SAINTS SQUAD SHOW: New Orleans Saints UGLY MISCUES Cost Them Hate Week Game Against Atlanta Falcons

SAINTS SQUAD SHOW: New Orleans Saints UGLY MISCUES Cost Them Hate Week Game Against Atlanta Falcons

Welcome back to another episode of the Saints Squatch. I’m your host, Dylan Sanders of Saints Wire Pelicans Round Table. And I knew it, the black helmets and the black uniforms were always going to look good together. I’m Darien Gray of who that dish and it was nice while I lasted. This is former Saints wide receiver Lance Moore and as you could tell, I’m upset. It’s the Saint Squad. Everything New Orleans Saint every week covering all the big hits and gamechanging plays from down in the Big Easy the way only Locked on Podcast Network can. Get ready and squad up. It’s the Saint Squad Show starting now. Howdy nation and welcome back to the Saint Squad Show part of the lockdown podcast network. your team every day. And now the number one the number one podcast sports network in the nation. Man, we did we climbed up the rankings. Something that New Orleans doesn’t do very often, but we did it with Locked On. Thanks for making us your first listen. Every Sunday and Wednesday, we have a unique group of experts here ready to bring you a fun and informative show on everything New Orleans Saints. Today, we’re going to be diving into the uh the game that we It was one of the games of all time, as I would say. Uh it was disappointing on offense, on defense, definitely on special teams. We’ll get into all of that. Uh we’re going to break it down with our instant reactions going into the offense, going to the defense, and then we’ll end it on a on a nice note with the players of the game and maybe what we can uh look forward to the rest of the season. And uh but first, today’s episode is sponsored by Price Picks. down the price to accept today and use code lock NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. All right, let’s start off with our instant reactions. And this is also where I kind of grouped in our or the blade group because I know it’s going to happen but doesn’t really fit into offense or defense uh that much. So, let’s just get into our overall overarching reactions. Let’s start off with Darien. This felt like a reality check. This felt like we were all high going into the by-week and then you have the by-week. You get a week to feel good about yourself and then you come out and it felt like a lot of the things that plagued New Orleans plagued him again. Mostly red zone concerns. That was probably the most frustrating aspect of the game. I think that Lance will probably we going to give him his ISO moment in segment two. it is that really falls in line with the red zone opportunities with the once you get inside the 30 opportunities where New Orleans was moving the ball down the field early, but two missed field goals by Blake Groupy in my opinion not only changed what the final score looks like, I think it changes how the game felt while it was still going on. If you get those two field goals in the first half, now you’re only going down three points. It looks a lot different. It feels a lot different. the game feels like it’s in within reach and you call it different. But you know what? I wasn’t happy with what Kell Moore did when he got inside the 30. I thought there was too much reliance on Taesm Hill. I thought that there was a abandoning of Devin Neil specifically on that drive where you got on a goal to go situation and I didn’t see him at all. I’ll try to give it a little bit of positivity before I hand it off to Lance because quite frankly it’s going to be a lot of negativity to go around today. I did like that. I saw Devin Neil or me, not Deon Neil. Sorry guys. I really like Deon Neil. I just want to talk about him, but Devon Bele use his size a couple times on two plays that felt like they were specifically called for him. It felt like they wanted to use his size on the interior, which we’ve been waiting for. And then secondly, on a pass that was almost intercepted by Tyler Shuck where you saw Vele’s size and strength be able to rip away the ball from the defender. So, uh, I I thought that was a positive thing when we’ve been looking for Vele for the couple of weeks since Rasheed was traded and especially after the Cooks release. Yeah, I I would agree. You know, it’s always really annoying whenever a team comes out of a timeout and looks off. They they didn’t look prepared like what what were you discussing in that moment? This is what you came up with. The same can be said whenever a team comes out of a by-week and looks exactly like they did today. It was I cannot believe that this was an out of by-week off of a win performance from the team. They looked lost. They didn’t know what they wanted to do and then whatever plans they did make didn’t work. They didn’t adjust. It was it was ugly all around. Lance, yeah, let’s hear it. Look, I I’m not going to um totally jump on a soap box here. I’m not going to totally obliterate everybody that had on black and gold today. I’m just going to make two simple points uh beyond what you guys said because I agree with everything that you guys said. Um before we started, Dylan, you said uh Blake Groupy, you know, you don’t really know where he fits in. He doesn’t fit in offense and defense. Well, he clearly doesn’t fit in between the goalpost. That’s my first point. My my second point is during the telecast they made mention several times and then you guys obviously did too about the red zone deficiencies, right? They got inside I believe at the end inside Atlanta’s 30 yard line five times with that last drive and only came out with three points to show for it. Well, the offense only came up with three points to show for it the entire game. It wasn’t just in those red zone stops that they had it like to you can’t win a game in the NFL with three points on offense. I don’t care who you’re playing against. It’s just not possible. You’re going to have to have several defensive touchdowns. Not one or two, like three or four. You would have needed four defensive scores in this game to win. It’s unacceptable in this game. I know everybody’s talking about Shuck or Ruiz or all these other guys. This game is 100% on Kell Moore for multiple reasons. Obviously, the play calling was atrocious. And I understand he doesn’t have the assets, I guess you could say, that he’s had in Philadelphia and before that in Dallas. But he knows that. He knows what he needs to do to be able to move the football. He knows the plays to call to be able to get the offense going. He knows that he had two weeks to prepare for this Atlanta team. He did not have his team ready to play. I love the fact that the defense made some plays early, but where were they the rest of the game? I just don’t know. I like sure pick six great sacks early in the game great. Defensive PBUs and things like that, tackles for loss, great. As the game wore on and our offense was stinking it up, our defense started to stink it up, too. That’s coach. It’s not on the individual players. The coach has to have the players ready to play. And then the coach needs to put said players in position to be in the positions to have success. He failed. Yeah. Is what it is. I think it I think it’s about as it’s about as simple as that. Honestly, it’s just like this team did not look ready to compete, ready to play an NFL game on on Sunday. And that is that is, you know, I I mentioned already especially annoying