Saints’ offense has gone from first to one of worst

By Chris Cluff  |   Monday, September 17, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

New Orleans Saints
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How does an offense that returns almost every starter from the NFL's No. 1 unit suddenly become one of the league's worst?

For starters, it doesn't block well, run well, catch well - or hold onto the ball well even when it does all of those other things. And when the offense doesn't do any of that, the team gets blown out 41-10 and 31-14 in its first two games.

That is what has happened to the New Orleans Saints, who apparently have been a bit complacent and just assumed they could pick up right where they left off in 2006, when they surprisingly became the NFL's top-rated offense. After two games this season, they are 16th in yards and 27th in points.

"If you want to be quote-unquote the 'No. 1 offense,' you've got to put the work in," running back Deuce McAllister told reporters after the Saints were demolished by Tampa Bay on Sunday. "We're 0-2. That's what we have to look at. The numbers don't lie. You can either change it and deal with it, or you're going to get your butt burned every week."

The Saints didn't score their first offensive touchdown of the season until the end of the third quarter against Tampa Bay. And even then, it wasn't McAllister or Reggie Bush or Drew Brees or Marques Colston - any of their offensive stars - who scored. It was fullback Mike Karney on a 1-yard run.

"I feel like we've got the right group of people, and that's the most encouraging thing about where we're at right now," Brees told reporters. "Yeah, we're very disappointed. We're sitting here at 0-2, neither of these games have been very close, we've played terrible. But we have the right group of people and the guys who can fix this thing. And we will fix it. We will get back on track."

So how do they do that?

"The first thing I know is you can't turn the football over," coach Sean Payton said. "It starts with that. That won't change 10 years from now. You turn the football over, you get one less possession, they get one more, field position changes, etc."

Payton was referring to a fumble by McAllister and an interception by Brees - both of which led to touchdowns by the Buccaneers. Brees turned the ball over three times in Week 1 against the Colts, including an interception that was returned for a touchdown.

While McAllister fumbled against Tampa, he also averaged 4.9 yards on 10 carries. And in two games, he is averaging 4.4 yards. But he has just 20 carries, while Bush has more attempts (22) and a much lower average (3.0). So the Saints need to get back to riding their big back and using their little back to vary the attack, as they did so successfully last season when McAllister rushed for 1,057 yards and 10 touchdowns and Bush caught 88 passes.

Another problem for the Saints is that their offensive line is playing more like everyone thought it would in '06. Last year, the group exceeded expectations, and Jammal Brown was an All-Pro in his first year at left tackle. This year, Brown was hurt in the preseason and the line doesn't seem to have the same cohesion even though it has the same players.

But if everyone on offense buckles down and plays with the same hunger they showed last year, they certainly have the ability to turn it around.

"We know how good we can be as an offense," Brees said. "We know how good we were last year. And coming into this year, we felt like we were even better. But maybe we were all just feeling like we had it figured out, and obviously we hadn't.

"We're used to going out there and making a lot of plays. But we have to allow those plays to come to us. We have to just do what we've been coached to do, take it one play at a time, not try and force anything, and those plays will happen."

And then maybe the league's top offense from last year will look more like it this year.

Get weekly New Orleans Saints coverage at RealFootball365.com
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About Chris Cluff

Chris Cluff spent 10 years as an editor and sportswriter for The Seattle Times. He was a key figure in the newspaper's coverage of the Seahawks, particularly during their Super Bowl run in 2005. He also has written two books on the Seahawks: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Heart-Pounding, ...
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