(If you can stomach it) Football Outsiders breakdown of loss to Falcons (1 Viewer)

[DahnVill]

There's actually some pretty constructive stuff in here, particularly regarding the play of both lines.

Any Given Sunday: Falcons over Saints

The keys to Atlanta's shocking win over New Orleans were a dominant rushing attack that came out of nowhere and a pass rush that nearly doubled its season sack total in one game. What does that say about the Falcons -- and why was this game not the disaster for New Orleans that it appeared to be?

www.footballoutsiders.com

I get that a lot of people want to forget about the game and move on, but I've always been of the opinion that you can learn a lot more from a defeat than you can from a victory. Hopefully we learn plenty from this one and get back on track for these 3 divisional games coming up.

 

[Saint Spud]

Good stuff. It makes you feel better that the issues on both sides, at least upfront, are fixable.

The bigger problems I see are:

1. The Lattimore injury with the upcoming games against teams with either great WRs or McCaffrey, which means we really needed Lattimore to lock down his WR and..

2. What that loss means wrt our battle for homefield. We took a step back while GB, Seattle and Minnesota took steps forward. Our margin for error was already slim and now we need help.

 

[IsraeliSaintsFan]

(OP beat me to it)

I read the article, and even as a Saints fan I thought it was too generous (although maybe that's because I had high expectations).

- "The Saints offensive line has been playing pretty well this year, and I think you can argue that most of them played pretty well in this game." Um, no. At least not the entire left side of the line.

- "You'll notice that despite winning for much of the game, Atlanta's chances of winning didn't become "real" until that 20-9 lead. That has a lot to do with how the GWC system valued the Saints and believed they were the better team." Um, apparently the GWC system wasn't watching the game. It was clear from the 17 yard Falcon drive and on which was the better team that day.

- The Saints "generally outperformed the Falcons on a per-play basis until they hit the red zone". Um, you wouldn't have thought that from all the screaming and yelling at the television screen I was doing throughout.

 

[efil4stnias]

(OP beat me to it)

I read the article, and even as a Saints fan I thought it was too generous (although maybe that's because I had high expectations).

- "The Saints offensive line has been playing pretty well this year, and I think you can argue that most of them played pretty well in this game." Um, no. At least not the entire left side of the line.

- "You'll notice that despite winning for much of the game, Atlanta's chances of winning didn't become "real" until that 20-9 lead. That has a lot to do with how the GWC system valued the Saints and believed they were the better team." Um, apparently the GWC system wasn't watching the game. It was clear from the 17 yard Falcon drive and on which was the better team that day.

- The Saints "generally outperformed the Falcons on a per-play basis until they hit the red zone". Um, you wouldn't have thought that from all the screaming and yelling at the television screen I was doing throughout.

I still contend that slip by Kamara on the first drive that resulted in Drew takin sack and a FG kinda set the tone for the day. He was walking to the pylon had he not slipped and ruined the timing and design.

After that, it was almost a "shoulders down/one of those days " kinda look from the team and they never snapped out of it.

It happens.

 

[Yingers]

The Saint's just simply didn't run the ball enough. Brees and Payton thought they could go back to the old formula of pass, pass, pass and forgot that we got 7- 1 by running the ball. And even if you wanted to protect Kamara from injury, we still had Murrey who just had two 100 yrd games.

If Payton and Brees don't realize how we got to 7 - 1 then we will struggle every week against inferior teams. And I include Brees because he will check out of run plays frequently, when Payton actually does call one. All we need is the Teddy formula with Brees as QB.

 

[LonghornSaintsFan]

That first drive by the Failcons to me anyways was the beginning of the end of the game. Where they were running the ball right down the throat of the Saints defense the game was already lost right there.

 

[Yingers]

I disagree, that should have clued us in we were in for a dog fight, but that drive was all their scripted trick/misdirection plays. We played solid after that, until the very end when we finally ran out of gas. If the O would have just run the damn ball more. 2019 Drew is not 2009 Drew, and he doesn’t have to be, which is what they need to figure out quickly.

 

[Doug B]

I disagree, that should have clued us in we were in for a dog fight, but that drive was all their scripted trick/misdirection plays. We played solid after that, until the very end when we finally ran out of gas.

Gotta back you up on this -- no way should a team mentally concede a game after the opponent opens with a FG-producing drive.

People really, really should have fully expected going in to the Atlanta game that the Falcons were not going to look like a 1-7 against the Saints. Now, if the Saints had gone up two scores in the first half ... the Falcons' might have been deflated enough to make a comeback unlikely. But they weren't just going to give up before kickoff.

Heck, I bet a lot of Falcons players were wondering when the Saints offense was going to get on track. When that other shoe was going to drop. They weren't exactly scoring at will themselves.

 

[ShortFuzed9]

When it comes to ATL vs NO the first 3 drives will tell you the winner. All NFC south games are a blow out or a nail biter this had blow out written on it

 

[dutar76]

For those thinking we should have run more, I totally agree. The game was close for much of the game. No reason to go into a pass happy panic offense.

But after further review, I think maybe the down and distance may have dictated the play calling. In other words penalties, sacks dropped passes, and bad throws killed drives before we had a chance to settle in and call a balanced game.

Add in the frustration SP had to be feeling at not being able to make that one play to get us a fresh set of downs in plus territory. Never being able to establish any sort of rhythm. I know I spent the entire game feeling we were in the verge of breaking the ice, and then we'd see our offense.

Then wed stall, punt, and Atlanta would go on a 15 play drive helped along by timely penalties. In other words, everything went wrong and we never got that spark, never got to a point where SP felt it was time to run at them.

 

[VPCajun]

I still contend that slip by Kamara on the first drive that resulted in Drew takin sack and a FG kinda set the tone for the day. He was walking to the pylon had he not slipped and ruined the timing and design.

After that, it was almost a "shoulders down/one of those days " kinda look from the team and they never snapped out of it.

It happens.

Yeah, you see Championship Teams do that all the time.

Just look at the Patriots.

Oh wait...

 

[VPCajun]

For those thinking we should have run more, I totally agree. The game was close for much of the game. No reason to go into a pass happy panic offense.

But after further review, I think maybe the down and distance may have dictated the play calling. In other words penalties, sacks, dropped passes, and bad throws killed drives before we had a chance to settle in and call a balanced game.

Add in the frustration SP had to be feeling at not being able to make that one play to get us a fresh set of downs in plus territory. Never being able to establish any sort of rhythm. I know I spent the entire game feeling we were in the verge of breaking the ice, and then we'd see our offense.

Then wed stall, punt, and Atlanta would go on a 15 play drive helped along by timely penalties. In other words, everything went wrong and we never got that spark, never got to a point where SP felt it was time to run at them.

Hmmm, I think I see a pattern.

Entire Saints team need a good long look in the mirror.