coming out of a by-week. So annoying at any point, but it really felt like this was a chance with a very easy schedule left to maybe get some wids, get some momentum, have a little bit of of and honestly, maybe it’s saving them from themselves and and getting that high pick uh whatever it is, keeping that for now. But, you know, you just want to see at least some wins with maybe something positive to take away. There’s not a ton positive to take away from this game. Like, you know, looking looking for the the nice moments or the nice players. Uh, there was that one Deon Neil drive, Dar. And then it wasn’t and then it was and then it wasn’t. That’s the problem, Dylan. Like, I’m trying because I know everybody sees on the right side of the screen. Too much Taesm Hill. We’re going to get to it. I’m trying not to get to it too much right now, but you mentioned the one favorable moment was that you had a Devin Neil drive until you decided to make it a Taesm Hill moment. Until you decided that on fourth down, screw Tyler Shuck. Let’s let Taesm Hill throw the football. It’s one thing when you’re going to do the Taesm Hill run. It’s one thing and Lance and I are very much so in agreement on how we feel about how that’s been utilized this year, the effectiveness of it this year. But it’s one thing where you’re going to do literally his special play, but to let him throw the ball and and have it dependent on the idea of, well, they won’t see this one coming. Well, they did. They were a sound defense and they they saw it coming. The same way on that first drive where or not the first drive, but the drive where Mason Typton got you in the red zone, you didn’t have to get down there. You got in the red zone because Mason Typton had a great return. You have first play Taesm Hill. First play Taesm Hill. Second play I think they ran the ball. And then a third down a screen that only works if they don’t see that coming. I didn’t see the aggressiveness after a Mason Typton drive to move this away from Taesm for a second because we’ll get back to it. after Mason Typton gets you inside the 20 on a kickoff return. Why are you not being more aggressive to get seven? I tweeted out, “Hey, Saints are in the red zone already. Need seven. Didn’t mean that seven. That’s not seven I was talking about, but we got it anyway.” And they’re going to do that. Then on third down, you’re not aggressive. It’s like you were playing for three. And Blake Groupy did what Blake Groupy has done throughout the season. The confidence that they have in him is not one that I share. It’s one that is kind of confusing to me on how they have this confidence. If they still have it, that’s going to be another indictment on Kell Moore. The replacement is there. We have six games left. Let’s see what Charlie Smith has. It’s at that point. It was at the point where if they weren’t going to kick another field goal with Blake Groupy if they didn’t have to. They weren’t going to and they shouldn’t have. And they shouldn’t kick another Blake Groupy field goal for the rest of the year because Blake Groupy couldn’t shouldn’t be kicking any field goals for the Saints the rest of the year. I don’t care if it’s Charlie Smith. I don’t care if you have to go for it on fourth down all the time, be extremely aggressive on third down. When you’re ever in fringe field goal range, go for it on on fourth. I don’t care. The time is up. The time’s been up. But now I feel like the time for ignoring it is way past due. Well, it’s it’s it’s Sorry. Sorry, Dylan. I just want to get in while he’s talking about this. What type of accountability are you holding? That’s what I was going to go for. You’re like, what is the standard? Is is the standard to make all your kicks for three games and then go back to the guy that was missing a lot of kicks early on in the year? Like what are we doing? Would we let any other position fail so many times and keep their job? Like that that to me is is what happens in the next couple of days is going to be very very telling. Now obviously we’re in a rebuild. Obviously, like as we’re losing these games and this one hurts because it’s Atlanta, right? Like if this was anybody else, I’d be sick, but not nearly as sick. Like it just it just hurts more because it’s the Falcons who are not a good football team, mind you, who were without some really good players, mind you. But if if there’s not a move made, and look, I I don’t want to call for a guy’s job, but if a guy is not performing and you have other guys that could be performing, then what are we doing? Accountability. Word of the week. Well, it’s a word of the past couple of years in New Orleans. We’ve seen it in with, you know, everywhere on Airline Drive is that they make the decision that needs to be made weeks after it should have been made. like we’ve seen it all all the time. It it is it’s you know it’s a it’s a losing culture building uh thing. If you’re okay with mediocrity, if you share that if you show players that you’re okay with mediocrity, where is the hustle or the need to get better right now? It’s like, oh well, you’re rebuilding. You don’t need to be good. You can’t you don’t you never start a rebuild unless until you start building that winning culture. If you if you never build that Yes. that it’s not a rebuild, it’s just settling at the bottom. Yes. Yes. That and that feels like where it is. Let me not say that. Let me not say because I actually do feel like they are in a rebuild right now in this present moment. Maybe I’m a prisoner of the moment, but it does feel like if you do not make a move for accountability sakes to to send a message to everybody else of what happens when you when you slack off, right? I think it was a couple of weeks ago. I feel like Alvin had a fumble and I didn’t see Alvin for the rest of the game. Like I I I could be wrong, but I or at least I didn’t see him for a while. And that’s Alvin Chimera. That’s a star player. I mean, Blake Groupy, Alvin Chimera, what they’ve done for the franchise, who they are in their current place. If one could be held accountable, I just don’t understand why the other. And sometimes you make an example of the the higher person on the depth chart, someone who’s, you know, hey, this can happen to him, it can happen to anybody, but it just doesn’t track. It doesn’t follow if you do not follow it up with holding others accountable. But it is Tyler Shuck was okay. He was all right. I thought Tyler Shuck has some good moments. Yeah, he he didn’t play bad. I don’t think Chuck played poorly. I think I think the lack of a consistent run game hurts him. I think the lack of of playmakers on the outside hurts him. I think the lack of a vertical passing attack hurts him. I think the fact that he hasn’t had a lot of reps in NFL games when the pressure is kind of on him, you can see him get a little antsy. I mean, he was sacked several times and he looks a little nervous when the pressure’s coming. That’s normal. Like, I’m okay with that. Like, I don’t love it. I would love to see less of it, but that to me is is a sign of a rookie quarterback. It’s not a sign of a guy that’s incapable. It’s not a sign of a guy who doesn’t care. It’s not a sign of a guy that has no potential because he’s shown plenty of potential. He made some good throws. He made some good plays with his legs. Sure, you’d love for him to not panic in the pocket from time to time. You’d love for him to kind of see where that pressure is coming from and maybe look to