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Katherine Terrell, ESPN Staff Writer
METAIRIE, La. — New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen said he knew right away that a Week 3 loss to the Green Bay Packers might come back to haunt the team down the road.
There was plenty to regret about the 18-17 loss, including quarterback Derek Carr taking a hit to his shoulder that ended his game early and lingered throughout the season.
But that loss, one in which they were up 17-0 heading into the fourth quarter, was just one of many instances that Allen lamented after the Saints were officially eliminated from the playoffs for the third straight year despite a 48-17 win against the Atlanta Falcons in the season finale Sunday.
“I was proud of the way our guys continued to fight,” Allen said Monday. “I was proud of the way we finished the season, but I was pissed that we put ourselves in that position. When you look at where we’ve been the last three years at 9-8, 7-10, 9-8, it’s not good enough. … Everyone in the building is part of the culpability of that. All of us, coaches, players, everybody.”
The Saints barely missed the playoffs though. They lost tiebreakers to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (win percentage in common games) and the Packers (win percentage in conference games) to fall short on the final day of the season.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest issues that led the Saints’ elimination from postseason contention:
Red zone and scoring struggles
The Saints didn’t really click offensively until the second half of the season.
In their first 11 games, they were tied for 20th with 17 red zone touchdowns, were 29th in red zone efficiency and 30th in red zone scoring percentage.
However, that improved significantly in the final seven games of the season. The Saints were tied for fourth with 15 red zone touchdowns in that span, and they ranked fourth in red zone efficiency and sixth in red zone scoring percentage.
They lost at least two games because of their scoring struggles. They missed a 29-yard field goal against the Houston Texans in Week 8 and threw four incomplete passes from the Texans’ 24-yard line in the fourth quarter in the 20-13 loss.
They also had four chances to tie the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars a few days later in a Thursday night game. They threw four incomplete passes from the Jaguars’ 6-yard line with one minute left. One of those passes was dropped by tight end Foster Moreau in the end zone.
“We just underachieved man,” wide receiver Chris Olave said. “We had real big goals and we were dedicated and locked in during training camp to be one of the best teams in the league. We lost a few games real close. … I feel good with the weapons we got. We just kept getting better and better as the season went.”
The Saints averaged 29 points in the final five games, a stretch over which they went 4-1.
Outbursts
The Saints’ communication issues were a recurring theme throughout the season.
Olave admitted he let his frustration get the best of him in a Week 4 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his attitude on the sidelines caused several teammates to pull him aside and explain how to handle things the right way.
While that particular incident wasn’t caught on camera, several others were. A video from the stands appeared to show Carr letting his frustrations out on offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael on the sidelines. Carr said he was not yelling at Carmichael and was upset about something else, but he did apologize to him on the team plane.
Carr was seen on camera expressing frustration at Olave in the loss to the Jaguars a few days later, and Allen said that Olave did not run a route correctly.
Later in the season, Carr and center Erik McCoy had to be separated after McCoy was seen yelling at Carr as they walked off the field. McCoy publicly apologized to Carr, and they both said the incident was quickly put behind them.
Part of the frustration is they struggled on their first offensive possessions, scoring only three times on their initial drive. They kicked field goals in Weeks 1 and 4 and scored a first-possession touchdown in Week 17. They punted 10 times, missed three field goals and had one pass intercepted.
Quarterback play
Players were optimistic about the state of the offense after the Saints signed Carr in the offseason, but things quickly got off to a rough start after Carr sprained the AC joint in his shoulder in Week 3.
Carr had his worst game of the season against the Buccaneers the next week, the only game in which the Saints could not score a touchdown.
Carr left two other games with injuries and was put into concussion protocol during the Saints’ back-to-back losses to the Minnesota Vikings (Week 10) and Atlanta Falcons (Week 12).
Carr was booed by fans during home games as the offense continued to struggle. However, he played some of his best football at the end of the season and threw four touchdowns in Week 18, tying a career high.
Their 15 passing touchdowns in the final five games (one was thrown by Taysom Hill) was tied for the most in the NFL.
Allen, who defended Carr’s play and said the outside criticism was unfair, attributed the late-season improvement partially to Carr’s health.
“I think a lot of it goes back to the health of the quarterback,” Allen said. “I think the quarterback has been as healthy as [he’s] been all season. I think we’ve seen what he can do when everything is operating the way it needs to operate — when he’s healthy, when he’s protected. When guys are making plays around him, he can play at a really good level.”
Carr did not miss a game all season but said the injuries made it difficult.
“It was the hardest year, physically, for me, that I’ve ever experienced,” Carr said. “You can’t say that while you’re going through it, because then it looks terrible and all those kinds of things. But now that it’s at the end, I do feel better. The last few weeks, I haven’t gotten hit so I didn’t re-injure anything. The swelling isn’t getting worse, instead … it got better.”
Some of Carr’s struggles coincided with the struggles of the offensive line, and he was sacked 11 times prior to his injury against the Packers.
The Saints ended up benching 2022 first-round pick Trevor Penning and moved left guard Andrus Peat to left tackle. Tackle James Hurst ended up taking over Peat’s spot at guard.
The Saints protected Carr better in the second half of the season even after losing former All-Pro right tackle Ryan Ramczyk to a knee injury. Carr was sacked a total of 31 times.
Defense took a step back
The Saints’ defense struggled in a few major areas and did not rush the passer consistently or stop the run well.
“I would say we weren’t as dominate this year as some previous years,” Allen said. “I would still say ultimately this game is about points allowed and I would say we were still one of the better defenses in our league in terms of allowing offensive points. I don’t think we stopped the run as well as we needed to this year, and I think we gave up way too many explosive plays.”
They finished tied for 28th with 34 sacks, and longtime pass rusher Cameron Jordan, who injured his ankle late in the season, finished with his fewest amount of sacks (two) since his rookie year in 2011.
Allen admitted several times over the course of the season that he needed to figure out how to get the defense to start faster. The defense allowed a first-possession score nine times, with five of those being touchdowns.
“I think I’ve got to do a better job of getting the defense ready to go from the beginning of the game,” Allen said. “I think that’s an area that we’ve got to look to continue to improve.”
The Saints’ defense finished 22nd in rushing yards allowed (119), which included their inability to stop running quarterbacks. It was an improvement over 2022, but it marked a downward trend for a team that was top-five against the run from 2018 to 2021.
Their one major area of improvement was in takeaways. They finished fourth with 29 total and tied for third with 18 interceptions.
Lack of a run game
The Saints started the first three games of the season without Alvin Kamara, who was suspended for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
His return didn’t automatically improve the run game. The 28-year-old averaged only 3.9 yards per carry and finished with 1,160 yards from scrimmage, the lowest of his career.
“I would say this isn’t just Alvin,” Allen said when asked to assess Kamara’s season. “I don’t think we ran the ball as effectively as we needed to be able to run the ball, to be the type of offense we need to be. … Alvin, I thought ran the ball physically this year. I thought he ran the ball tough. We didn’t have quite the explosive plays that we’re used to seeing from him, in terms of the run game, but I thought he was highly effective as a pass receiver. I thought he had a productive season, and there’s more to be had.”
The Saints didn’t get much from free agent signee Jamaal Williams, who scored only once on a controversial end-of-season play against the Falcons. Williams, who led the NFL in touchdowns last year with the Detroit Lions, averaged 2.8 yards per carry.
Kendre Miller showed promise at the end of the season but spent half of his rookie year inactive with an ankle injury.
The Saints finished 21st in rushing offense and averaged only 102.5 rushing yards, their lowest since the 2015 season.
Source: www.espn.com