Saints lose 26-24 to the Browns

For the second straight game a field goal ended the game (there were 3 seconds left in regulation this time). The narrative has always been that the Saints are a different team on the road. I thought the playoff win in Philadelphia put that to rest but it’s hard to argue against that at this point. If you can’t beat the Cleveland Browns with Brian Hoyer at quarterback and no Josh Gordon, Ben Tate nor Jordan Cameron, that is a very bad sign. The Saints are 0-2 and as poor as the defense continues to be I think it’s time to re-calibrate expectations. Below are my notes on the game:

• Brees took a while to get going. Once the Saints finally scored to go down 10-3, they got the ball back and Brees threw a back breaking pick 6. The Saints would go down 16-3 (missed extra point). From there, the Saints dominated the game, but unfortunately the slow start would haunt them at the end.
• The Saints had a chance to win this game on offense and defense and both failed. When you look at it that way, it’s hard to blame one person. This was a collective failure.
• Patrick Robinson did better as the game wore on but his play early was criminally bad. He continues to be weakest link.
• The Saints had 42 passes to 27 runs. Don’t ask me why. They averaged 6.4 yards per rush. Sometimes you have to stick with what’s working even if your quarterback is Drew Brees.
• Marques Colston didn’t have a single target. I guess the Falcons ending left his mark on him.
• The tackling was overall much better. But I will say, the Saints are fortunate that Brian Hoyer is much worse than Matt Ryan. There were a lot of throws there to be made that Hoyer missed. Last week Ryan made all of them. The pass rush is still just not good enough.
• Pierre Thomas missed a blitz pickup as the offense was driving to kill the game, and the sack knocked the Saints out of field goal range. That’s a back breaker.
• Travaris Cadet continues to be a non factor on kick returns.
• Jimmy Graham and Mark Ingram are the only two Saints players that I can say played very well in this game. Without those two it would have been a blowout.
• Sean Payton went nuts on Rob Ryan near the end of the game and there was a disagreement on something. Hopefully that’s not some sign of unraveling.

Depressing way to start the season with two heart breaking losses. The first was defensible, this one is not. The game with Minnesota is now a must win. Let’s hope for a better performance at home, that seems to be the only place the Saints play the kind of football we expect.