hagan714

It would be oversimplifying things to point at the second-quarter hit that left Drew Brees with a banged-up shoulder as the reason for Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There were too many issues to point to one symptom and jump to a diagnosis. But it’s the easiest, most obvious way to explain how a once-proud New Orleans Saints organization stumbled to a 26-19 defeat against a team that finished with the NFL’s worst record last season.

Brees wasn’t Brees after that hit. To be fair, Brees hasn’t looked like Brees at all during the first two weeks of the season as the offense has been too willing to dink and dunk its way to consecutive losses. But once the playbook opened up Sunday and New Orleans began trying to hit deep shots down the field, the quarterback wound up and found out his arm wasn’t there.

Again, it would be too easy to point to one play and call it the difference in the game. There were a lot of moments that could be pulled from the pile and stretched out for a game of “What if?” The interception Brees threw in the third quarter that took seven points away from New Orleans and put another three on the board for Tampa Bay qualifies as one of those moments.

It was the perfect play call. It was the third time in the game the Saints used their 22 personnel (two running backs and two tight ends). Until this point, through the first two weeks of the season, New Orleans used the personnel grouping four times. Three of the plays were runs, the other a screen.

Tampa Bay was thinking run. The play-action fake opened things up for Brandin Cooks, who took off down the right sideline and appeared headed for a touchdown. Brees wound up and threw a pass that was well short and landed in the arms of Bucs safety Chris Conte.

“It should have been a touchdown,” Brees said.

A lot of things should have been different. It would be misleading to point out that the Saints had a chance to tie the score on the last play of the game and harp on that. The defense deserves a lot of credit ensuring every snap in this game was meaningful. The offense deserves the scorn.

In fact, in a plot twist few foreshadowed during training camp, it has been the offense that has let this team down in consecutive weeks. Last week against Arizona, there were the red-zone issues. This week, despite going 3-for-3 in the red zone, there were issues all over the other 80 yards of the field

new orleans saints - Bing News

Attached Thumbnails

 

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins