Some second-half Jameis Winston dramatics brought some much-needed excitement for Saints fans but in the end all it did was make a dismal performance look slightly better than it was on the boxscore as the Saints lost again to the dreaded Minnesota Vikings 27-19.

There is plenty to unpack here, sadly a lot bad and a lot very familiar if you’ve followed the Dennis Allen Saints even remotely closely.

Team Stats 

(Saints/Vikings)

Final Score: 19-27

First downs: 16-23

3rd down efficiency: 4/14- 6/15

Total yards: 288-388

RedZone Efficiency:2 of 2- 2 of 3

Penalties: 9 for 74 yards- 5 for 35 yards

Turnovers- 2- 0

Time of possession- 26:54-33:06

Takeaways 

Offense

Another uninspiring showing from the Derek Carr offense only scoring 3 points before being knocked out of the game after taking a brutal and somehow legal hit in the third quarter. To me and many others, it looked like a hit that should have been flagged for roughing the passer after he was hit hard high and low (which is not legal).

 Carr was ruled out with a concussion and a right shoulder injury, per Nick Underhill it appears Carr managed to avoid any major injury to his shoulder and HC Dennis Allen made it clear to the media that Carr would still be the Saints starting QB going forward, health permitting.

Jameis Winston treated us to the full Winston experience, he entered the game and completed his 1st 3 passes, the 3rd of those being a perfect throw to the back of the endzone, whilst the throw was brilliant the catch from Olave was even better per Next Gen Stats the throw had a 10.5% completion probability, the lowest probability pass to be completed all season. He followed this up with a dropped INT, an absolutely ludicrous TD pass to rookie A.T Perry, were threw a bullet across the field to Perry in the back of the endzone, for Perry to treat us to his bets Randy Moss impression with a great contested, jump ball catch. 

The two TDs were followed by 2 Alvin Kamara 2-point conversation runs to make it a 1 score game, after being down 24 points when Winston entered the game. Unfortunately and probably predictably Winston then proceeded to throw 2 interceptions, the first was essentially an arm punt, he was immediately had pressure in his face from a Vikings blitz that was not picked up, Winston tried to throw the ball up to Olave. The 2nd I cannot excuse it was a poor throw to Shaheed in triple coverage.

Honestly, though, I’m not going to slander Winston too much here he gave the Saints a chance in a game where they looked to have no hope, he threw 2 outrageous TD passes and gave the offense some life. He also immediately got Chris Olave going in a way we haven't really seen since about week 2. So all credit to Winston for coming into the game and at least giving the Saints a chance.

Other Offensive notes:

• Mike Thomas left the game early in the first offensive drive and did not return with a Knee injury, Nick Underhill has also reported that it appears that Thomas’ injury is not considered to be serious and that the Saints kept him out more as a precaution. 

• Alvin Kamara looked much running the ball today (4.7 YPC), unfortunately, the Saints fell behind too much too quickly for the Saints to make the most of this.  Also with his 2 successful 2-point conversions, he now has 8 all-time which is tied for the most in NFL history with HOF RB Marshall Faulk (shoutout to John Sigler for this stat). 

• A.T Perry finally caught his first NFL pass (regular season) followed by the insane catch I mentioned earlier, overall he looked pretty good playing Mike Thomas’ spot, he did have one drop on a pass over the middle but overall a good showing, hopefully the Saints keep him involved even when Thomas is back on the field.
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• Brutal penalties were back, after having only 1 last week, this week we saw a horrid false start on 4th and 1, which meant that the Saints had to punt. Then we saw dreadful offensive offsides that negated a 15+ yard play to Chris Olave.

Defense

This game felt almost exactly the same as the Bears game for the defense, except this week they were facing a more experienced/ competent NFL QB in Josh Dobbs who didn't commit the turnovers that helped the score not get away from them. This week without the turnovers coupled with another painfully slow start the Saints were in a big hole giving up 24 first-half points. 