an outlet a little bit sooner, but I don’t I look, I’m not gonna say he played great, but I don’t think he played poorly by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah, he had a couple turn Go ahead. Oh, I was going to say uh while we on Blake Rub, I was looking this up just to see like how often does a guy because now he has dipped below 70% field goal on his field goals this season. How often does a guy get at least 26 attempts and finish below 70 and it’s happened three times since 2015 and those players were Steven Guskowski, Brett Maher and Greg Zerline. Stephen Guskowski and Greg Zerline. I think you get a pass, you get a down year. Brett Maher, that was his last season in Dallas and his last season in there. Blake groupy is not a Gascowski or a Zerine. So I I just like you people don’t get this big of a leaf a big of a leash is is what I was going to say. 100%. And all I was going to say is there was a couple of turnover plays that are part of the progression as well. I think what Lance really emphasized is the youth. It’s not really a word associated with growing pains. It’s growing pains. Growing pain. That’s that’s a better way to say I didn’t want to say the age thing. Inexperience. Inexperience. Thank you. The inexperience and the growing pains. I think that those are good ways to describe it because it’s his third start. He’s new in the NFL and he had a couple of turnover worthy plays, but it’s not enough to to jump on him. I want to see how he responds next week. That was a big thing for Kellen in in in the Saints in last year’s or excuse me this year’s training camp was how do Rattler how do Shuck respond when they have bad things happen. So I want to see how do you respond next week because it was rough. You were under a lot of pressure. James Pierce Jr. was very familiar with Tyler Shuck by the end of the day. And Chuck had a couple of balls that probably should have been turned over turnovers and they ended up being turnovers at the end of the day on that last pass. So I want to see how he bounces back and how he responds next week. All right. Well, let’s continue talking about the offense. We’re going to start with Tasm Hill and then we can also get into any more offensive comments that we want to. Coming up next, this episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day. I decided to wear this hoodie. You decided to watch the state squad show after this Falcons lost. But on Price Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. If you haven’t tried it yet, Prize Picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. If it it takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup, and you can play anywhere Prize Picks operates, including California, Texas, and Georgia. The new stacks feature is a game changer. You can now pick more on let’s go Dererick Queen’s points, rebounds, and assists all in the same lineup. Plus, if your if one of your players leaves early with an injury, the injury reboot saves your lineup from a loss. Download the Price Picks app today and use code lock NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on NFL for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. Price picks. It’s good to be right. All right, let’s go into the Taesm Hill talk. And I’m gonna I’m gonna start off with Lance here because he requested us to talk about Taesm Hill a lot. So, this segment is is yours, Lance. What do you want to start off with? I I want to start off by saying I’m a Taesm Hill fan. I am. I don’t I don’t dislike the guy. I don’t dislike the player. I just think that what Kellen Moore is doing with Taesm Hill, specifically in this game, was unacceptable, was uncalled for, was forced, and honestly to me kind of sort of renders him incompetent. Why do I say that? We’re talking all season about trying to get a look at these quarterbacks. You get down into the tight red zone and you take your quarterback, your rookie quarterback, and split him out wide at wide receiver, not one time, but multiple times. You have a young running back that is showing great promise as the weeks progress. A kid who was balling. Every single time he touched the ball today, I feel like something positive was happening. You don’t give him one single carry in the tight red. What are we doing? Oh, and by the way, we want to go to this Taesm Hill package that’s been so great for so many years with multiple backups on our offensive line. Oh, and by the way, Caesar Ruiz is playing like a practice squad guard. So, you’re gonna run the Tason package not once, not twice, not three times. I’m sure Dylan, you can look it up before I get to it. It was at least five or six times in the tight red. And the defense is not worried about it. They’re just not. And they’re really I’ll tell you what they’re really not worried about. They’re really not worried about Taesm Hill throwing the football in the tight red. You know why? Because in the tight red, everything happens faster, which means your throws have to be more accurate. There is no room for error down there in the red zone, in the tight red zone specifically. They’re not worried about that. So, they can cloud the line of scrimmage. They can bring as many guys into that box as they want to because they have zero fear of him play faking and then rolling and then throwing a ball. I just don’t understand why we continue to like it’s it’s going to be hard enough to win games with this roster as is right now, but now you’re making it even more hard by doing things that your team probably is not capable of doing right now. If anything, if they really wanted to run the football down there, hand the ball to your running back. get in a normal formation so that Atlanta can’t have 14 guys in the box ready for the Taesm Hill run. Like just make they make it so hard. He’s trying to outthink the defense or the defensive coordinator or the I just it you’re making it harder. You’re not making it easier on your team. You’re making it harder. The team is so onedimensional when you get in there with Taesm Hill at quarterback. Everybody knows what’s coming. There’s no there’s no element of surprise. There’s no creativity because it’s the same stuff over and over and over and over again. Oh, and by the way, the the pass play, you have one receiver, one guy. There’s only one guy he could have thrown the ball to. That guy wasn’t open. So, even if that ball doesn’t get batted away, he ain’t catching it. And we’d be lucky if that ball’s not picked off because the DB was undercutting the receiver as the ball was being delivered. So, less trying to outsmart the defense. Let’s play with our normal guys. And if you want to put Taesm Hill on the field, so be it. Put him at tight end. Put him at receiver. Honestly, I don’t care if you put him at running back. I’d like to see Devin Neil more, but a regular play is gonna have a higher chance at success than the Taesm Hill play with the roster currently as it’s constructed. Tell tell me if I’m wrong here, but Tyler Shuck would be more suited to run the Taesm Hill plays than Taesm Hill is at this point. like he’s he is bigger and seems to be faster and is a little bit stronger than Tasil post many many serious injuries and at this point of his career that’s Dylan but guess who gets paid a lot of money to run the football what position Hillar the running back the running back’s job is to tote that tater and when you don’t allow your running back to touch the rock down there it’s I can only imagine