Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi is seeing his emphasis on closing out games paying off

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi jokes that he's started to resemble the cartoon character "Bob the Builder" during team meetings.

That's because in the two weeks since taking over as interim coach, he's been using construction equipment — shovels, hard hats, lunch pails, etc. — as symbolic props while preaching the blue-collar approach he wants the Saints to take toward filling the metaphorical hole they dug during a seven-game skid that led to coach Dennis Allen's firing .

Last week, he brought in a level as he discussed the need for the team to be prepared to play their best at the ends of games.

"You use a level at the end to make sure you finish off the work and the job is done right," Rizzi said.

The Saints blew late leads several times during their skid. But since Rizzi's promotion, the Saints won in Week 10 by protecting a 20-17 lead throughout the fourth quarter against Atlanta and won on Sunday by blowing open a 14-all tie with Cleveland in the final quarter for a 35-14 victory .

"As you watched that game, I think you saw a team that just continued to get more and more confident," said Saints versatile tight end Taysom Hill, who rushed for a career-best 138 yards and three scores against the Browns.

"Finishing games was something we struggled with, but (Rizzi) has a really good pulse on what we need collectively as a team to get ready for a football game," Hill added. "The guys have responded to that."

What's working

The running game appears to be back on track. After gaining 214 yards on the ground as a team against Cleveland, the Saints have averaged 156 yards rushing during their past four games, with their lowest output during that span being 96 yards during a victory over Atlanta.

What needs help

The Saints exhibited a couple of losing habits on Sunday — but got away with it against struggling Cleveland.

New Orleans turned the ball over twice on Hill's intercepted deep pass and his lost fumble after a reception deep in Browns territory. The Saints finished the game minus-2 in turnovers because they did not take the ball away.

Meanwhile, the Saints allowed the Browns' offense to produce five "explosive" plays, or plays that cover at least 20 yards. Those included touchdown passes of 89 and 30 yards.

Rizzi said the explosive plays and turnovers were "the reason that game was as close as it was, at 14-all" in the third quarter.

"Those things are still a little bit of an Achilles' heel," Rizzi added. "We have to make them methodically go down the field and not have 89-yard touchdowns."

Stock up

Taysom Hill's 248 combined yards as a runner (138), receiver (50), passer (18), and kick returner (42) provided the best example yet of how influential he can be when he's healthy and a central figure in the game plan.

Stock down

Alontae Taylor is perhaps New Orleans' most talented available defensive back and has had increasingly tough assignments since the Saints lost Paulson Adebo to injury and traded Marshon Lattimore. Still, Taylor was covering Browns receiver Jerry Jeudy when he turned a short pass into an 89-yard catch-and-run for the Browns' first touchdown.

Center Erik McCoy, who played for the first time in eight weeks since having surgery to repair a Week 3 groin injury, left Sunday's game in the second half. He did not appear to have a significant injury as he rode a stationary bike on the sideline but seemed concerned about enduring groin tightness or weakness as he intermittently appeared to stretch or test that part of his body. Rizzi has said McCoy might have been able to continue playing but that staff didn't want to risk further discomfort during his first game back from a long layoff.

"We really wanted to be cautious with that because he had all that missed time," Rizzu said Monday. "It looks like in the long run he's going to be OK. It's probably a good thing we have a bye week this week."

Key number

6 — The number of failed field-goal attempts by opposing kickers during the Saints' past two games in the normally kicker-friendly Superdome. Just five of those misses counted, however, because one of Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins' misses, from 32 yards, was voided by a Saints penalty on Sunday — only to set up a subsequent miss from 27 yards. That marked just the second time in 65 field-goal attempts inside of 30 yards that Hopkins was unable to split the uprights.

Next steps

After 11 straight weeks of football, the Saints have this week off before returning to action in the Superdome on Dec. 1 against the Los Angeles Rams.