New Orleans Saints: 3 quick takeaways from Week 11 loss to Eagles

The New Orleans Saints got the doors blown off of them by the Philadelphia Eagles and are now .500 on the year. This game was a complete and total disaster. I don’t care that the final score looked respectable — The Saints can’t keep sucking in the first three quarters and then deciding to battle hard in the fourth quarter. This is a not a recipe for success.

After sitting at 5-2 after knocking off the Buccaneers on Halloween, the Saints have gone 0-3 and continue to spiral downwards. Let’s check out a few takeaways from this disgusting game in Philadelphia.

New Orleans Saints are not a playoff team

While the Saints could still technically be a playoff team when Week 11 is in the books on Monday night, they don’t deserve to be considered a playoff team. What we saw on Sunday was a bad effort from a bad team.

Previously, the defense was able to bail this team out of some bad offensive performances, but the defense is spiraling out of control now. If this team does somehow squeak into the playoffs, they’re not getting past the Wild Card round, and at this exact moment, they’d be one of the worst teams to make it into the postseason.

Siemian struggled

I’ve been a Trevor Siemian defender up to this point but how could you defend the guy after his performance on Sunday? Yes, I understand the weapons are non-existent and the Saints were missing their two starting tackles but Siemian made really bad throws that hurt his team badly.

If the NFL only counted the fourth quarter, Siemian would be an all-time quarterback for the Saints. Unfortunately, there’s a reason he has to come out swinging in the fourth quarter and it’s that the rest of the team stumbles through the first three quarters, putting the team in a hole and then forcing them to battle back.

At one point in the third quarter, Siemian was 6-of-20 for just 60 yards, one touchdown, and two picks. The touchdown was a nice play by him but that’s about the only good that came from his disastrous day in the City of Brotherly Love. He did have an explosive fourth quarter, as per usual, but once again, the comeback was too little, too late.

Trautman finally has a good game

Saints fans have been fed up with Adam Trautman for a variety of reasons but the guy finally made it a point to show up in a big situation. In the first half, he had an impressive touchdown pass in tight coverage and fans had to do a double-take when they saw who caught the ball because it was very un-Trautman-like.

Trautman finished the game with five catches for 58 yards and a score. It was good to finally see the Dayton product contribute positively.

From the very start, this just didn’t feel like New Orleans’ game to win. The injuries have clearly piled up and teams have figured out how to completely shut down an already inept Saints offense.

To make matters worse, next up on the schedule is the Bills on Thanksgiving night, who just got curb-stomped by the Colts. A pissed-off Buffalo squad is going to humiliate a bad Saints team on short rest on primetime television. Maybe plan to skip watching the game if you want to have a good holiday.