PARIS — Nearly 5,000 miles from their home city, the New Orleans Saints were not able to outrun the same old issues in their 16-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris.
The Saints put up another disappointing display despite some positive showings from players like quarterback Tyler Shough, edge rushers Chase Young and Carl Granderson and wide receiver Chris Olave.
As consistently strong as their performances have been, the same consistently poor performances have been pervasive.
The team ran 17 times for only 18 rushing yards. The run defense surrendered 148 rushing yards which included giving up 101 yards on the ground to explosive running back Jaylen Warren. And the team consistently missed opportunities on both sides of the ball including a sixth missed field goal or extra point of the season through seven games.
Head Coach Kellen Moore is again under fire for another game in which the run game, often noted as his specialty, failed and put his young quarterback in position to again have to dig the offense out of a hole.
Despite the 24 games he’s coached yielding similar results far more times than not, he believes that the team can find the answer.
“I think there’s certainly an opportunity to find those solutions,” he said. “We’ve got to dig into it, we’ve got to evaluate it, we’ve got to take the emotion out of it. I think that’s the challenge of the NFL season. We’re all frustrated, there’s a lot of emotions with it. You’ve got to take the emotion out of it and just evaluate it and find what the next steps are.”
The typical absence of detail from the head coach has many wondering, however, if he’s the one that will help the team find its answers.
New Orleans has remained positive around its situation and process, but doubt has built outside of the building while there are indications of the same beginning to happen on the inside.
If finding answers has proven to be a challenge when the club has maintained its buy-in, it’s a wonder if it will be able to if commitment starts to teeter on the edge.
The Saints have now been held scoreless during the first quarter in 17 of 24 of Moore’s games as a head coach. It has also also failed to reach 100 rushing yards in 15 of those matchups and has lost the turnover margin in 12.
In games in which New Orleans has lost the turnover margin under Moore, the team has not won a single game.
Those aren’t the results expected from an offensive head coach.
The team and its players speak highly of the group’s process. However, it appears that those building and maintaining that process are not doing so successfully.
The Saints have a bye week next, an opportunity to make wide-ranging changes. But based on previous evidence, little may be expected from an organization that has a history of struggling to change.
