3 New Orleans Saints to blame for pathetic Week 6 loss in Houston
By Kristen Wong
It's starting to feel like 2022 again. The New Orleans Saints lost to a team they shouldn't have. Again.
In the 20-13 loss to the Houston Texans, the Saints had every opportunity to take the lead. In a classic case of post-Sean Payton (or should we say post-Drew Brees) era Saints football, the team shot itself in the foot over and over again.
There were Blake Grupe's multiple missed field goal attempts (he was 2-of-4 this afternoon). There was Zach Baun's unfortunate fumble right after his interception. There was no energy from the Saints' pass-rushing unit that too often gave C.J. Stroud too much time to throw.
Those players don't deserve the most blame, though. These three Saints do.
Here's who to point fingers at after the Saints' Week 6 defeat.
The entire Saints offensive line
We couldn't pick just one. The Saints shuffled their offensive line going into Week 6's matchup, putting in James Hurst for Trevor Penning. It didn't do much good.
The Saints' O-line struggled to facilitate the run game and committed key penalties that resulted in massive losses of yardage. Four of the Saints' six penalties in the game were against the offensive line, and given how much the Saints have invested in that unit in recent years, Week 6's performance was simply not acceptable.
Due to injuries, the Saints had to patchwork their front five together mid-game and moved players to different positions. Rookie Nick Saldiveri had to come on as right guard at one point, and he had a pretty middling game.
Other than the trusty bookend Ryan Ramczyk, the Saints have a lot of offseason work to do in terms of shaping up their offensive line.