Saints offense didn’t inspire any confidence in preseason opener
The New Orleans Saints opened their 2021 campaign in a preseason showdown against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night. It was the first chance for Saints fans and the rest of the NFL world to see what this offense might look like without Drew Brees.
The result wasn’t what fans wanted to see, as the offense struggled to hold onto the football. The Saints had six turnovers on the night and while this is only preseason, six turnovers is an ugly blemish on the stat sheet even if the game doesn’t count.
Sean Payton was right to be fuming in the locker room at his players for the number of turnovers that took place against the Ravens and hopefully, this was just a bad showing and the offense gets it together when the regular season kicks off in September.
Saints offense couldn’t hold onto the football in loss to Ravens
The six turnovers were three interceptions by three different quarterbacks and three lost fumbles by three different running backs. Ian Book, Taysom Hill, and Jameis Winston each threw one pick while Devonta Freeman, Tony Jones Jr., and Latavius Murray each lost one fumble.
The quarterbacks showed that taking as much time as possible to make this decision is probably best, as no one played well. Book played the most, throwing for 126 yards and a pick while Winston threw for 96 yards, one touchdown, and an interception and Hill had 81 passing yards and a pick.
Jones shone the brightest in the running backs department, dashing for 82 yards off seven carries and a score. Yes, he had the fumble, but otherwise, Jones certainly made a strong case to be included on the final roster.
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This wasn’t the performance we wanted to see from the Saints offense but hopefully, we see improvements in their second preseason outing next week. Payton won’t let this kind of performance fly and you best believe this team will be working on holding onto the football in practice this week.