and the result it was actually really interesting because the Rams are one of the better kickoff coverage teams and the first kick return. They kicked it to Shahid. He brought it back to the 30, but he was like real close to breaking it and I think they saw that and they were like, you know what, let’s just kick it into the end zone because we feel like we’re going to win this game. We just can’t give them free points on returns. Um, and so the Saints a drive starts were the 30 yard line, the 35 yard line, the four yard line, which is a perfect punt. Nothing you could do about it. He kind of angled it to the edge of the field and, you know, you didn’t have a chance to field it, went out at the four yard line. So that’s really not on the coverage unit. Um, then 35 yardd line, 35 yard line, 29 yard line, 35 yard line, 35 yard line, 49 yard line. Uh, your average starting field position was the 32 yard line and that includes a drive that started at your own four. So, that’s a win on special teams. Kai Kroger. Now, he does have a bad habit of one nasty punt a game, and he had one in this game, but his first kick was from a 39, the Saints 39. He punted it at 49 to the Rams 12. No returns, so a 49 yard net kick. His next one, annoyingly, was from the Saints 29. and he kicked it to the LA 31 yardd line. It was returned 11 yards. So that’s a 29 yard net kick, which is frustrating, but okay. Then his next was from the Saints 13 to the LA 38. No return, 49 yard net. Then from the Saints 38 to the LA 16, that’s a 46yard net kick. So he kicked pretty well there, too. You covered well. Ike Adam, I thought, played well on special teams. Uh Justin Reed got in and and for I I’m giving him credit for that missed field goal because he was literally diving in front of it to the point that Josh Cardi who’s terrible by the way literally just kicked it so far to the right that it was like oh he didn’t have a chance kick. He didn’t get it blocked but he wasn’t going in. So I give him credit for that as well. So I the added value on special teams has gotten to the point where I feel like you know you don’t necessarily have to fire your special teams coordinator at the end of the season. So, so like in terms of again I have to find some positives. I like it’s like a thing in my brain and I think that was one of them. I think special teams group has has clawed back to being a league average unit and maybe an added value and if I’m going to be super critical when they’re bad, I have to at least give them a reasonable amount of of of props when they do play well, which they did in this game. You mentioned that play with the Rams kicker. That was wild. was like, “What are you doing?” Well, and he missed the extra point like wildly to the left. So, like he he had a miss like 30 yards to the left and 30 yards to the right. Like, and he’s been bad all year. Like, it’s it’s crazy to me. Like, they drafted that guy, so I think they’re sticking with him. But, like, man, you’re you’re a team that’s got to feel like you have Super Bowl ambitions and that could cost you like that that cost them in the Eagles game. You know, that, right? Right. So, I don’t know. Like, it’s crazy to me that they haven’t like the 49ers didn’t let it ride out with uh Jake Moody. They cut him, right? Um the Falcons cut is struggling. The Saints didn’t cut Blake Groupy. But Blake at least has kind of clawed back to uh a reasonable like his only like he’s six of seven over his last four games and his only miss was from 53 in in the wind in Chicago. like that’s that’s kind of settling in. Josh is missing extra points 30 yards to the left and like he’s the reason like the Saints were only in touch in that game at the half which was being down 10 which is in touch. Yeah. Because Josh Cardi uh sacrificed four points. They should have been up 24 to 10. instead they’re up 20 to 10 because they gave away four points because he can’t kick field goals and extra points. So anyway, um I think that’s about it. Uh oh, I do want to Okay, so Brandon Cooks continued to make catches when he was throwing the ball. You know, he had a that third down conversion from Tyler Shuck. It does seem like there’s a connection there. So just like I have in previous games, it’s like Cookie Cookie. Yeah, good on you, Cookie. Uh but like he just when he gets thrown the ball, he catches it, which I’ll give him credit for that. Jonah Williams um also had a had a nice sack uh in that game. Couple tackles for loss, a QB hit, so got to give him some props, too. But you know, that’s it. That’s all I got. Bravo to you for finding some stock up. Yeah, Rashid Chah I also want to give credit to just in the sense that, you know, he didn’t put the ball on the ground. He was a leading receiver in the game. Had a couple nice plays. So yeah, will he remain in black and gold? Tick tock, tick tock. Tick tock on the clock, everybody. Oh wait, no. This is not a time for Kesha. Um, when is when is it’s always a time for Kesha? We can always co-sign some Kesha. Um, but I didn’t the wake up feeling like Pete Diddy line uh didn’t age well. Uh, not too good, right? You might want to change it. Uh, anyway, I think I think they did change it. I think the radio version, if they play it now, it’s