Overreactions to Enigmatic Saints Loss to the Titans

The New Orleans Saints lost another close game in Week 10, this time to the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. The Titans played a defensive game and relied on opportunities to score. Meanwhile, the Saints game plan was once again uneven on offense. Defensively, the Saints played good enough to win the game, but it took until the fourth quarter once again for the offense to get to 20 total points. There will be a lot to digest again from this loss. These are overreactions to the Saints loss to the Titans in Week 10 of the NFL regular season.

Offense continues to be an enigma

The trust that Sean Payton has put in Trevor Siemian is just a mystery at this point. It has taken until late in the last two games for Siemian and the Saints offense to show any promise. Sean Payton has not seemed to learn how to win with defense and a running first team. In this week’s game, the Saints offense threw the ball 36 total times and ran the ball just 21. The rushing game was not inept either. In total, the team averaged just over four yards a carry in the game. Similarly, like last week, the Saints had just two scores in the first three quarters. The Saints offense though just cannot win games like this though.

In spite of this, Payton continues to use Trevor Siemian at quarterback and not Taysom Hill. Hill touched the ball just six times in the game but was successful in his limited attempts. With a team that lacks weapons and must rely on slowing games down, the limited use of Taysom Hill is a complete mystery. Trevor Siemian and his 55% completion percentage is not going to win games throwing the ball 30 or more times every game. This has been more than evident in the past two games.

Saints defense not getting support

This might be new territory for the Saints in the last two decades. It is the defense that cannot get enough support to win games. The Titans were held to just 264 yards of total offense. Third-down efficiency by the Titans was also low. The Titans offense had just a 25% conversion rate on third down. First downs were also not a problem for the defense. Tennessee was only able to get 17 first downs for the game. Most other iterations of the Saints under Sean Payton would have won this game easily. Sadly for the defense though, the Saints offense did not eclipse 20 points until there was just over one minute left in the game. The offense just keeps failing the defense, which might be the first time in Payton’s career that this is the case.

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Penalties being an issue points to bad coaching

During the 2020 regular season, the Saints were the 9th most penalized team in the entire NFL. During last season, the team had 98 total penalties enforced. Likewise, in the 2019 season, the Saints were the sixth most penalized team with 120 against. The Saints committed another nine penalties in this week's loss to the Titans. This brings the season total to 58 through nine games. The Saints cannot win with this type of team with so many mistakes, especially at crucial times. This Saints team cannot seem to escape penalties and it keeps leading to losses.

One of the most costly penalties was with the game on the line. The Saints were set to go for a two-point conversion to tie the game late. Taysom Hill entered the game and the Saints were set to run a play on the two-yard line until a penalty pushed the ball back. Adam Trautman, once again, made an error that cost the team. Trautman was flagged for a false start, pushing the ball back to the seven-yard line. Afterward, Sean Payton put Trevor Siemian into the game and the offense failed to even come close to converting. This essentially ended the game. With this being the third straight year of immense penalties, coaching has got to face scrutiny for the lack of discipline.

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