Saints head to bye in first place but with big questions to answer

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Greg Auman

NFC South Reporter

The Saints go to their bye week with a 5-5 record and still sitting atop the NFC South standings, but a 27-19 loss to the Vikings — and a 27-3 deficit in the third quarter — have taken away any momentum from the previous two wins.

New Orleans still has a defense ranking ninth in points allowed and 10th in yards, but it hasn’t been the same group as during the start of the season. In the first five games, the Saints held opponents to 15.2 points per game, and in the past five, they’re giving up 24.4, and the offense hasn’t been able to keep up.

“I think just as a team we’ve got to do a better job of being more competitive in the first half of games,” coach Dennis Allen said after Sunday’s loss. “Our guys fought their tails off to give themselves a chance, but can’t keep digging yourself into these holes and think you’re going to be able to come back all the time.”

The Saints defense is led by veteran players — linebacker Demario Davis and edge Cam Jordan are both 34, safety Tyrann Mathieu is 31, safety Marcus Maye and defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd are 30 — and they’ve seen diminishing returns as the season progresses. New Orleans has 12 interceptions, a remarkable improvement after just seven in all of last season, but in other areas, the defense has trailed off a bit. The first seven opponents were all held under 360 yards of total offense; the past three have all had more than 360. The red-zone defense has allowed opponents to go 8-for-12 in the past four games, and the goal-to-go defense is giving up touchdowns 92% of the time, tied for second-worst in the league.

“I don’t think we’re playing as well as we’re capable of playing,” Allen said Sunday.

The Saints gave up three straight touchdown drives of 70-plus yards in the second quarter, setting up a 24-3 halftime deficit, and the offense didn’t help, totaling six first downs and three points on the first six drives. Quarterback Derek Carr, who had thrown two touchdowns in each of the previous two wins, managed 110 passing yards before leaving the game in the third quarter with a shoulder injury and a concussion evaluation. Jameis Winston came off the bench to spark the Saints with two touchdowns and two-point conversions to turn a 24-point deficit into a one-score game, but then he threw two interceptions in the final 3:06, unable to finish the comeback.

“We’re so close,” Winston said after the loss. “Obviously, you want to go with a win heading into the bye week, but this is a time where we’re all going to dig deep and look inside of ourselves and come out on top. I believe this team has the will to persevere. I believe this is a resilient team. I believe we have some resilient coaches. Now it’s time to go do that.”

Allen has made it clear that Carr will remain his starting quarterback, with an extra week now to recover before New Orleans returns with a division game at the Falcons. The Saints have a favorable schedule down the stretch, with four division games in the remaining seven. Win the games they’re supposed to win, and they should be playing for a division title in the final two weeks, first at the Bucs on Dec. 31, then hosting the Falcons on Jan. 7.

A year ago, the Saints were 3-7 at this point, digging too deep a hole to contend even in a division in which an 8-9 Bucs team took first place. Now they’re 5-5, in much better position to compete if they can just improve on a 2-4 division record from last season.

“The focus for the players is to get away, get their minds off of football for just a little bit, kind of reset again,” Allen said. “Get their bodies healthy, so there’s a lot of rehab that’s going to be going on over this next week to try to get guys healthy and get back. Then us as coaches, we’ve got to look at how we can put some better plans together to give our guys more opportunities to be successful.”

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.