Saints' bye week brings reflections upon expectations unmet and how to spark a turnaround

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With a promising second-year quarterback in Tyler Shough running the offense designed and called by second-year coach Kellen Moore, the New Orleans Saints began this season hoping to contend in the NFC South.

Their Week 8 bye has arrived on the heels of mounting disappointment, stemming from a combination of unflattering statistical trends and an apparent knack for losing games in a variety of ways.

Defensive end Cameron Jordan, who has been with the Saints through thick and thin since being selected in the first round of the 2011 draft, sounded thoroughly mystified by New Orleans' 2-5 record when he made a network television appearance this week.

“I’m like, 'How did we get here?” Jordan said. “We have such a high-potent offense. You talk about (receiver) Chris Olave, (receiver) Devaughn Vele, you know, not even inserting (rookie receiver) Jordyn Tyson, who’s coming back soon. You talk about Tyler Shough, how he’s grown."

Shough has completed 67% of his passes for 1,721 yards (about 246 yards per game) and 13 touchdowns. Through Week 7, the Saints ranked 15th in the NFL in yards passing, narrowly in the top half of the league. Meanwhile, New Orleans’ 23.1 points per game ranked near the middle of the NFL, tied for 17th with Tampa Bay.

But while those numbers compare decently to the rest of the league, Shough has endured bouts of turnovers (six interceptions and three lost fumbles) and has fought through an injured left (non-throwing) hand.

Meanwhile, the Saints have been exceedingly slow starters offensively, unable to control the line of scrimmage, sustain early drives or score much at all on their early drives.

The Saints have been outscored 44-6 during first quarters this season. They have been behind in every game, and managed to come back for victories just twice — at Baltimore in Week 2 and against the Giants in New York in Week 6.

They opened the season by remarkably erasing a three-touchdown deficit in Detroit, only to lose on a failed 2-point conversion attempt in overtime. In Week 3, they rallied from an early deficit to take a 27-16 lead over Las Vegas late in the third quarter, only to be doomed by four turnovers in a 35-27 loss at home.

Week 4 was hyped up as an emotional commemoration of the reopening of the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina and a memorable victory over Atlanta highlighted by Steve Gleason's punt block. The Falcons' convincing 45-24 triumph before a national TV audience on Monday night had the Saints looking like a team with little to sell its fans beyond nostalgia for an increasingly distant past.

After a 10-point loss to Minnesota in Week 5 that dropped New Orleans to 0-3 at home, franchise owner Gayle Benson called an audible during a previously scheduled speaking engagement and engaged in a rare public display of dissatisfaction with the club's performance.

While it may have looked like the Saints righted the ship in Week 6 in New York, that proved only a brief respite before New Orleans — highlighting Louisiana's shared heritage with France while serving as the “home” team in the historic first NFL game in that country — put their fans who'd traveled across the Atlantic Ocean through an anemic mistake-prone, 16-10 loss to Pittsburgh .

“Obviously, I’m going to spend a lot of time focused on how we can find a way to score points," Moore said.

The Saints have had some key injuries to former first-round draft picks on the offensive and defensive lines. It started with fourth-year defensive tackle Bryan Bresee's season-ending knee injury in training camp. In Week 2, second-year left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. went out with a high ankle sprain and the timeline for his return remains unclear. In Week 3, running back Travis Etienne — one of New Orleans' top free-agency additions last offseason — injured his left hamstring and was placed on injured reserve.

Whether those developments represent causation or merely correlation, the Saints have struggled at the line of scrimmage. They entered Week 8 ranked 28th in yards rushing (86 per game) and 29th in defending the run yielding 139.4 yards per game).

“We've got to figure out a way to run the ball in order to open up some other things,” Shough said. “We have a really dynamic passing game.”

While the passing game has been solid, Tyson — New Orleans' top draft choice last spring out of Arizona State — has yet to make his NFL debut. He has been hampered by an injured right hamstring and very well could remain out for several more weeks.

The Saints have gone five seasons without making the playoffs. A sixth has looked increasingly probable with each loss.

Under the NFL's current 14-team playoff format (seven per conference), which debuted in the 2020 season, just four of 33 teams that started 2-5 in the previous six seasons wound up rallying for a postseason berth.

The Saints' mission to be the next 2-5 team to beat the odds and make the playoffs starts on Nov. 8 in the Superdome against the Cleveland Browns.

“We’ve got a really good team,” Shough insisted. “We’ve just got to keep climbing.”

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