The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from the Saints’ strange loss to Kansas City

Bad: Poor Play-Calling

With Taysom Hill under center, head coach Sean Payton was one of the most impressive play-callers in the NFL. He utilized a lot of early-down passes, embraced the play-action passing game, and established a much more creative offense.

Unfortunately, Brees’ return led to a much more stale offense.

In the first half, the Saints passed the ball on early downs at the eight-lowest rate. In essence, it looked similarly to New Orleans’ offense early in the year, where Brees’ struggles led to a lack of confidence that encouraged Payton to run the ball early and often.

When your quarterback is making his first start since Week 10, perhaps you should be avoiding obvious passing situations?

Yes, the Chiefs are one of the worst defenses in the league against the run. However, this is a clear strategy they take.

No, I’m saying they purposefully allow rushing yards, but their defensive scheme is tailored to limit explosive passing plays. Thus, they do not invest a lot of resources to stopping the run, as they know this is a less-advantageous strategy for the offense. Payton took the bait.

Third-down offense is generally unstable, but it doesn’t shock me that the Saints went just 1-11 on third downs.

When you are running the ball early and often, which leads to obvious passing situations, you’re going to be less successful and more reliant on third downs. This was certainly a disappointing showing by Payton.