After Further Review: Five takes from Saints loss to Falcons

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Take one: The Saints are who they are

At this point, the Saints are who they are: a mediocre team, at best. Sunday proved it.

Coming off the bye with a chance to reset the narrative surrounding their team and flex their muscle in the NFC South over the erratic Falcons, the Saints did what average teams do. Instead of seizing the moment, they resorted back to inconsistent ways and blew the opportunity to their biggest rival.

When you think about it, it’s hard to truly identify what this team is what really good at in any phase of the game.

They’re now 5-6 and move into the December part of their schedule still searching for answers.

Take two: Red zone woes return

The Saints offense looked really good Sunday, until they got inside the 20-yard line.

The red zone had been a problem they thought they had figured out.

They were dead wrong. Sunday in Atlanta changed all that.

During their first trip down there A.T. Perry thought he had a false start and stopped running his route when Derek Carr threw him a fade. The pass fell incomplete and forced the Saints to kick a field goal. It was a sign of things to come.

The Saints got down there five times and came away with zero touchdowns, three field goals and two turnovers.

The first turnover truly was a back-breaker. Derek Carr wanted Rashid Shaheed on a slant route, but safety Jessie Bates read Carr’s eye, jumped the route and made the pick. He didn’t stop running until he got to the opposite end zone. It felt like the Saints were chasing from that point on; they never led again.

That was far from the only devastating mistake down there. In the third with a chance to take the lead, Taysom Hill, the team’s best player to this point, rumbled for a first down but had the ball punched out of his hands as he got near the five-yard line.

Other miscues included two holding penalties, an offensive pass interference penalty and a drop.

It’s hard to win games when the offense falls apart when it’s time to score.

Take Three: Run over

What has happened to the once vaunted Saints defense? That group has faded into a unit that has seemingly aged a decade over night.

Against the Falcons, the high octane rushing attack did them in. The combination of Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, Cordarrelle Patterson and even Desmond Ridder ran all over the Saints for 228 yards on the ground.

Dennis Allen said after the game, the Falcons won the line of scrimmage. That was true, plus the Saints lacked the range to get to the sideline when any of those players ran to the perimeter.

The Saints recent slide on defense has put a huge dent in their original formula success . Without a dominant defense, this team has nothing to hang its hat on.

Take Four: Injury bug bites

Chris Olave was on his way to a career game, but his day was cut short with a concussion in the third quarter. Shaheed was limping all game, tried to tough it out but left early as well. With Michael Thomas already out, the team had A.T. Perry, Keith Kirkwood and Lynn Bowden as their wide receivers.

At one point Juwan Johnson and Erik McCoy had to exit the game but were able to return. Defensively, Cam Jordan left early as well.

All in all, the Saints got a lot of use out of the blue medical tent.

Take Five: Other observations

Nice bounce back game for Blake Grupe. He finished 5/6 and provided the only points of the game for the Saints.

Tyrann Mathieu picked off Desmond Ridder twice and said after the game that both were gimme’s. Mathieu was surprised Ridder threw them.

On the pick-six, Carr said Bates abandoned his responsibility in the middle post to run down and intercept the pass. Carr said he told Bates that he made a great play after the INT. He simply wasn’t expecting Bates to do that on that play.

Carr avoided a disaster when he was stripped of the ball on a scramble. Fortunately, Perry was there to recover the fumble.

Ryan Ramczyk lost his shoe on a third down and had to exit for a play during a deep offensive drive. His replacement, Landon Young, immediately gave up a sack on that play.

The Saints return home for three straight games at the Dome Sunday against the Lions. It will be interesting to see the reception they get in front of the Who Dat nation.