Imagine how Deon feels. He’s probably sick to his stomach. Mhm. You don’t even give me one carry down here. You don’t give me an opportunity to finish a drive. Ta T Taesm Hill was 0 for two through the air today. Uh and 10 carries for 17 yards. The longest the longest play was for four yards. So your best scenario, your best result for Taill was a four yard run. yet you went to it 10 times throughout the game. It’s it doesn’t make any like it’s one thing if it starts to work and because those those games have happened and they’ve happened a lot against the Atlanta Falcons. They loves playing against the Atlanta Falcons. Not not today because they they saw it coming. They saw it coming. But you know what also kind of shows a little bit of silly arrogance because there’s no there’s no like the predictability is there. So everybody knows what’s coming. So that’s essentially Kell Moore saying, “You know what? We’re better than you up front. Stop this or you can’t and you can’t stop.” And we weren’t at all. Sure, he might have converted one or two first downs. That’s what it’s built for. It’s not built for, hey, we’re inside the five. Let’s run run Taesm every single play so we can get a touchdown. Like, that’s not that’s not what the Taesm Hill package is designed for in my opinion. At least not not at all. in 2025. It’s not um they what is it is it is it is it you know we have a couple of people who feel a certain way about this and I’m glad Lance was able to get his frustration off. I I I would like to step in. I’m not done but I’m I’mma let you I’mma let you eat, Darren. Thank you. Hey, listen. Listen. It’s a buffet. All right. I’mma get my plate. Probably two three of them. And I’mma pay I’m gonna tell you go ahead and get you more, too. This is an unfortunate truth. Kell Moore clearly views Taesm Hill as a secondary rushing threat. If Alvin Chimera is to go out, they are going to lean on Taesm Hill the most. When you don’t want to use Alvin Chimera, they are going to lean on Taesm Hill. I feel like they should lean on Devin Neil, but I do not believe that Kell Moore looks at it that way. And I sit here and I talk after games. I do not call plays, so it doesn’t matter what I think should happen. I have a couple of problems with the Taesm Hill package. Number one, there was a t there was a time there was a time when Taesm Hill, you knew what was going to happen, you just couldn’t stop it. Even if it wasn’t blocked, great. You couldn’t stop it. Those days are gone. Lance, you appropriately point out that they are basically saying, “My guys are better than you.” While also saying you have a backup right tackle, you have a backup center, and you have a right guard who feels like a backup or as you said, feels like a practice squad player. You do not have the alignment. You do not have the players to sit here and say we are going to bully you when you know what is coming. You don’t have that. And you don’t have the Taesm Hill of two, three years ago who when everybody knew it was coming, you could get a defensive end that hit Taesm Hill and it didn’t matter. He was going to get his three yards on on third and two, right? Like those days are gone. Now the other problem I have is when you use it, I mentioned it earlier. Mason Typton gets you inside the 20 yard line on a kickoff return and the first play your quarterback is Taesm Hill. Why is it not Tyler Shuck? Why is Tyler Shuck not the quarterback on that play? All right, cool. That’s one problem. You get in on fourth down on fourth and goal. Why is Taesm Hill throwing the football and not Tyler Shuck? Why is that the case? Let’s get into a more expanded view of that little play. What about third and goal, second and goal, first and goal? Why is Devin Neil never on the field? Not even the threat of Devin Neil. Why is that the case? Kell Moore always says this is an evaluation year. Last question. I know I’m asking a bunch of rhetoricals, but what are you evaluating Taesm for? It’s not for the future. You want to see him right now. I would evaluate Devin Neil for the future. I would evaluate Tyler Shuck for the future. And I feel like you’re taking away critical moments from them. Devin Neil showed the ability to get tough yards on that drive. It’s not like, “Oh, I think Deon Neil is a player who can grind it out.” No. On that drive, Devin Neil showed the ability to fight through contact. That’s where you would want a player who fights through contact. Why are you not using him? Why are you not trying to see what he can do in that situation? Tyler Shuck is my potential quarterback of the future. I would like to see how he operates in the red zone. And I would like to see how he operates when the field is condensed. I would like to give him the opportunity to pass, fail, and learn from that as we move forward. That’s not an experience that he has off that drive. Why is that the case? What is the value of Taesm Hill on these specific scenarios? Say what you want to say about Taesm Hill. I’ll get very specific. I pointed out three situations that I feel like Taesm Hill was forced into the game and shouldn’t have. I do not feel like it was beneficial for the short term and I do not feel like it was beneficial for the long term. That’s the problem with the Taesm Hill package as it stands right now. There have been too many times where I feel like Taesm is being prioritized over Tyler Shuck and that should never be the case. It’s simple. Yeah, I agree. All right, Lance, go back to the buffet. Man, it’s your time to eat now. Look, I I I 100% agree with that. And and I guess I’m going to ask your same question. Why? Why? This is like I just don’t understand it. I literally I like watching the game. I’m like, what are they doing? Then then the very next play, what are they doing? Then the very next play, they just did that again. What? What is happening time and time again now? If it’s working, we’re having a whole different conversation, right? Taesm is the hero. They couldn’t stop Taesm Hill. But how many times does it need to fail for you to be like, you know what? Maybe we probably shouldn’t run that one back. Maybe we should give the guy that we’re trying to evaluate a few more opportunities down here to make a play. Yeah. All right. At the risk of sounding too repetitive, I have something that I want to do when we come back while still talking about the offense because I think at this point the offense is the biggest storyline from this game right now. We’ll get into a little bit of the defense, but I think mostly mostly the defense played all right outside of a couple plays. We’ll talk a little bit defense, but I want to stick with the offense when we come back because there there’s something I want to do real quick. We’ll come we’ll be right back. The NFL NB the NFL and NBA seasons are in full swing and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has a live bets on everything from who will score the next point to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. In honor of Jameus Winston playing football again today, doing awesome. I keep looking at his passing yards, and I should have looked at his receiving touchdowns because that man was out there making plays. I I miss you, Javis. I missed you today especially. