Tough New Orleans Saints Loss: Observations from the cheap seats

How the Saints lost

Another way to lose games is to have a sub-par running attack. Alvin Kamara and former Viking Latavius Murray combined for fewer rushing yards than Taysom Hill, which is not a good statement.

The Saints were held in check largely which created a pressure situation for Brees. As usual, we abandoned the run, only rushing 17 times and four of those were Taysom Hill runs.

Regardless of the fact that they weren’t allowing much with the rush, we needed to run the ball at them more often. That may have taken some of the heat off the pass rush. This led to more passes which played right into the Vikings’ hands.

A third way to lose games is to turn the ball over. Brees forced a couple of passes into double coverage, leading to one interception. He also lost a fumble while being rushed out of the pocket.

Many will blame Brees for this, but this was the perfect storm of a sub-par day for Brees, a poor day for the offensive line, and our receivers not getting separation quickly enough.

One more way to lose games is by losing the third-down battles.

The Saints were 4-11 on third-down conversions, while the Vikings were 10-18. They kept possession, kept the Saints defense on the field for long stretches and wore them down. They simply gave themselves more opportunities to win.