different. I think they edited it to something else. Um, I I can’t recall. I could be wrong, though, but we really know what it is. Let me know, chat. Go find it. Go find the edited version. Um, hey, it rhymes with this city. It’s like there’s only so many options that you could feel like that rhymes with this city. Uh but all right, that’s it. That’s the podcast. Hopefully we can have happier podcasts down the road. Um the nice thing is that the Wednesday driving home edition will be 99.9% about the trade deadline. And the Talia say Fuaga’s ankle. Oh, also Jack still had an ankle injury, so it’s a bummer for him. Um, we’re back to being though I feel like deep deep deep into the tunnel, dark into the pit, and there’s just still just I don’t see any where Jeff, do you see any any light at anywhere? Is there a a pinhole of hope? Yes. And I’ll tell you why. Okay. Because there are two organizations on Airline Drive and the Saints are the one that didn’t trade away their first round pick for next year. Ouch. That’s the only thing I can say positively right now is the Saints at least if they get the number one pick. They have they get to make it. Yeah. Can’t say that for the Pelicans. It’s a rough time to watch sports in Louisiana as as at least if the sports be are being played by Louisiana teams not named too late. That that definitely makes the the whole Pelicans outlook completely more miserable of you’re g you’re sucking it up and you don’t even own your first round pick. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And it bothers me like there’s nothing I hate more in my soul than having to agree with Nick Wright. But gosh, right. One of those moments again. Damn you team for making me agree with Nick Wright. Damn you. Damn you. Anyway, who that? Go Saints. Who that folks? Half the season’s over there. Season’s left. Yay. Still we still got the Jets. All right. See? Oh no. Where’ Steve go? Um. Oh, he’s there. He was just hiding. I’m not even gonna I’m not even going to intro this because by tomorrow it’ll all be dated. So, I’m not even going to post it in the podcast feed. This is just going to be a casual let’s pregame Kellen Moore’s press conference mail bag, right? How’s that sound, Steve? Feel good about it? I’m definitely down for it. Uh I I have I I’m going to start bringing these more to the podcast and I think it’s going to be more needed for sure. I was drinking gin at like 2 am yesterday. Is that cuz like we didn’t get home until like 12:30 and I still had work to do. So I was like, “All right.” And then by the time I was done, I was like, “I can’t go to sleep. I’m going to have like a I make myself martinis to make myself feel like less of an alcoholic because that’s classy.” But yeah, drunk. It was a tough morning. It was a tough morning. But let’s see. Let’s just go through from the beginning. Let’s hear what the negativity was at the beginning. There’s a lot of comments. We have a lot of people. Like that’s the thing. When things are bad, you get people to talk. The numbers on everything are terrible in terms of like downloads and and like, “Hey, we’re trying to sell ads on stuff. No one wants to pay money.” But people will be say angry things. That is we’re going to set records for comments and like have the lowest download rate we’ve ever had. Yeah. you we’ve mentioned going through it was where you’re you’re upset and it’s sad to see and then you get mad and now at this point it’s like you you can’t hurt me. I don’t know. I I after this game for sure was was another big blow for Hudats and we had a lot of fans calling in at the postgame show kind of like you know they they they’re checking out uh sadly with the the the rest of the stretch of this game the the games. Yeah. I mean, you you got eight games left. You you got to make something happen. And um that’s why again, like if like this is a day tomorrow at the trade deadline where you can make a statement to your fans that you’re taking it seriously or you can be like, well, enjoy the rest of the season. Go ahead and sell your tickets to the road team. Um Ransom Antoine says, “Is it just me or Rattler would have used his legs to convert a couple of those third and shorts?” Right. Like I I said this going in. Um Spencer’s more of a scrambler than Tyler will be. Like Tyler is more of a player that’s going to try to extend. Kell did talk about it and I agree with him. Like what what Tyler does well as a quarterback is he’s willing to step up against pressure whereas a lot of young quarterbacks will try to like escape to the edges of the field. And um that’s just when you get chased down and you lose yardage. And you know he he does try to navigate from inside the pocket. Sometimes he panics and and he is still a rookie quarterback, so you have to give him a little grace on that. But he’s got to get better about that. But there were a couple really nice moments in this game where he navigated, found space, and you he was he was slinging the ball in that second half. Like you go back and you watch some of those throws. That ball jumps out of his hand. He’s got a really live arm. Um but like no, I mean to say, hey, would Rattler have given you a better chance to win? Probably. I mean, I don’t think he would