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to FanDuel, die, play your game with FanDuel. the official sports partner of the NBA. Boom. Boom. Boom. All right, guys. I want to get into this because All right, I’ll just I’ll just do it. I’m going to go through all of their drives, see when they got to the red zodia, and see what happened from there. The first time they got there, it was the first quarter. Uh, direct. It was the Mason Tipton touch. Shout out to Mason Tipton. He He looked fast. He looked like He looked like a play today. He looked like a player. All right. Direct snap to Taesm Hill for no gain. Next play, Tyler Shuck sacked for a loss of seven yards. Tyler Shuck passed short left to Alvin Chimera for two yards. Didn’t like that, by the way. Missed field goal. Didn’t like that. Didn’t like I mentioned it earlier. I want to say it again. Didn’t like it. I’m not going to elaborate. Please continue. All right. They didn’t get to the red zone on the next drive. Didn’t then they then the next drive was the missed field goal uh from the 30 of Blake group. Back toback missed field goals. Brutal. That’s when the game really felt like it was over. All right. So, they get to they get to the red zone. First play Tyler Shuck sacked. Then it was the the 12 yard pass interference. Really? They they get some free yards. Tyler Shuck to the right guard for three yards. Tasa Hill to the right guard for three yards. Tyler Shuck to the scrabble left for one yard. Incompletion uh by incomplete pass by Taes of Hill. All of that was within the 10 yard line. Like brutal like brutal stuff. Then the next one, next drive, uh they get into the uh they get into the red zone off of DPI from AJ Terrell. uh Taesm Hill for two yards up the middle. Then a false start by Ruiz. Then there’s the uh the best red zone play they called all day, the Chris Olive over the middle for 16 yards. Mhm. Then Taesm Hill to the right guard for no gain. Taamm Hill to the right tackle for two yards. Ta T Tyler Shuck uh to the left end for four yards. Tyler Shuck no gain up the middle. And then it was the direct then there was the the penalty the uh intentional grounding pass. I didn’t like that call. And then and then Blake Grubby made a field call. Uh and then the last one they didn’t didn’t get in. Didn’t get in. Didn’t get in. And then they didn’t get in the They didn’t get into the red zone game. But yeah, awful awful play game management and play calling. And then the last thing on the offense, uh, the offensive line was bad today. Uh, good. Assim Richards tagged with five pressures allowed, Dylan Raidens with two, Caesar Ree with three, Kelvin Banks with two, Luke Forner with one. We talked way back, we talked way back after the draft that the Falcons getting James Pierce and um, Jaylen Walker was going to be brutal for uh, for the Saints because of that, their weak offensive line. and they uh you know they gave they allowed two they they were worth two and a half sacks in this game combined total. So brutal not not good nothing good about that. I want to bring this back though to something you said. I want to ask both of you how did you feel on because the play ended up basically not happening. How did y’all feel when you saw Taesm Hill at shotgun after the QB sneaking in before the ball goes over his head and you scramble? So before any of that, what was you guys’ thought process? I don’t think I’ve been excited to see Taesm Hill at all this season. And it br it hurts me brutally because he’s been one of my favorite He’s one of my favorite taste players of all time. Like don’t don’t get us wrong. I think everyone here loves Taesm Hill and and we’re think very very highly of him. It’s just I think the time has come where he’s a little bit past where the Saints need him to be. He’s not he’s not a Kell Moore guy. Kell Moore feels like he needs to use and get the most out of him because he, you know, the old staff did. I guess they are paying him. So, but it just doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look good. I I don’t think that Taesm Hill should be on the team next year. Well, and well, yeah, he he just he doesn’t fit the timeline. So it doesn’t really make doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to have a fi 35year-old overpaid tight end quarterback running back joker I think having so many touches in a game when you’ve got other guys that you should be evaluating who are more than capable of handling their job not taum handling their job I will be interested to see if AK can’t go next week what does the running attack look like not in the sense of how success successful that it is, but how is it divided? Because like I said earlier, I feel like Kell treats Taesm like the secondary rushing threat. But if Alvin doesn’t practice, if you know Alvin’s not playing, I would like to think that you get a much heavier dosage of Deon Neil. I I don’t know if that’s a safe assumption or just a hope, but I would like to see it because it makes the most sense. He’s a what, Lance? Running back. He’s the guy who gets paid to do what? run the football. So, I would like to think that if Alvin can’t go, you see a heavier dosage of of Devin Neil, who his stats don’t look as good as the eye test looked. And I’m going to base it off the eye test because I felt the same way about Kre Miller for years when he was on the field. It never felt like those stats matched what I saw. Things looked a little bit more difficult for him and it felt like he was making the most out of a situation. And that’s what it felt like with Deon Neil today. He did most of his damage in the the receiving game where he was at a period of time I think late or midway through the fourth quarter. I think he was a leading receiver. He had 48 yards. Now that says more about how much yards you had, but it also speaks volumes to what he was able to do out of the back field where he did a great job running away from some Atlanta defenders, making uh uh really making something out of nothing at times. I just thought that he he’s been impressive to me. I just want to see more because I think the Saints need a running back, but I want to see more. You don’t get the chance to have a nice a nice day on the stat sheet if they don’t give you the chance to uh as the whole thing. So, probably probably should have had a touchdown in there, but all right, let’s talk a little bit about the defense of it. Did anything stand out to y’all on the defensive side of the football? Giving up way too many big plays. Yeah. Yeah. because because they I would say outside of the couple big plays that they gave up, they played a pretty strong game. They had some sacks. They had they created a turnover. They had Kurt Cousins at least for the first half of the game looking really really uncomfortable. They had the running game kind of bottled up early in the game, but as the game wears on and your offense isn’t able to score points, that’s going to have a little bit of an impact on your defense coming on the field again. Like, dang man, these dudes can’t score. Like, they didn’t score again. And now we’re right back out here. We had them backed up on their intentional grounding call, which could have been suspect or not. Very next play, swing pass to Bejian Robinson. 