Sunday’s 20-10 loss to Pittsburgh dropped New Orleans to 3-7 on the season, its worst start since 2005.
A week after Andy Dalton’s latest subpar performance, coach Dennis Allen wasn’t ready to make any declarations about the starting quarterback position.
As Allen said after the game, “I know you’re all looking for answers there, but I’m not going there right now. “We’ll evaluate where we’re at, and we’ll have a plan for next week.”
In his third straight game with fewer than 230 passing yards, Dalton completed 17 of 27 passes for 174 yards and two interceptions. He has thrown seven interceptions in seven starts (six in the last four).
While New Orleans fought back to tie the game at 10 at halftime, the offense failed to move the ball in the final two quarters. The Saints managed 24 net yards in five second-half drives with only one first down.
We didn’t play well enough. We didn’t coach well enough. We need to do better. Allen said the performance wasn’t good enough on all levels. We fought ourselves back, got back into the game at halftime, felt like we were in a good position, and really didn’t do anything in the second half. So we have to do better.”
New Orleans’ defense didn’t force a second-half punt and got run over by Pittsburgh, but the inability of the offense to move the ball has been the biggest problem.
Alvin Kamara generated 45 scrimmage yards on 11 touches, his second straight game with fewer than 70 scrimmage yards. If the staff can’t generate touches for its best player, regardless of the situation, it’s poor coaching, plain and simple.
We didn’t make enough plays,” Dalton said. “That’s what it came down to. We weren’t able to sustain drives and we didn’t score enough points.”
Allen believed Dalton’s stability under center would give the Saints a better chance than Winston’s volatility.
It’s time to throw that theory out the window.
The club could turn back to Winston in the final seven weeks to see if it can jumpstart the season.
A young signal-caller would be ideal, but the Saints’ front office managed the offseason as if they were a Super Bowl contender. After ten disastrous weeks, the only thing we know for certain is that they aren’t.