When will the Saints stop marching out (of playoff contention)?
It’s not breaking news that things in the National Football League can change dramatically. Ask the Seattle Seahawks, who have gone from a 3-0 first-place team to a 3-3 squad now searching for answers everywhere.
Another case in point is the New Orleans Saints, who host the Denver Broncos on Thursday night. It’s the return of former Saints’ sideline leader Sean Payton to the Crescent City. However, the bigger story surrounds a question. What on Earth has happened to Dennis Allen’s club after a dynamic 2-0 start?
A year ago, New Orleans just missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record. Two games into 2024, the club was off to a stunning start. Wins over the visiting Panthers (47-10) and over the Cowboys (44-19) at Dallas meant the team had outscored those two foes by a combined 91-29 count. The offensive unit accounted for 11 touchdowns, five of those via passes from Derek Carr.
Saints headed in wrong direction
It has gone downhill quickly for Allen’s team. Tough setbacks to the Eagles (15-12) and Falcons (26-24) have been followed by double-digit defeats at the hands of the Chiefs (26-13) and Buccaneers (51-27). All told, New Orleans has been outscored a combined 118-76 during their current four-game skid.
Last Sunday vs. Tampa, the Saints scored all of their points in the second quarter. They picked off Buccaneers’ quarterback Baker Mayfield three times in the game, and still couldn’t prevent Tampa Bay from rolling up 594 yards of total offense.
In this prime time affair vs. Payton and his team, it will be a battle of rookie quarterbacks as Denver’s Bo Nix makes his seventh start. Spencer Rattler got the nod for the Saints last week in place of an injured Carr. He hit on 22-of-40 throws for 253 yards and one score, but was picked off twice and sacked five times. He’ll find the Denver’s fourth-ranked defense a tough cookie to crack.
From 2-0 and the talk of the league, to the longest losing streak in the NFC and the league’s bottom-ranked defense. It doesn’t take long to go from the master bedroom to the garage in the NFL.