Same as last week there were pass catchers wide open regularly and another TE gashed the Saints defense at will, Vikings TE T.J Hockenson ended with 11 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown after he was limited all week in practice with a rib injury. The Vikings achieved this first-half success without their, QB1, WR1 and WR3. Add to this the QB that was playing and dicing up the Saints defense wasn't even on the team 2 weeks ago. I came away from this game very impressed this Kevin O’Connell, who is clearly a brilliant offensive mind and play-caller who should firmly be in the coach of the year conversation.

One positive thing I will say about the Saints defense is they did a much better job getting pressure on the opposing QB this week than last week but… it's not all positive as is often the case with mobile QBs they couldn't turn that pressure into sacks as Dobbs often escaped and used his legs for positive yards or found open players downfield.

The defense did stiffen again in the second half, Dobbs only had 48 passing and 4 rushing yards in the second half and they only gave up 3 points after giving up 24 in the first. This week though the second-half effort was too little too late and it does beg the question of why they haven't been able to show this high-level play earlier in games for 5 straight weeks now.

At this stage, it begs the question what are the redeeming factors to DA as a HC? Earlier in the season I could have made an argument that if you have a HC who can coach either side of the ball at an elite level that is a plus for any team. Well… with the defense now putting this team in a hole in the first half for 5 straight weeks you can't make that argument for DA anymore, my patience for the 2nd straight season has run out. He can't get this team to play at a high level on a consistent basis and generally, he can only get wins against teams with losing records. 

Other Defensive notes:

• Marshon Lattimore left the game with an Ankle injury, Nick Underhill has reported that he has an ankle sprain and will get an MRI tomorrow to determine the severity.

• This looked like a rough game for the starting safeties, especially Marcus Maye he got put in a blender by Hockenson on what looked like a couple of occasions.

• Paulson Adebo wasn't as good today as the last 2 weeks, but continued his strong play overall and still looked like the Saints best CB.

Saints Stock Exchange (Sponsored By… Nobody)

Just a quick hit section each week to highlight which Saints players/staff have their stock value increasing and decreasing after each game, 3 up and 3 down:

Stock Up

• A.T Perry
• Chris Olave
• Malcolm Roach

Perry looked solid in place of Thomas and caught his first NFL touchdown pass in emphatic fashion. 

Olave finally looked like the WR we expected had an insane TD catch of his own and made some great contested catches, not sure why it needed Winston at QB for this to happen but encouraging to see the 2nd year WR get back on track.

I’ll be honest I struggled with my final up, but I decided to go with unsung DT Malcolm Roach, he looked active in the run game and also registered a PBU. 

Stock Down

• Marcus Maye
• Pete Werner
• Dennis Allen

Maye features in my down list for the 2nd week in a row, it looked like he really struggled today, especially in man coverage against Hockenson.

Pete Werner is a new name to this list, the usually dependable LB looked to be on the wrong side of plenty of plays today, especially in run defense ( an area in which he usually shines) He was flat-footed on a Dobbs scramble where it looked like he could have stopped Dobbs for a short gain, it was reported after the game that he was the player the Saints had as the QB spy, which wasn't particauly successful and he also had an illegal contact penalty that wiped out a Cam Jordan sack.   

Finally DA, I don't need to explain this one.

Conclusion 

The Saints have had the easiest schedule in the NFL, been given every break possible against those teams and for once have been one of the healthiest teams in the league (before today) and are still 5-5, there's no excuse for that, they are what they are. Which is an extremely talented team #onpaper with dreadful coaching. 

This team will probably still win 9 games because frankly the schedule is that easy and they may well win the putrid NFC South after the Falcons lost today to the previously 1-8 (now 2-8) Cardinals leaving the Saints still atop the decision entering the bye week. Hopefully, Mickey Loomis can see that still isn't good enough with the cards the Saints have been dealt and starts anew with the coaching staff, I'm not convinced but a man can hope.

After that game, I've never been more pleased that the Saints are on a bye week.

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