Saints lose 16-11 to Bucs, effectively ending their 2016 season

There’s three games left in the 2016 campaign, but at 5-8 with the last wildcard sitting at 8-5, I think it’s fair to say the season is officially over and the Saints are playing for pride/draft slots at this point. The offense sputtered once again and this game was eerily similar to the Lions game. I said ball protection was key but Brees threw 3 interceptions for the second straight game. The Saints failed to score a touchdown for the first time all season. As bad as Brees was, though, and he was awful – it certainly didn’t help that Brandin Cooks and Travaris Cadet both dropped routine touchdown catches. If either of those plays is made, it’s a different game the Saints potentially win. The defense gave up 13 points early but then for most of the last three quarter the Bucs could only muster a field goal. That’s what was perhaps most frustrating about this game, the defense (despite missing Vaccaro, Robertson and then Breaux who left with a shoulder injury) kept giving the offense a chance. They sputtered time and time again. The defense did score a safety for the first time since 2014 – courtesy of Paul Kruger – so that was fun.  Below are a few bullets on the game:

• The offensive line struggled mightily early. Brees was hit on 4 of his first 7 drop backs with zero time to throw. Armstead, Peat, and Strief all took turns getting beat. This was one of the worst showings by the offensive line all season – and running for 2.9 yards per carry certainly didn’t help.
• The Saints are a disaster on 3rd and short right now. Payton is going shotgun, empty backfield too often because he has zero trust in his running game – especially with Ingram hurt.
• Dennis Allen deserves a medal of honor. I have no idea how he held the Bucs to 16. That’s the lowest point total given up by the Saints this year, marking the second time they’ve done it. Unbelievably, the Saints are 0-2 when they give up 16 points. What the hell is that?
• Brandin Cooks not only dropped the touchdown pass that killed the Saints, he also had poor effort on two deep balls. On the first, clearly overthrown, he doesn’t lay out. The effort has to be better. Then, on another deep ball, he fails to show effort and locate the ball bracing for oncoming contact. Pretty frustrating performance when you consider his recent comments in the press.
• Nick Fairley and Cameron Jordan put the team on their back today. Both were so good.
• This was one of the rare days where I would say Saints special teams was at least neutral with the other team. Lutz had a kick bounce off a returner and go out of bounds at the 1 to set up a safety. The Bucs would then “punt off” after the safety out of bounds. Lutz also looked solid on all of his field goals to keep the Saints in it. Having Lasco back in kick coverage seemed to help.
• Roman Harper and Stephone Anthony were the top two tacklers on the team. They weren’t always great in this game, but I was expecting much worse, and thought they both got better and better as the game wore on. Granted the Bucs had the lead and were trying to run – so that played into the hands of what they do best. Still, credit those two for having a decent showing.
• B. W. Webb, Byrd, Bell, Sterling Moore and Breaux all took turns making plays in coverage. This secondary only gave up 166 yards passing to Winston and got their hands on a lot of balls.
• Coby Fleener is grossly overpaid.
• Max Unger was sorely missed, but Tim Lelito did an admirable job filling in – especially considering he was given the added responsibility of snapping.
• I’m interested to see how Brees finishes the season because over these last two games it looks like a Ryan Fitzpatrick led offense with no identity. Pathetic showing by the offense two weeks in a row. It’s not just on Brees – his line has been bad and his receivers dropped a lot of balls. He was clearly rattled by pressure early. Still, no excuse for awful time management, wasting timeouts, starring down receivers for way too long, and making bad decisions that turn the ball over. Concerning to see Brees playing the worst football of his career the last two weeks.