have won, but yes, you’re gonna be better off with a guy in his 13th career start versus a guy in his first career start. That can’t be the balance. Yeah. I don’t want to I don’t want folks to think about that either. Like every sign now that we see Shuck out there, what would have Rattler But, you know, if Rattler was in this situation, what would have happened? That’s not fair to him either. It’s not productive because I think what you had was you had Rattler for the first half of the season, you’re going to have Shuck for the second half of the season and you’re hoping by the end of the season you see growth, right? And I think you saw what what Spencer had. I don’t think you were going to if you left him in there for the final eight games, you were going to necessarily see him continue to take to grow by leaps and bounds. That said, he played well. Um so, and I think that’s what this second half of the season is is figuring out what you have in the other guy and going from there. Uh, I think you’re taking a quarterback. I mean, unless something changes drastically over the next seven games, eight games, I think you’re taking a quarterback at ideally number one overall. Um, I’ll I’ll take Fernando Mendoza. I’ll go from there, but we’ll have to see. M. Nelson says, “And Kell is Kellen even engaged on the sideline. Any emotion?” Yeah, I think Kellen is is getting to the point that he’s very, very frustrated. Um, you know, he’s yelling at the officials a little bit more. he’s getting into it. But, you know, and and emotion on the sideline is is a double-edged sword. Like, yeah, you want to see a guy get into it, but then you also have like why does everyone why did like one of one of the easiest things to to uh clown Brian Kelly for was him constantly throwing temper tantrums on the sideline. Brian Dable is the same way. Like, you you you want a balance there. You do need kind of an even killed approach. It’s just really easy to be critical of a guy when you’re losing. Um, I don’t, and here’s the thing. I don’t really care about the engagement on the sideline. I don’t care about the emotion. I want better offense. You can be the most boring person in the world. I want better offense. Um, so I’m not I’m not worried about that. Now, the facts of that, I’m I’m still waiting and patiently waiting to see this innovation and, you know, football mind that we got here in New Orleans to be unleashed. Please. Yeah. So, uh, Andy sure likes my shirt. Fun fun fact about this shirt. Um, it was my birthday, which was literally co um because it was March 10th. March 11th is my birthday. So, it was March 10th, the day before my birthday, 2020. Um, which the NBA shutdown on March 11th, which is why I say it was COVID. Uh, and we were out and we ended up, we were going to play laser tag, but it was like super hot and I sweat through my shirt. and I didn’t have time to go home, so I just went to a shop on Bourbon Street and bought this shirt. Um, yeah, that’s why I have it anyway. Legendary moment. Yeah, still have it. Just want to think back to all the good times of co. Um, but at least I got to celebrate my birthday before we realized I’m I hope you won laser tag. You know, thinking back it was like probably bad decision to play laser tag right in the beginning of a pandemic, but you know, it is what it is. My brother was living li i v i n brother. Yeah, it was funny because it was my brother was in town because it was like also his bachelor party because I flew him down. It wasn’t really a bachelor party. I kind of flew him down for a bachelor party and then he didn’t even get end up getting married for like two years because of the co. Um Borde says, “Can we agree that Chase Young is the one and only true talent on this team? Watch Mickey trade him. He’s not getting traded.” I don’t I don’t agree that he’s the only talented player, but he is one of the one of the players that you look at and say, “Okay, you can build around this.” Yeah, definitely a pillar or a standout, whatever you want to say. For sure. Borderly also says, “I was hoping we would feature Shahed yesterday so we could get a third from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline.” I think they were trying to feature Shahed. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you go into the trade deadline on Tuesday and it’s like suddenly he’s your kick returner. he’s a leading receiver in the game. Like whether that was intentional or not, the timing was interesting. Uh because it did seem like he was featured in that game a little bit more at all levels. Um I just wish he was I don’t know why he stopped running on I think he maybe didn’t see the ball because like he had a step like that was very close to being like a 60- yard touchdown. Um let’s see. Jerry G says, “Not letting a one-8 record ruin my week.” Happy for you. I wish I could say that. Um, props to Jerry G2 with the AK jersey. It says I think it says Pope actually. Oh, poor. It says poor. So, it’s a it’s a custom jersey, but it says it’s a 41 jersey, but it says his last name on the back. Gotcha. Um, all right. 