Through the first two weeks of the 2025 season in the National Football League, the New Orleans Saints have yet to win a game, starting out 0-2 for the first time since 2017. Perhaps that's due to the fact that they've yet to play a complementary game.
They've been close, however. With the defense holding the Arizona Cardinals to just 17 points, many might've thought that it would be enough to win the game, but sadly not. Furthermore, many people, if you asked them the day before, would've said that yes, 21 probably could've beaten the injured San Francisco 49ers, but again, that would not be the case.
There are many reasons this could be, including the penalties. With seven penalties against San Francisco, the Saints basically managed to cut the number of penalties they committed the week before against Arizona (13). Head coach Kellen Moore said after the game that it's still something the team has to work on. "You gotta play cleaner football in all three phases," Moore told the media. "There's only so many opportunities in football."
The Saints' special teams are having their own set of miscues in 2025
On top of the penalty problem plaguing New Orleans, the Saints' special teams unit is also having their own, rather unexpected, troubles. Kicker Blake Grupe has missed 50% of his field goals in the first two weeks of 2025, tying him with Tampa Bay's Chase McLaughlin and Chicago's Cairo Santos for the second-worst percentage in the league.
This is after Grupe was nearly perfect in that category throughout training camp, so it comes as a surprise that the first-year team captain is struggling there. His struggles have got some wondering if the Saints should start looking elsewhere for a kicker. However, despite the outside voices, Moore still has confidence in his kicker.
"There's too much good over the course of the sample size I've experienced with him to say I have a bunch of concerns." Moore said to the media. "He's had an awesome training camp, offseason, and preseason; he's made some really good kicks. ... Yeah, we missed a couple of opportunities, but we'll get better from it."