New Orleans Saints: 4 quick takeaways from Week 10 loss to Titans

The New Orleans Saints lost an ugly game to the AFC-leading Tennessee Titans. Ugly is putting it nicely. This game was a dumpster fire for the Saints and now they drop to 5-4. Even with that being the case, they only lost 23-21 but it feels like they should have lost by way more.

Let’s take a look at some quick takeaways from the loss.

Mark Ingram rushing yards leader

Mark Ingram needed just 20 yards to take the all-time Saints rushing title away from Deuce McAllister and while it took midway through the third quarter for him to get those yards, he accomplished it. Ingram is now the all-time rushing yards leader in Saints history.

Shortly after accomplishing this feat, Ingram dashed in for an impressive touchdown to pull the game within eight points. He was one of the few Saints who had a nice day at the helm.

Rough day for Brian Johnson

Up until this game, Brian Johnson had looked mostly good. He missed an extra point in the big win over Tampa Bay but otherwise did everything asked of him. This was his first bad game, as Johnson missed two extra-point attempts. He did knock through the field goal attempt in the fourth quarter but the Saints would have been able to take the lead with the final touchdown instead of having to go for two.

Lattimore playing down to his opponent

The Saints extended Marshon Lattimore ahead of the 2021 season (though it wasn’t announced until after NOLA routed the Packers in Week 1) and he deserved the extension. The past few weeks, however, Lattimore has struggled and this game, in particular, saw him get torched time and time again.

Marcus Johnson consistently burned Lattimore and finished the game with over 100 yards receiving. Considering he’s not a well-known name, the fact that he cooked Lattimore more often than not is embarrassing.

Officiating swung the game

I’m not someone to whine about officiating all that often but I feel like complaining about it in this game was justified. During the second quarter, the Saints defense stopped Tennessee on 3rd and Goal but, to quote Lee Corso — “Not so fast, my friend.”

The refs called Kaden Elliss for roughing the passer, which gifted the Titans a fresh set of downs and they went on to score several plays later. At that time, it was a 6-6 ball game in Nashville, but when that flag was thrown, the momentum swung tremendously.

From then on, the Titans continued to make plays and the Saints seemed to have crumpled. It was a really bad call and totally gave Tennessee all of the momentum moving forward.

This loss was rough and it’s become glaringly evident that the offense can’t move the ball very well. With that being the case, the defense has to play a near-perfect game every week and that’s just not realistic.

New Orleans is still good enough to make the playoffs but I wouldn’t expect them to make it past the Wild Card Round if I’m being totally honest here.