The New Orleans Saints faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in the Superdome, where they fell 26-9 in their biggest loss of the season.
There were multiple things to look at on all sides of the ball as the Saints continue to fail to put points on the board with little bright spots outside of an absolutely stacked defense after the team took a playoffs-or-bust approach in the offseason.
Here’s a look into 8 things we took away from the game:
1
Derek Carr starts, but it doesn't make a huge impact
New Orleans Saints starting quarterback Derek Carr was largely unexpected for the majority of the week to not be able to go for the team’s game against the Bucs.
Carr has largely been inconsistent this season, and that’s something that continued into this contest. Even before injury and throughout his time in the past with another team, he had accuracy issues with a major touchdown-to-interception ratio problem regardless of the talent around him.
Carr finished out this one 23-of-37 passing for 126 yards without a touchdown or an interception.
2
Complementary football remains an issue
It comes down to all three phases of the game. It may sound like coach speak, but it is the truth and it shines through in contests like this one. The Saints have a stingy defense that has been one of the best in the NFL to this point in the season, but all of that is for nothing if the other parts of the ball can’t perform the way they should.
The offense put up a total of 322 yards and 9 total points. That tells the story here.
3
Third down proves a problem
The Saints have not been money this season when it comes to converting on third down and Sunday was absolutely no different. The Saints went for it a total of 14 times, converting on just five of those attempts.
Last week, the Saints were 8-of-18 in the same category.
4
Offense proves flat on all cylinders
It’s one thing to be one-dimensional, and it’s another thing to lack any type of dimension. One could argue that was the case with the Saints on Sunday. They were balanced in the absolute worst of ways as both the pass game and the run game fell flat, but were relatively similar statistically.
Alvin Kamara finished out as the team’s leading rusher with 10 attempts for 50 yards, while Michael Thomas was the leading receiver with 4 receptions for 53 yards.
5
Blake Grupe is money
In a game as uneventful as this one from a scoring perspective, perhaps the biggest standout of it all was kicker Blake Grupe. And that is because, in all sincerity, he was the only player to put any points on the scoreboard for New Orleans.
Grupe was 3-for-3 for 9 total points after he was 1-of-2 last week in the 18-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
6
Defense keeping it close... until now
Winning or losing a game by a large margin hasn’t exactly been a theme for the Saints during the 2023 season. Rather, “so close, yet so far away” has been one in a win or a loss quite literally ever since the regular season opened.
Here’s a look at how the matchups have played out:
Week 1: Saints 16, Titans 15
Week 2: Saints 20, Panthers 17
Week 3: Packers 18, Saints 17
Week 4: Bucs 26, Saints 9
The Saints had this one within reach for the majority of the contest, but missed out on some opportunities and couldn’t engage in a back-and-forth due to lack of firepower within the offense.
All of that is going to have to improve moving forward.
7
Jameis Winston is still... Jameis Winston
There are some truthers and believers out there still, and it’s all quite irrational. Winston has had his flashes since he ended his career with the Bucs that went down in flames (hello, concerning touchdown-to-interception ratio with a different quarterback this time), but at the end of the day, his ceiling is a high-end backup at best.
That particularly rung true as Winston opened his outing with an interception. In limited action, he finished the game just like that — 0-for-1 with the pick. Expect his time in New Orleans to come to an end sooner rather than later.
8
Play-calling up in the air
The Saints’ play-calling has not exactly been up to par this season, one of many factors that is playing a role in the offensive struggles. Head coach Dennis Allen was asked if he planned to change play-callers or what it may take to get to that point.
He said he didn’t want to go there during the press conference, but that they would be looking. at everything this week. In that case, changes could be abound with how abysmal things have looked offensively.
