I think we all knew scoring 40+ points per game wasn’t sustainable and was going to stop at some point, but the New Orleans Saints offense had a rough time this past weekend.
The Saints offense was only able to score 12 points despite the defense getting a pick, a fumble recovery and two fourth down stops while special teams forced a missed field goal and blocked a punt. The offense had plenty of opportunities to capitalize on the Philadelphia Eagles mistakes, but the offensive line couldn’t block, and Derek Carr made a couple bad decisions.
The good: I think a lot of their struggles can be attributed to the fact that Eric McCoy, who’s been arguably their best OL this year, went down with an injury early in the game and the fact that Taysom Hill missed the game with a chest injury. The bad: McCoy is expected to miss 6-8 weeks with a groin injury, and we don’t know when Hill will be back.
This week, the Saints will travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons, who have looked pretty good defensively through three weeks. They’re coming off a loss to the Chiefs where they held Patrick Mahomes and Co. to just 22 points and are looking to shut down the Saints offense.
Through three weeks, the Atlanta Falcons boasts and top 15 passing defense. They give up 176 yards per game through the air, which is the 11th best in the league. However, their two starting corners, AJ Terrell and Dee Alford, have combined to allow 26 catches on 29 targets for 230 yards and two touchdowns while not coming down with a single pick. Chris Olave is coming off his best week of the season and will likely lineup in front of one of these two, and I think he could have another successful day like he did against the Eagles.
One of the areas that the Saints offense was so successful in the first two weeks were deep shots down the field to Rashid Shaheed. He’s one of the best deep threats in the NFL right now, but those shots are going to be hard to come by this weekend. The Falcons have two Pro Bowl-caliber safeties in Jesse Bates and Justin Simmons, both of whom have already come down with an interception this season. They’re not going to get fooled as easily by play action as most safeties, so if the Saints want any chance of dialing up a deep shot, they’re really going to need to be strong running the football.
Luckily for the Saints, the Falcons haven’t been very good at defending the run. They rank 27th in the league, giving up 150 per game and 4.1 yards per carry. The Saints were very good at rushing the football through the first two weeks of the season, but when McCoy went down, they began to struggle. They could only manage 3.1 yards per rush in Sunday’s loss without him. Outside of rookie LT Taliese Fuaga, no Saints offensive linemen posted a 60+ run blocking grade this past week.
With McCoy expected to miss extended time, the question becomes will anyone step up? Olisaemeka Udoh came in at guard while Lucas Patrick slid to center when he got hurt, and it was a whole mess. Can they fix those issues with a full week of knowing Udoh will be guard and Patrick will be center? Maybe, but it’s going to be tough.
The Saints offensive line was also very bad in pass blocking without McCoy. They couldn’t use play action like they had the first two weeks, and in turn it exposed some of the weaknesses of this offensive line. However, they’re lucky because the Falcons have been horrible at getting after the QB.
The Falcons ranks 31st in sacks, averaging just one per game through three weeks. Granted, they’ve played a lot better offensive lines than the Saints have, but their defensive line isn’t as good as the Eagles’s.
This is a really hard game to predict what the offense will do. Will they get back to playing well or are we on track for a repeat of last week? I know I sound like a broken record, but McCoy’s injury is massive, so I don’t know if the Saints can get back to their wee one and two form without him. Can they play better than they did last week? Absolutely, but how much better is the big question.
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