This is brutal. The New Orleans Saints sold fans a vision of false hope with recent wins over the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants, but they fell crashing back to Earth on Thursday night in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams. And the numbers tell the story.
Having taken the field with the same 7-7 record as the Rams, you’d think the Saints were competing on equal footing; but they weren’t. New Orleans came up short against a quality opponent in what’s become a pattern this year. Head coach Dennis Allen’s team has a 7-8 record now, having gone 1-6 against opponents that went into Week 16 at or over .500 themselves.
In other words, the Saints caught the 8-6 Indianapolis Colts at a bad time and escaped with a win, but didn’t enjoy the same luck in losses to the 8-7 Rams, 10-4 Detroit Lions, 8-6 Houston Texans, 8-6 Jacksonville Jaguars, 7-7 Minnesota Vikings, and 7-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints have lost to teams with a combined record of 60-53 (.531).
Instead, the Saints have padded out their schedule by beating up on teams with losing records. The teams they have beaten are a combined 30-68 (.306) going into Week 16’s games, with just a single win over a team that’s at least .500. Allen hasn’t shown he has any answers when going up against opponents with a cohesive gameplan, competent coaching, and playoffs experience.
And that’s disappointing. What more does team management need to see to determine that this isn’t the answer? That there isn’t a path forward here? It’s much the same as it was last year when Allen struggled to lead the Saints to a 7-10 finish. With a winning record nearly out of reach this season, it sure feels like time isn’t on his side.
