Losses against injured teams limping into the dome and starting backup QBs were supposed to be a thing of the past.
Unfortunately the present is eerily familiar to most Saints fans.
The Saints stumbled onto successful offensive identity and found its rhythm when they went from pass heavy(12 Pass 5 Runs) on their first four possessions to run balanced (21 Runs 14 Pass) on their three scoring drives.
Saints were 3-3 in the red zone and managed to get their bigger targets in Devaugn Vele and Juwan Johnson involved with 2 TD's.
Penalties 7-45 with three resulting in first downs for the 49ers.
Grupe’s missed a field goal in back to back games and was also the culprit of a penalty that resulted in the 49ers starting on their own 40.
Isaac Yiadom had an equally rough outing chipping in with two penalties of his own while getting picked on in coverage.
The offense was 4/11 on third down vs the 49ers, 5/13 last week. No progress
Dennis All...I mean Brandon Staley's defense allowed the 49ers to go 8/15 on 3rd down. Most alarming was that three of the conversions were of the 3rd and 10+ variety.
Moore got cute on PA pass to Kamara that ended in a fumble. The ball takes longer to travel to Kamara when thrown. If he's the primary receiver on a pass behind or within a yard of the LOS, just hand it off!
Random Observation - Saints ran the ball 18 of 28 times on 1st and 10. Prior to the last series that saw Rattler attempt seven straight passes, the number was 18 of 21. That’s an 85% chance of run. 10 of the 28 attempts went for only 2 yds or less.
Random Observation II - Asking LB's to crowd the LOS on 3rd and long only to drop them into coverage and watch passes get completed behind them anyway suggest their best chance at disrupting the play is being included in the rush not the coverage.
The Saints are still learning how to win. In the meantime some self scouting on both sides of the ball after two games should reveal how not to lose, and provide clues to a formula for complimentary football.
A run balanced offense paired with a blitz heavy defense seems like the ideal way to go, but what do I know?
