Lack of turnovers and other stats from Saints Week 7 loss that disgusted us
Another game, another loss for the New Orleans Saints. It's becoming a tradition for this team to lose in embarrassing fashion and then me popping an article up discussing how ugly the game was. I don't enjoy writing about a bad football team and this is a bad football team.
To make matters worse, this team does not have a first-round pick in 2023 so all of this losing is going to be for nothing. They won't get to add an impact player that can help them improve next year. Woof. That's rough.
Anyway, with all of that unpleasantness out of the way, let's tackle this week's stats that disgusted us.
0 turnovers (again)
Last year's Saints defense was so dominant because they were able to pry the football away from the other team. This year's unit hasn't been able to do that and it's a big reason for this team's struggles.
You might have saw the stat floating around last week that C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who the team traded to Philadelphia for a bag of nickels ahead of the season, has more interceptions alone than the entire Saints defense.
It turns out that losing two of your best defensive players (Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Williams) does factor in when it comes to turning the ball over.
3 INT from Dalton
While the Saints defense failed to get a single turnover for the gazillionth time this season, Andy Dalton was giving the ball away right and left. Two of the picks were his fault while the first of the two pick-sixes was squarely on Marquez Callaway.
Still, for a team this bad, you need all of the opportunities you can get on offense and Dalton took what should have been at least three points on the board in the first quarter by throwing a pick in the end zone. Then, he gift wrapped 14 easy points to the Cardinals with those other two interceptions.
Not good.
Taysom Hill just 12 yards from scrimmage
I understand that once the two pick-sixes happened that the Saints couldn't run the ball as much as they'd have liked to but that doesn't excuse them from going away from Taysom Hill as a play-maker. They had him throw two passes in the game and other than that, he had three measly carries and one catch that went for a touchdown.
It's been proven that when Hill is in the game and lining up in different roles, this offense is better. Why then does the team go away from him when things are working in their favor? It's so freaking frustrating!
8 penalties
The most frustrating penalty had to be in the first half when the Saints had stopped the Cardinals on 3rd-and-long with a sack on Kyler Murray. Justin Evans, unfortunately, was flagged for holding and the Cardinals were gifted with a fresh set of downs and went on to score on that drive. Mistakes like these have been killing this team.
Next. All-Time Leaders in Rushing Yards. dark
The New Orleans Saints continue to shoot themselves in the foot and these stats were evidence of them doing so again in their most recent loss.