992 R says it looked like all the other games. I I disagree. like this is not, you know, I I I think that looked like a good team versus a bad team and a bad team that didn’t believe it could win. Like that was the difference to me in that game. Is there like from from the jump didn’t seem like the Saints felt like they had a chance in that game? No, but definitely same stuff for sure of, you know, the same issues we’ve been seeing with red zone, whatever you want to talk about. It just same old same old Same for life. Saints entire offensive coaches went to Seattle and look what they are doing. They looked terrible last season, but with some good talent around them. Seattle looks like a serious contender this year. And well, here’s the thing. They didn’t look terrible for the first two weeks. They looked like a dynamic offense that was going to run rough shot over the entire NFL. Then the injury struck, but yeah, I mean, I never felt like the biggest issue last year was Clint Kubak, but you weren’t keeping him like once you fired Dennis Allen. Like that doesn’t happen. you fire hire you hire a new head coach an offensive head coach and you keep Clint Kubiaak like that wasn’t gonna that was never going to happen. Um but no I mean like I feel like I had a really too much of a brief bromance about Clint Kubak. I was ready to go for him. Like I was like he’s going to be the number one Halloween costume this year because of how things look through two weeks. Yeah. And and I mean like I liked a lot of those coaches. I like John Benton. I thought he was a good offensive line coach. I liked Janoko. I thought he was a good quarterback’s coach. Um, you know, but like when you change head coaches, like there’s just not going to be many holdovers, particularly when it’s an offensive head coach. He’s going to bring in his staff. So, you know, there was nothing you could do. Um, but Right. other than make Clint Kubak the head coach. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Which would have been actually kind of hilarious based on how like you every time you fire every time you fire the head coach, you make one of his coordinators the head coach. Uh, but yeah. Borderly says sell sell. Correct. The offensive chilo cello chilo. The offensive line is decimated. If we get the first pick in the 2026 draft, Mickey Lumis will give it to Shawn Baitton in Denver. I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t think they’re going to draft a tackle. So, we’ll see. Although I did not think Fuaga played well. I I I’m I’ve been a little disappointed in Fuaga’s development in year two. I really expect him to get back to the right side and become like a dominant player and hasn’t been that. Like I I think you’re okay with the tackles as they are and you feel like you have two really good tackles, but like he did not play well yesterday. Um so either way, we’ll see. Rough to see too from the offensive line. those two two guys that obviously you know they’re going to be building around in the future. They are the future. Yeah. Pammy says, “Absolutely. Even the light fixtures are for sale at this point, which yeah, why not?” Hey, if you can give me a seventh round pick for a chandelier, I’ll take it. Jeff, one of the uh I guess most brutal like dagger calls for a fan, you know, on the postgame show that that I can recall of, we had a female calling in Pam and she was saying how she’s known as black and gold girl. And Bobb’s like, “Well, why’d you call in as Pam then?” She goes, “I don’t want to be known as black and gold girl anymore.” And I was like, “Ouch, that hurts, man.” Um, all right. See this take I I don’t agree with this take says we pissed away a fourth round pick. Like I think Valle is going to be a part of your offense. Um you just need to run more than 40 plays in a game, right? Um so again like that’s I like I think Shahid gets traded. I think that that opens things up or or you could trade Cooks. I don’t know if anyone really wants coach, but um like I I don’t have an like again my issue with this trade is not that you made it, it’s that the offense is just not clicking. And if you make the deals that you should be making on Tuesday, then that fourth round pick is going to come back and then some and you should be getting a comp pick because they have no interest in playing Isaac Yadam anymore outside of special teams. So you should you should get that comp pick back from Adbo. like they’re gonna have picks or at least they should. Um my problem with the whole val deal is the fact that I just haven’t seen the plan for him yet, but I haven’t really seen plan for much of an offense yet. Right. Yeah. And and I mean like you bring in a guy after training camp after the whole offense is installed, you know, they can say he’s completely up to speed. He’s never going to be completely up to speed. like he’s going to go through into full camp next year and that’s when you’re really going to be able to to kind of incorporate him. Um but no, like I think he he’ll be more involved over the second half of the season and and we’ll go from there. Like I still think people really overvalue the type of player you can bring in in the fourth round and be like, “Oh, he’s going to be a consistent contributor.” Yeah. To me, we’ll see. We’ll see what that pick ends up turning into. Yeah, sure. Sure. But I mean, name me all the fourth round