New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - The Advocate Saints offense had plenty of issues against Cardinals, but wide receivers making mental errors among biggest

BY NICK UNDERHILL | NUNDERHILL@THEADVOCATE.COM AUG 18, 2018 - 12:17 AM

Sean Payton wasn’t happy.

He was a little bit troubled by all the turnovers the Saints made during the second preseason game. How could he not be? Taysom Hill coughed the ball up four times, and at times it felt like New Orleans couldn’t move the ball against the Arizona Cardinals. But that wasn’t the thing that had the New Orleans coach most irritated after Friday’s loss.

He seemed most bothered that the things he called his offense out for last week — getting lined up correctly with the right splits and paying attention to details — remained on the wayside. So, while answering a question about the nature of Hill’s two fumbles, Payton changed the subject and made it known that he is not pleased with the way his receivers are playing.

“(Ted) Ginn’s running the wrong route twice. We’re aligned wrong. Listen, I told him, I think in general watching him for two weeks now it hasn’t been good. I think our receiver play has been average at best.”

That is not a good thing. The receivers are supposed to be the strength of the offense, the spot of the roster that helps New Orleans get through the first four games of the season while running back Mark Ingram serves a suspension. With Michael Thomas, Cam Meredith, Ginn and rookie Tre’Quan Smith in the fold, it is supposed to be one of the harder spots to crack on the roster.

Now, this issue will likely get ironed out and be forgotten when the Saints are playing the Buccaneers in September. But that has to be some level of concern that the problems have lingered and a veteran player entering his second season in the system appears to be a chief offender.

But when the details are not correct, it can throw the whole offense off, and it sounds like Payton is ready to shake things up if the problems persist.

“Some of the details (are off), then we got to ask are we asking the right guys to do it,” Payton said. “Are we asking them to do too much? But I think it’s been sloppy, honestly.”

Hill thinks one of the reasons the team was a little bit off was because of the tempo at which it operated. New Orleans wasn’t pleased with how it was getting in and out of the huddle and lining up during the preseason opener against Jacksonville and made it a point of focus heading into this week’s game.

That aspect of the offense improved, but Hill thinks that the inexperience of some of the players combined with the focus on moving quickly created other issues.

“As we entered this game one of the things we wanted to focus on was tempo, and I think we did that pretty well,” Hill said. “I think some of the alignment stuff may have suffered because of that, but it’s hard to say right now without looking at the tape.”

When those details aren’t on point, it can throw the whole offense off. A lot of what the Saints do is timing based. So, when the quarterback finishes his drop, whatever it might be on a specific play, his receivers are supposed to be in a particular window. When the drop or the receiver alignments are off, the picture will not develop correctly.

Now, that’s not an excuse for Hill’s performance. The fumbles and one of the interceptions go on him, and Meredith takes the blame for the other pick. The mistakes made by the receivers are independent of the quarterback play, and those guys are well aware of how much it matters and know it needs to be fixed.

“We do play actions, and then we do runs off of the same alignments,” Smith said. “That’s why coach Sean Payton really gets on us about our alignments because there’s so many things we do out of the same alignment and that’s what he wants it to look like, the same thing, so the defense can’t read us easily.”

The amount of leniency afforded to Smith is likely different than his veteran teammates. He caught himself at one point during Friday’s game lined up in the wrong spot. There was nothing he could do by the time he realized it.

“I was afraid to move out a little bit more cuz I didn’t want the quarterback to say go and false start,” Smith said. “But I realized I was lined up at one point, but it was a little too late to fix it. It’s just something I have to work on when I go back to practice.”

Fixing it is a must.