33 yard gain for a first down and I believe two plays later, touchdown to Darnell Mooney. Like, you can’t give up those chunk plays. You just can’t. Especially on a team where the offense can’t score. like you definitely can’t give up those big plays because when they’re scoring easy, it’s just so much harder for you to win because your offense isn’t able to score at all. So, it just makes it so much tougher on the defense. Um yeah, I don’t know. I I like the pass rush that we saw early in the game, it faded. Like where where was that later in the game? We haven’t seen very much if any interior pass rush recent in the last couple of weeks. It’s kind of strange to me. It’s It’s been all outside pass rush. Um Carl Granderson, like where has he been like the last several weeks of the season? I can’t even remember the last time he had a sack. Um like these guys, the defense is going to have to carry this team if there’s any hope of winning any games down the stretch. It’s going to have to be led by the defense. They’re going to have to get back to turning over the football more. One turnover is not going to be enough. I understand we got a a score on that one turnover, but I I don’t know. I like I Kool-Aid’s got to play better. We need We need good Kool-Aid consistently. We We can’t have good Kool-Aid, not so good Kool-Aid. We can’t have good Kool-Aid then not so good Kool-Aid. Like you want to be that number one guy. You want to be that shut down lock down corner, then play like it. It’s kind of like whenever you whenever your mom would make Kool-Aid, it would be delicious and you try to make it on your own and the consistency is up a little bit. it doesn’t taste right. Uh so, uh it’s kind of like that. You don’t really know what you’re going to get. Uh but yeah, he has to be better because uh you know, it would be nice to not have to invest too much into the into the secondary this season, but to do that, you need him and Quincy Riley to look like starters on the defensive side of the ball, and they don’t look like it always. Uh yeah, especially Kool-Aid, year two, I think, has to be better and more consistent than he is right now. Can real quick Dylan uh I’m gonna talk for a second but can you look up how many plays that Riley played? I I just I don’t remember seeing Riley. It wasn’t it wasn’t going to be a lot because Atlanta stayed in 13 personnel. So if you’ve got 13 if you’ve got three tight ends on the field which you know obviously one running back and three tight ends you can’t have your nickel personnel on the field or they’ll run the ball down your throat. You’re just too small at that point. So, you’re going to have your base defense or heavy, which they didn’t go heavy too much, but they they were in base defense a whole lot, which keeps Quincy Riley off the field because he comes in in in the passing sets or the third downs or the nickel personnel groupings on offense where they’ve got three receivers on the field. But um you know I I I think Alante is so good on the inside at times can kind of get exposed some some on the outside like the touchdown pass the early touchdown pass that Kirk Cousins threw to David Sills. Alante was playing outside leverage. Sills literally just ran up gave him a little tiny little shoulder fake and the ball was right on him. But I mean like that is a that is a play that an a starting outside corner’s got to be able to make at least be there to contest the catch. I mean like you can’t give up that I mean that looked like routes on air to me. That looked like a practice rep with no defense out there. I mean it it should never look like that. Like it’s it’s Quincy Riley needs to play more. I just don’t think Kellen wants to ruffle feathers and say, “Hey, Quincy’s the starter.” When the other team is in nickel personnel, then Alante comes in and plays the slot. I just don’t think he wants to do that for whatever reason. But he probably should think about it because the reality is Quincy needs those reps and Quincyy’s going to be your starting outside corner next season. He’s got to start getting those reps now. That’s just how I feel. No, that’s fair. And to to your point of like maybe Kell feeling like he has to Brad Sale feel like they have to play Elante out there. I mean they might I mean they might if they want him on the team next year which they clearly do because if you start because Elante you know wants boundary money if he starts not playing that’s why like I’m sorry Elante’s walking this off season. If someone’s going to give him boundary money I think he’s walking. I I just think I think he’s gone because you’re right. You are so right. I think he wants boundary money and if Indianapolis is going to trade for him for boundary then maybe someone else sees him as a boundary corner too. Sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt you Dylan but go ahead. You’re good. You’re good. You’re good. But uh Lance, you talked a little bit earlier ago about you don’t know when the last time Carl Granderson had a sack. It was week four. And the last time that he generated more than two pressures in a single game was week two. That is Wow. unacceptable. That’s bad. Unacceptable from a starting pass rusher. Just really, really bad. And to add on that, he’s only had five tackles in the last four games. So, it’s not he’s not delivering pressure. He’s not getting sacks. He’s really not been involved in the game. You just haven’t seen him a lot. And that’s that’s an issue. I think it’s it’s tough. I I I think you definitely have to invest in that position this off season. And we’ll see what happens with Granison moving forward. But the defense, like Lance said, just too many untimely big plays. You you weren’t able to get pressure consistently. It felt like it was really hot at the beginning. You had some sacks. You had uh the Justin Reed touchdown. It felt like, okay, things are turning around. Little did we know that Justin Reed would be responsible for 70% of the Saints points on Sunday. But that that that tells you everything you need to know. I feel like scoring that touchdown cancels out some of the big plays if the offense is able to play up. Like I think even then it felt like they were playing with such a small margin of error. It doesn’t literally cancel out the big plays, but it feels like the impact of it is different if you have an offense that’s moving the ball. It feels like you can actually swing the tide if the offense is able to do some things. And just offensively, they didn’t take advantage of the early momentum that the Saints defense had. They had momentum getting down there, missed field goals, the defense had some sacks, they had a touchdown of their own and it just felt like none of that was taken advantage of and that was one of the bigger issues in today’s game. Yeah, I I want to I want to just circle back to the Carl Granderson thing. Like I’m I’m starting to wonder, especially after hearing those numbers or those stats that you had, Dylan, like is this even a good fit defensively? Right? I mean, Carl Branderson had his greatest success in this league in a 4-3 defense, right? That Dennis Allen hand in the dirt going and and being able to play both the pass and the run. It just it’s weird that he’s not making plays the way that he used to. So, which it could be a a fit issue, it could be a health issue. We don’t necessarily always know what’s going on with with the guy’s health, whether they’re talking about it or not. But you I think for this defense to be better, there’s going to have to be a better better play up front, more consistent pass rush, and guys who are highly compensated need to start playing as such. Yeah. All right. Well, let’s go a little bit more positive in the next segment with uh with some players of the game. Uh if you can if you can find a couple I think there are a couple of players worth that deserve a shout out that we haven’t gotten to