picks over the last 10 years and tell me tell me how many of them have been contributors. Um, all right, let’s keep going. Debbie Fcha says they are not playing with good energy. Yeah, I think that was a frustrating thing from yesterday is you just didn’t again it just didn’t feel like a a team that was worth watching. Um, so that’s a big change for sure. Saint for life says more isn’t the problem in my opinion. He’s working with old players and not enough players that is going to take this team to the NFL. I mean, yeah, this isn’t the most talented roster in the NFL, but I still expect more. Um, it’s and I didn’t mean no pun intended. Um, like I just you expect more. expect more. That one was pun intended. Definitely to look like a professional team that wants to compete in the NFL. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, especially because of how time of possession worked out, if it was just a glorified practice on Sunday in LA, you you got to see another joint workout. Yeah. Yeah. And Matt Stafford was there this time. Um, let’s see. I’m just trying to get all the way through here. Uh, because I’m still on I’m still on comments that were made like an hour ago. Eric Holland says, “Rattler was never the problem.” I don’t think anyone like like did people really think Rattler was the problem? Like that was never my take. No, we’re just at the point now where Yeah, you’re midpoint of the year. What’s the second round pick have? we’re not doing anything else. So, like my take was never that Rattler was the problem. My take was that I don’t know. I think we’ve seen enough to understand he’s not the solution either. Like, yeah, he he’s not your starting caliber quarterback. He could probably be a starter and a in a better situation, but I think you’re aspiring for a kind of a franchise altering quarterback and until you find one, then you’re still looking. Um, and the Saints are still looking, you know, again, would they have been better off yesterday playing Spencer? Yeah, probably. But that’s not what the season is about. The season is about figuring out what that guy has. Um, so yeah, like again, like I I I I’ve been very I was I I don’t know. I feel like I was very fair to Spencer. I don’t think I was unfair to Spencer. Like there’s this idea that he didn’t get a fair shot at this and I just disagree with that completely. Um I think he got more than his fair share, man. I mean, he’s he got 13 starts, right? Is that is that right? He got six last year and or 14 because he got six last year and eight this year. Yeah, cuz he they went one and seven. So, I mean, how many fifth round picks in NFL history have gotten 14 starts to see if they have it? Like, you could probably you probably counted on one hand, maybe two. I I looked this up at one point. I’ll have to go find it. Um, but it’s not a long list of fifth round quarterbacks that actually got a chance, let alone a chance once like like Gardner Mchu I think was a fifth round quarterback, but he had a really strong start to his career which allowed teams to give him chances. Um, the Saints saw him that rookie season. I think he had won his first two games and like he kind of he kind of caught lightning in a bottle and that just got him on everyone’s radar. I mean, when you start 0 and six, it’s like you don’t see a lot of quarterbacks get stuck with, let alone stuck with with a young quarterback in the building. So, I don’t know. Like, I just can’t I just think that’s a miss. Like, this idea that that he’s getting done dirty. He’s not. Um, Pammy Way says, “You tank when you were a player or two away.” We are far from that. I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t know, but I don’t believe we have to even try to tank. So, don’t worry about it, folks. Yeah, they’re they’re doing just as they’re doing a perfectly fine job without actually tanking. Um the issue in this draft is like who you tank it for. Yeah. You know, like there’s no Andrew Luck in this draft. Like there’s no generational player in this draft. That’s what I said to Abear last night. I’m like there’s no B there’s no Joe Burrow. Yeah. Right. And even if they’re like I mean there might be a Joe Burrow because I don’t think Joe Burrow like yeah Joe Burrow was do people view him as generational like I don’t think like when I say generational I mean like we’ve been talking about him for like three like Joe Burrow was on the best college football team of all time and with perspective it’s very easy to say that. I’m probably biased going through that and seeing, you know, the entire season unfold and being so high on Joe, the QB of a coach’s dad, and I just think he had the tools, the mentality, and unfortunately, he doesn’t have the health to be that dude in the NFL, but I think he’s on that level. Well, yeah, but I mean, I’m just thinking at draft time like people weren’t tanking for Joe Burrow, right? The Bengals got the number one overall pick and it was obvious like hey they’re taking Joe Burrow but like Andrew Luck it was like you could see it from like Pton Manning you could see it from from years out who this was going to be right like Victor Wyama in the NBA like people were talking about him for like three years before he even got to