Winners and losers: 3 takeaways from Saints historic blowout in Week 6

There are bags full of blame to go around for the New Orleans Saints losing their fourth straight game, 51-27, at home on Sunday to Tampa Bay — the first team to score 50 or more vs. New Orleans since a 52-27 loss at the New York Giants in 2012. It was also the Saints' largest margin of defeat since a 31-6 loss at Buffalo in 2021.

Keyword — bags. For a national television audience may see those over Saints' fans heads should New Orleans (2-4) lose a fifth straight game on Thursday Night Football against Denver (3-3) and former Saints coach Sean Payton. The Saints have not lost five in a row since that same 2021 season, which was Payton's last as head coach before "retiring" for a year.

The defense was the biggest loser as it allowed the most yards — 594 — by the Saints since 2004. New Orleans also continued to be playing with voodoo as it again found ways to lose despite doing things that usually produce wins. But do not blame rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler, who made the first start of his NFL career.

Saints' defense stunk it up

The New Orleans Saints are 32nd out of 32 NFL teams in total defense with 395.8 a game. When head coach Dennis Allen was the team's defensive coordinator from 2015-21 until being promoted to head coach before the 2022 season, the Saints routinely had one of the NFL's better defenses. That continued for the most part with Allen as head coach. But not now.

The Saints allowed 594 yards to Tampa Bay on Sunday — the second most allowed in franchise history. The record was 604 set in 2004 in a 38-31 loss to Minnesota. Allen's defense became just the fifth in NFL history to allow 300 or more yards passing and 275 or more yards rushing in the same game. Over the past two weeks, the Saints have allowed an average of 527 yards a game as the Chiefs put up 460 in a 26-13 win last week.

The defense started badly and got worse as the game went on. Tampa Bay had two scoring drives of more than 70 yards in the first quarter. In the third quarter, the Saints allowed a 58-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Chris Godwin on a simple, short pass in the flat. But Godwin ripped away from several arm tackling attempts and avoided other tacklers. Three more long TD drives by the Bucs wrapped up the game as New Orleans was outscored 27-0 in the second half.

"Right now, we're not playing defense the way we have, and the way we're capable of," Allen said. "Tackling has been an issue. That's something that we've got to figure out in a hurry. I thought our tackling was atrocious."

Saints defensive tackle Khalen Saunders seemed jealous of opposing backs and receivers as he watched them gash his team.

"Hell, I could have rushed for (expletive deleted) 60, 70 yards off broken tackles today," said the 324-pound Saunders, who did return an interception 37 yards at Kansas City and played running back at Western Illinois.

“So we need to just tackle better," he said. "That's the start of fixing the problem. But we're not going to stop nobody if we're not tackling the ball when we hit them the first time.”

The Bucs picked up a lot of yards on short passes to the flat - such as the one to Godwin - that the Saints' game plan called for. But the game plan included tackling.

"I can think of several instances where we got them to throw the ball where wanted them to - checking down to the flat," Allen said. "But you've got to make tackles. We've got to put more emphasis on it."

And this is not new. According to Pro Football Focus statistics, the Saints missed 16 tackles in the loss to Tampa Bay after missing 12 the previous week at Kansas City and 10 the previous week at Atlanta.

"It's gone from a quick issue to a glaring problem," defensive end Cam Jordan said.

As a result, the Saints allowed five plays of 30 or more yards and 10 of 10 yards or more.

"We've got to climb back," said Allen, who enjoyed a 9-0 win over Tampa Bay and Tom Brady in 2021 when he served as interim head coach with Payton out because of COVID protocol. "We're not going from worst to first in one day. So, we've got to go back to the process and do the little things better."

Opportunities given to Saints to no avail

As bad as the Saints' defense was, it still intercepted Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield three times in the first half. And New Orleans got a 54-yard punt return for a touchdown by Rashid Shaheed to help the Saints erase a 17-0 first quarter deficit and take a 27-24 lead at the half.

Alas, this only enabled the hapless Saints to become the first NFL team since the 1950 Baltimore Colts to intercept three passes and score 27 points and still lose by 24 points or more. The Colts lost 70-27 at the Los Angeles Rams in 1950 despite three picks and finished the season 1-11.

New Orleans also set weird history earlier this season when it became the first NFL team since 1983 to score 24 points and not allow an offensive touchdown but still lose. That was 26-24 at Atlanta. Unbelievably, the Saints were the team that set that mark in 1983, losing 26-24 to the Rams after not allowing an offensive touchdown. It has been that kind of year.

Spencer Rattler played well in rookie QB's debut

The one bright spot in the Saints disaster was the play of rookie, fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler in his NFL debut.

Rattler completed 11 of 17 passes for 140 yards with no interceptions and a 109.9 efficiency rating in the first half with a 10-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to give the Saints their first lead at 20-17. He completed passes to six receivers and did not have one of the Saints' best ones in Chris Olave, who left the game during the first series because of a concussion.

Rattler scrambled well and hurt the Bucs by rolling out and finding open receivers on the run. He finished the game with 27 yards rushing on four carries. The Bucs adjusted from man-to-man defense to contain his runs in the second half, and he wasn't as sharp, finishing 22 of 40 for 243 yards with two interceptions.

"I thought early in the game he did some really good things," Allen said. "I thought he was poised. He went through his progressions. He was able to create some things with his feet. I thought he threw the ball well."

Rattler missed an open receiver deep in the second half and got sloppy with the two interceptions.

"Those are things that come with experience," Allen said.

Rattler is expected to start again Thursday against Denver with regular starter Derek Carr (oblique) still sidelined.

"Starting with myself," Rattler said. "Got to play better."