yet, but uh we’ll get up to that coming up next. All right, closing it out today. Let’s get into our players of the game. Uh I’m gonna go ahead and let’s go with Lance to start. Let’s go with Lance to start. Mason Typton. We’ve been calling for We’ve been calling for more Mason Tipton the entire season. This we felt like this would be a game that he would be able to get some more touches. Um, and it was it just me or was he not in the game as a returner, a a kick returner late? Like I I would have to I would be interested to see if like if we look back if he was the returner on the other side of the field when um who’s my man that had the returns when Pettis when Pettis had the rest of the returns like maybe Atlanta said okay don’t kick it to 15 kick it to 11. But anyways we’ve been calling for more. Mason Typton delivered. He had that long return. Uh I would love to get with him on making the kicker miss a little more easily. Um, like I feel like if if he would have taken maybe two two more steps toward the inside of the field, the kicker would have really thought that he was going to try to like cut back across the field and he could have literally just run right past him. Um, but I’m not going to knock him. I I at one time in my career against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2006 fourth preseason game had a 96 yard punt return that I did not score a touchdown on. So I can’t talk too much stuff about him not house calling that. But, uh, a couple touches on offense. I think there should be more. Um, you know, answer the call. I think as maybe not this is our future number two wide receiver, but a guy that is capable of complimenting the other pieces that you have. A guy that good things happen when you get the ball into his hands. Um, and a guy that’s been patiently waiting to have opportunity the way that he had some today in this game. So, I I would say that of of all the guys today, he’s the one that stood out to me the most and had the best day on offense. Yeah, I I think that’s fairly It feels good because it was kind of starting to feel like I we I think I called him Travan Dural the other day of a guy who’s in practice camp you play fans love, want to see more of them, and then just never really gets that opportunity. Uh but this was a game we figured it might have to happen with uh w with Brendan Cook’s leaving and Rashi getting traded and their their refusal to use Devon Valle like maybe they’ll go to Mason Ton. Uh we’ll see a little bit more of Devon today. But uh yeah, it was good to see Mason Tim get the opportunity and I want to see him use a lot more. I’ve talked a lot about this team just needing to utilize more speed in the open space and that’s so he looks fast whenever he whenever he catches a lane. He is hard to catch. It’s it’s it’s fun to watch. It’s it’s something something that I feels like no one else is really bringing right now. Obviously Olive is fast, but he they don’t really use him like that. Um all right, Darien, who you got? I’m gonna go with Justin Reed, the leading scorer on the team. So, uh, I finally Yeah. Yeah. You know what’s funny is he he had you he had made a crack at the Falcons this week, and I was just thinking to myself, maybe this is the week that he has his moment. It felt that that he hadn’t had a splash moment all year. So, it wasn’t so super high. It wasn’t super down. He was just kind of there for most of the season. But, it felt like this was the week that he would have a splash. And he did. I didn’t think it’d be a pick six. I thought maybe be a pass deflection, a break up on a third down or something like that. But Justin Reed caught the ball, he returned it for a touchdown. And if there was anything that the previous minutes of action had taught us, it was that he needed to score that touchdown if the Saints were going to score a touchdown. So, I was very proud to see that he’s going to be my player of the game. It’s it’s a moment, so it’s not a lot to talk about there, but it was the highest moment of the game. It was you have the the kickoff return that Lance pointed out and I’m going to go with the touchdown return that uh Reed had. Something I I like about just read that his going all season back to the the preseason, it’s that he is super chippy and he loves to talk very clearly on the field. Uh and I feel like that is something that could be very useful for a defense whenever they’re playing uh you know better football or more intense football, more intense games. Uh, but it’s so so fun to It’s always fun to see. Uh, we’ve been talking a lot over the Pelicans about like Derek Queen and Jeremiah Fears get into fights after every game. Uh, it feels like and just that aggression. It’s good to see because people and I think it’s something we’ve talked a lot about especially the defensive side like this team still this team still cares. They’re still trying. It’s just that the game plans don’t really seem to to match up. Uh, all right. I think I’m gonna go with I’m gonna I’m gonna pull a John. I’m going to go with two because there’s two players who I think had big moments but they didn’t play enough to really get player of the game. But I want to see the more and that is Whoa. You’re going with two. Wait a minute. Yeah. Well, John’s not here, so do it. Somebody know I’m saying timeout. Yes. Make sure Make sure you tell your friend I mean the fan. Um Oh yeah, Caleb. I know that. I know that John’s out here. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to do it. I’m going to have to do it just because uh can I be real? We have nine minutes left to go. We have nine minutes left to go. Um I’m gonna go with Isaiah Stalurn. Yes. And Danny Stsman. Two guys that I think we have to talk about. Danny Stsman had that big pressure uh that led to the Justin Reed touchdown. So you that was a that was a team effort play in total. Shout out to Justin Ree for converting and then bringing it back, but you don’t have that interception without Danny Susman forcing the pressure. Uh that’s something really I think really important to see right now because you’re not going to always have Demario Davidson. Something we’ve said something that we’ve said a lot and you need someone that can not take over because he uh because you can’t really take over Demario Davis. He’s one of the best linebackers we’ve seen in a long time. but someone to supplement his ability to rush the passer. Pete Werner has never really done that in his career. That’s not his tool set. That’s not his game. So, it’s good to see uh Danny Sn. And then, of course, Ross joined just in time for me to say his favorite name ever, Isaiah Stalird with that with that with that crazy uh jumping sack. That was awesome. So, shout out to him. Shout out to both of them making an impact. Russ, give us give us your your quick thoughts on this game. Yeah, look, here’s the thing that I’ll say right off the bat is that uh the way to improve a football team is not strictly through vibes and optimism. You have to actually figure out a way to get things to work on the offensive side of the football in particular. I thought the defense played extremely well, especially early on in the game or or I should say specifically early on in the game. But an inability to get anything going on offense when you have an offensive genius as your head coach is an is a shockingly alarming sign. And so while it’s great that the Saints continue to be super optimistic about their situation and continue to say