Not so much we lost, its how we lost to Philly
Coming into the season there was two glaring holes to me.
1. How bad is the OL. KK was able to scheme around some of those issues the first two games but after McCoy's injury it just fell apart. You can't have an OL that is so fragile that one guy goes down. I am little worried that even when McCoy is back that the Eagles may have figured out how to defend the Saints. They took the run away and dared us to beat them in the air and we don't have the pass protection and to be honest the threats to do it.
2. No real third WR threat. We run so much 12 personal because we lack and true third down weapon. Once the Eagles stacked 5 on the line we never where able to change personal and force them to respect the pass.
3. So little was asked of Carr the first two games, I just feel like Carr's tenure so far has been, good-great QB when things are going are way, but V to bad when not.
This game just felt so much like last season, teams stuffing the run game, getting stuck in 3rd and long and being unable to convert.
I think the Saints will still win some games and likely still compete for the division but how we lost this game was very revealing and has me worried. I
I think a little bit of cheese was eaten by some...
This OL was playing very effectively in the 1st two games but looked at objectively, we have a rookie at LT, a project at RT, 2 middling guards and an all-pro calibre center. And in a new, albeit OL friendly offense. This group was always going to have some ups and downs because this isn't an established group of vets who have been playing to a high standard week in and week out. This isn't a top 3 or top 5 OL group, despite playing very well early. They can be effective as we've seen but to expect them to maul every team, every game no matter what is too much.
Take our one all-pro out of that group against a team geared up, correctly, to stop the run and we will struggle a bit.
And when the run game isn't particularly clicking (3.2 ypc), the passing game has to be very efficient. As you suggest, we're missing a third consistent receiving/ TE threat - but that isn't really news revealed by this game. However, putting that to the side, Shaheed 5 targets and 0 catches. That's not passing efficiency and if we connect on a couple of those, the game likely is different. I don't think the pressure was so high that we couldn't have performed better in the passing game but certainly there was more pressure than in the first two games. Because the game was close and we continued to run, we weren't in proper catch up mode. But running inefficiency meant we faced a lot more 3rd and long than we had previously. But still, 56% completion rate is sub-par, as is 5.7 ypa (which is a function of that).
With hindsight and with a patched up OL and no Taysom, we probably should have taken the FG instead of going for it on 4th and 1 but we are trying to be aggressive - sometimes that pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.
This was tight game and exactly the kind of game we needed to win, and that to me is the most unfortunate part of this.