3 overreactions to the New Orleans Saints crashing back down to earth

After looking like a serious contender over the first two weeks of the season in 47-10 and 44-19 victories over Carolina and Dallas, the Same Ole Saints returned on Sunday with a ridiculous 15-12 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Are the Saints average again?

Meaning they looked like the average 9-8, 7-10 and 9-8 Saints of the previous three seasons. And the answer was yes, at least for one week. After leading the NFL in scoring through the first two games, New Orleans did not find the end zone until 2:03 in the game on a 13-yard pass to wide-open receiver Chris Olave for a 12-7 lead, and quarterback Derek Carr nearly overthrew that.

Then after forcing a 3rd-and-16 for the Eagles at the Philadelphia 35-yard line with 1:16 to play, the Saints allowed an inexplicable 61-yard completion from Jalen Hurts to all-alone tight end Dallas Goedert in the flat to the New Orleans 4-yard line, setting up the game-winning TD. And Goedert was the only receiving threat on the field for Philadelphia (2-1), which had just lost wide receiver DeVonta Smith to an injury early in the period."

"We ran into each other," Saints' coach Dennis Allen said. "We knew that he was the guy they were going to try to throw to. We had a double on him, and we just ran into each other, creating an explosive play. Yeah, it's disappointing."

Even without the collision, though, Goedert still would have been very open. It looked more like a comical busted coverage. The collision only enhanced it.

"We had three or four guys running into each other," safety Tyrann Mathieu said.

That sounds like the Saints (2-1) we know from 2021, 2022 and 2023 and from 1967-86 before their first winning season and from 1993-99 -— the stars of NFL Films classic Football Follies.

But do not overreact. The Saints still nearly won the game and played well in spots, particularly on defense, against a team that started 10-1 last year and reached the Super Bowl the previous season. For the first time in three meetings, the Saints contained Hurts for the most part, holding him to just 25 yards rushing on eight carries and sacking him four times. He still completed 29 of 38 passes for 311 yards, though.

And the offense played well enough late to win as it put up a touchdown and field goal in the fourth quarter to take the lead, 12-7, just before the two-minute warning.

"It's frustrating. You can play great defense for 55 minutes, and for five minutes, it gets away from you. We will learn from it," Mathieu said.

"You knew adversity would happen at some point," Carr said. "It's not going to be that easy all the time. But you get hit in the mouth, and I thought we responded to it in a tough, gritty game."

Saints needed a 3-0 start because now they're going to be 2-4

New Orleans now has three difficult games — at 1-2 Atlanta on Sunday (12 p.m., FOX), at 3-0 defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City on Monday Night Football Oct. 7 (7:15 p.m., ESPN) and at home against 2-1 Tampa Bay on Oct. 13 (12 p.m., FOX).

The Falcons played well in losing to Kansas City, 22-17, on Sunday and could've won. Plus, they will be smarting from New Orleans' 48-17 win in New Orleans last year to end the season.

In reality, the Saints should be able to win one and maybe two of the next three. New Orleans has won 10 of the last 13 against Atlanta, including five of the last six in Atlanta. And the Saints have also won five of the last six at Tampa Bay. New Orleans displayed far too much on both sides of the ball throughout the first two games and in parts of game three for them to fall back to old habits. This still looks like a playoff team.

"Adversity is a builder of life," Mathieu said. "Yeah, I mean it sucks. But we can't soak in this too long. We're still confident in what we can do."

The running game sucks again

New Orleans managed only 89 net rushing yards on 29 carries for a 3.1-yard average against the Eagles. Alvin Kamara gained 87 yards, but on 26 carries for just 3.3 yards a pop. The Saints came in third in the NFL in rushing with 185 a game and Kamara was averaging 5.6 yards a carry with 198 on 35 rushes.

But remember the Saints did not have the versatile Taysom Hill because of a chest injury. He will have a chance to return Sunday. And they lost center Erik McCoy on the third play of the game to a groin injury, and he did not return. He could return Sunday as well. [Update: It was later reported that McCoy could miss 6-8 weeks with his injury].

"It was a big blow," Allen said. "It's difficult from a mental standpoint. I don't think we were as good from an assignment standpoint. I think we made too many mistakes. Not to mention the fact that he (McCoy) is probably one of our better players on our offensive line."

The Saints also lost starting right guard Cesar Ruiz in the fourth quarter because of an injury, but he returned.

With Hill and McCoy back, the run game should improve significantly. And the Falcons are 27th in the league in rushing yards allowed with 150.3.

And the Saints got a taste of how things could be.

"We didn't respond good enough, yet we gave ourselves some chances," Allen said.

"There's no discouragement or anything like that," Carr said. "That was a playoff atmosphere. When we get to play in one of those, that's such an advantage for us. It was electric. The fans were fantastic. That was awesome. Hopefully, we'll make some corrections and give them more stuff to cheer about."