like, “Yeah, we know exactly what it is that we need to fix, until those things actually get fixed, it’s going to be really hard to get people to buy what you’re selling.” And I think that that’s a a really kind of detrimental place that this organization is stuck in right now. Yeah. I mean, I would I would Yeah, I would I would I would completely agree. We’ve talking about like what you need to do to actually like build onto the a rebuild, how to start that. We talked We’re talking about that mostly with uh like the accountability of like Blake Groupy now dropping below 70% on his field goals for the season. Like something that’s got to change. We were talking about, you know, even like Carl Granderson uh is someone who has not made an impact in weeks. in weeks. It has felt like uh months actually. Yeah. And he’s a guy that that has observed in himself, this was years, this was a couple years ago during I think training camp, he talked about how he has a habit throughout his career of starting hot and finishing well, but kind of having this dip in the middle of the season. And even since identifying that out loud, which I mean, you can say it out loud all you want. Again, you can exist on vibes and and optimism all that you want until you’re actually performing. it doesn’t matter. But it it’s it’s happening or has happened uh again here this season when it comes to Gray Anderson in particular. So just to add that context like this is effectively what we typically see from him u or have seen from him throughout his career so far. Yeah. And then uh we were in the middle of our players of the game. Uh I went with Isaiah, Danny Stsman, uh Lance went with Mason Typton and Daren went with Justin Reed. Who who do you got to add to that? No, no, I I I’d quickly highlight I it didn’t really happen on the ground for him, but I’d quickly highlight Deon Neil uh as well. Just, you know, look, a big part of what you want to see or a big part of what you lose when Alvin Chimera is off the field for you is not just what he can do out of the backfield as a rusher, but what he can do out of the backfield as a receiver. And that wasn’t really a big part of what Deon Neil was asked to do at Kansas. And he looked very comfortable in that situation here this year or excuse me, in this game this year, goodness, uh, in this game and and so just him getting a little bit more, you know, having a lot more asked of him in this in this game and him responding, I think I’d highlight him, too. Yeah, that was probably the guy I was honestly I thought if I went last someone would have already picked Justin Reed for the moment and that probably been the direction, excuse me, the direction that I would have went because of the receiving. It it just felt like I think Lance it was said it earlier. It felt like good things happened when he touched the ball and that that’s the way that I would describe Deondale. Yeah, I’d agree with that. So, of course, when those good things happen, you have to follow it up with Taesm Hill up the middle for no gains. Yeah. Hey Ross, I’m I’m cur I’m curious if if Kellen spoke specifically about the plan for Taesm Hill after the game. Yeah, we asked about it and he, you know, it’s it’s kind of that same thing that’s always been the Taesm Hill factor of like, yeah, we feel really good about what it is that he can do in some of those game situations and things like that. So, we wanted to lean on him. Uh, I asked him more specifically about like, okay, yeah, you can you you take Tyler Shuck off the field in the red zone and put Tace Mill in the run, but why take Tyler Shuck off of the field in the red zone and then put Taes Mill in to throw the football and then it was the Well, you know, with him we run a lot, so we thought it would be a good idea. We thought we had an opportunity to maybe throw there. So, it it’s a lot of vibes, man. Like, a lot of it is just like trying to roll on vibes like, “Oh, Taesm’s usually good at this. Let’s have him do it.” But, it doesn’t feel intentional enough to be successful. and and I don’t know that they’ve that they’ve figured it out. And I’ll be honest, I don’t know that Kell Moore has figured that out for himself either. Like I think he’s failed as a play caller so far in the red zone in particular. Uh that’s been a place where they’ve struggled quite a bit. And so I I think that that’s something that there’s not a clear enough answer in terms of what’s being shared publicly, but I’m really curious to see what they’re going to change because it’s clear that it doesn’t work and they’ve got to figure out something else there. And Ross, I have one more question. There’s there’s been zero creativity. That’s the problem, right? You you you’re not gonna line you’re not gonna line up with backups and and be great at Taesm Hills package. Just not pause. Right. Play. No, I’m just kidding. Hey, yo. Yo, uh Ross, what was the vibe like in this Super Dome? Because for the for the Pelicans game last night, it was all Atlanta fans. They were screaming ATL. They were screaming our house. They really took over. It felt like an Atlanta home game. Yeah. Honestly, I thought that the Saints fans showed up in this game. Uh especially early the third and three sack with about it was like a little bit over seven minutes or something left in the game. That was the point to where you saw a lot of Saints fans start to say, “All right, I’m I’m start my drive home and you saw everybody kind of file out at that point.” But I I really do commend Saints fans for showing up for this game for a 2-8 football team that, you know, was riding really high after beating the Carolina Panthers and for making noise. I mean, they were the the fans were impactful early on in this game. You saw a couple of false starts end up factoring in and things like that, especially when the defense kind of started off as hot as they did that the the crowd responded. And so I I commend the fan base for showing up for a team that uh I don’t think anybody would blame them not showing up for, right? Like it wouldn’t be surprising. And so to see them show up in a rivalry game in that fashion, I thought was really cool. All right. Well, I got to go watch Wicked. So, thanks for listening to the Saint Squad show. Check out me, Ross, John, and L, and Darian, and our socials for the latest. We’ll be right back at this spot on Wednesday. Ready to talk more New Orleans Saints football. Preview the rest of the season. It’s uh you know, maybe they’ll win another game at some point. Uh they got the the do on the road against the Dolphins next week, I believe. Yes, they are. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if they’re going to win that, but they are indeed on the road. They are on the road against the Dolphins. And for for your second listen of the day, don’t listen to Ros. Actually, do listen to Ross, but come over and check out Lock on Pelicans. I just took over for Jake for the next three weeks. First episode dropping in 20 minutes. So, uh, let’s have some fun over there. Talk to you all soon and we’ll see y’all on Wednesday.

The New Orleans Saints struggled to score points thanks to avoidable mistakes and an insistence on using Taysom Hill. Breaking down everything that went wrong with this game from Blake Grupe missed field goals to big plays allowed on defense, as the Saints fall to the Atlanta Falcons.

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FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)