The New Orleans Saints might have indeed found their quarterback in Tyler Shough.
Now, if they could just find an offense to go with him.
It certainly wasn’t present Sunday in the Superdome in their 24-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The Saints’ offensive performance against their longtime arch-rivals was truly offensive to watch, an effort worthy of a Schwegmann’s paper bag.
With Drew Brees calling the game from the Fox Sports broadcast booth, the Saints put on an offensive display so ugly the future Hall of Famer probably couldn’t recognize it.
How ugly was it?
Let us count the ways.
They ran 78 plays and failed to record a single gain of more than 18 yards.
Their two longest runs were by a quarterback (Shough) and receiver (Mason Tipton), 11 yards each.
They didn’t have a single run of longer than 6 yards by a running back.
They converted just five of 16 third downs and only two of five fourth downs.
They committed two turnovers and allowed five sacks.
And if the anemic production and shoddy situational offense weren’t bad enough, their red-zone offense was even worse. In three trips inside the Falcons’ 15-yard line, including consecutive drives to the Atlanta 1-yard line to start the second half, the Saints managed to come away with a total of three points. During the two maddening sequences that ended at the Falcons’ goal line, the Saints ran nine plays from inside the Falcons’ 8 and failed to gain more than 3 yards on any of them.
“It’s frustrating,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said. “We’re not getting it done. Ultimately, it’s on me. It’s as simple as that.”
Indeed, of all the rookies on the Saints roster, the first-year head coach might be performing the worst of the bunch.
Some of Moore’s play calls made you scratch your head and remember that he is still learning on the job. And unfortunately for Moore, he doesn’t have Saquon Barkley or Justin Herbert or Ceedee Lamb around to bail him out of a bad call like he did at his previous coaching stops. Losing veteran running back Alvin Kamara to a knee injury midway through the first half didn’t help matters, but the Saints and Moore have to be better, especially in the game’s key situations like third down and red zone.
“Certainly, we’d like to feel like we can score from the 1-yard line, even though that’s a tough yard to gain down there,” said veteran utility back Taysom Hill, who was forced into emergency duty at running back after Kamara went down. “Nobody feels good about this game. It’s Week 12, and we should have it figured out by now.”
On this day, having an inexperienced rookie quarterback was well down the list of Saints’ problems. Shough’s challenge against an attacking Falcons defense that entered the game ranked second in the league in sacks was already difficult enough. But the Saints’ shoddy overall execution, inconsistent blocking and circumspect play-calling only exacerbated things for Shough, who was making just his third NFL start.
He botched an exchange with Kamara and lost a fumble on his second snap of the game, gifting an early field goal to the Falcons. He ended the day by throwing the third interception of his nascent career.
In between the turnovers, there were enough decent moments to give Saints fans hope that Shough can be the guy the team builds around going forward. But in the end, his 30-of-43, 243-yard passing effort wasn’t nearly good enough to overcome the rest of the team’s offensive inefficiencies.
“Not good enough,” Moore said of the overall offensive performance. “It was choppy. … There will be better days, certainly.”
With a new head coach, new quarterback and new offensive scheme, growing pains were expected from the Saints offense this season. But it’s been an even bigger struggle than anyone expected.
The 10-point scoring output marked the sixth consecutive game in which the Saints failed to break the 20-point mark. Their highest scoring output was 26 points against the New York Giants on Oct. 5, and that effort was accomplished thanks to a defensive touchdown.
The impotent offense forces the Saints into a perpetual game of catch-up. The Falcons game was the seventh time in 11 contests that the Saints failed to lead for a single minute.
“It was a disappointing day,” Hill said. “We had plenty of opportunities, and we didn’t capitalize. It’s a hard thing to swallow at this point.”
It is indeed. It's an even harder thing to watch.