the draft. Like that’s not like I didn’t even know who Fernando Mendoza was until this season. Um and say that’s about me not paying attention to football, college football, you’re right. I I’m not the biggest college football fan in the world, but like I don’t think Fernando Mendoza was a household name prior to this season for a lot of people. So that in of itself means that there’s no one necessarily worth tanking for. At the beginning of the year, I thought everybody was all in the talking about Arch Manning to the Saints. Yeah. Right, right, right, right, right. Uh the 52 players not named Chase Young. Um, but no, like like last year for example, Cam Ward, like people weren’t tanking for Cam Ward. Cam Ward was just the the obvious number one pick for a team that needed a quarterback. And that’s going to be the case for free. I think that’s a ve that’s a better comparison to what’s going to happen this year. Um, and even like Caleb Williams, Caleb Williams was a a player of a caliber that people were talking about long before he got to the draft. And that happened to be a draft with several top quarterbacks in it along with him. But okay, I’m gonna go back. Watch the Saints get the top pick in the draft and this is the time they trade down. Hey, I mean look at the Bears, right? Like the Bears were better off trading out of that first overall pick. So it’s like it can happen, not going to happen, but like you can get a killing Oh, yeah. Right. for that number one pick. And in a season where there isn’t that like, oh man, they got to have him. Angel Morales does think that Spencer’s getting done dirty. So I disagree, but hey. Um, you know what? They they flashed that real quick on the, you know, the TV broadcast, Jeff. And I I I did appreciate there were after the touchdown I saw Shuck with Rattler and also with Jay Kainer on the sideline and you could genuinely tell that Rattler and her were happy for Shuck. Yeah, Rattler’s handling it well. Rattler’s being a pro about it and I give him a lot of credit for that. Um I just thought I was like, “All right, cool. These guys do have that camaraderie. We we hear it talked about, but like I genuinely genuinely felt that when the the camera flashed it after he had his touchdown yesterday. Yeah. And I mean like like Shuck was out there supporting Spencer for the first eight games, you know. Shuck wanted to be the starter too, you know, like uh so no, I I mean I I give like again I give Spencer a lot of credit like he’s handling it well as well as you can. Like it’s not he’s getting benched. He’s dealt with this situation before, right? Like he knows how he says to be. He understands body language. He understands people are going to be watching him and no hand well. So again, I give him credit for that. Um Jimmy Gumbbo says, “Saints without Eric McCoy is brutal.” Yeah, that’s true. When they don’t have Eric McCoy, things don’t go well. Um so, okay, how much do we have to worry about him now? Like this is back-to-back seasons. The the our stud center hasn’t been available even though we you know, we want to lift. He’s on a a pedestal for me as maybe the best guy the best talent on the roster. Yeah. No, it’s it’s a problem. Um and it’s the second year in a row with a kind of an elbow injury. Like the man you never want to see injuries repeated, you know, but we’ll see. Like he’s still a young player. He’s still under contract. Like they’re going to bring him back. But yeah, I mean then you like you’re going to be waiting next year like oh god is it going to happen again? And then if it does and suddenly then it becomes like well what can is this the end of your career because you just can’t keep you know your arms are important for an offensive lineman right little bit like you have you need that like it’s it’s not a position where you know wide receiver you have an elbow injury you know you’re not constantly putting a ton of pressure on your elbows that’s that’s different for you know anyway that’s all I got I think Kellen’s about to talk so we send you now folks we take a break in our action on the inside Black and Gold Podcast Network to send you over to Kell Moore at the Saints facility. Enjoy. I’m sure it’s going to be a very informative day. Who folks? Bye. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. Have a good week. Have a good week. Say hi to your neighbor. Trying to have like Mr. Rogers energy. Yeah. I don’t know if it worked. All right. Bye.

Ouch. Need we say more? The New Orleans Saints went out west again and came back with similarly demoralizing results in a 34-10 loss to the Rams, spoiling the starting debut of QB Tyler Shough. So what gives? On the latest edition of WWL Radio’s Inside Black & Gold podcast, Saints sideline reporter Jeff Nowak and WWL Sports Director Steve Geller weigh in after Kellen Moore’s offense hit new lows and the defense didn’t do much better in a blowout loss out west.

00:00 – cold open … yikes

09:26 – SEGMENT 1: What went wrong … and how active should Saints be at the trade deadline?

31:37 – SEGMENT 2: Picking stock down players in loss to Rams … Kellen Moore’s offense ain’t working

58:04 – SEGMENT 3: Picking stock up players in loss to Rams … 2-minute Shough?

01:15:55 – MAILBAG!!!