Saints’ previously unstoppable offense had a big weakness exposed in loss to Eagles

After two weeks of looking like the NFL’s next great offense, the New Orleans Saints crashed back down to Earth in a tough 15-12 loss at home to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Saints scored 40 points in back-to-back games to start the season, but one of the NFL’s most efficient offenses was shut down for the vast majority of Sunday and struggled to keep the Eagles’ defensive line from making plays as they suffered injuries to starting center Erik McCoy and guard Cesar Ruiz.

“That’s been the top offense in the league coming into today—” a media member asked Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson after the game.

“Top what?” Gardner-Johnson repeated five times, touting his defensive teammates in the process.

The most important of them might have been the linemen. One thing that was definitely learned during the game was that the Saints will go as far as their offensive line can take them. This doesn’t necessarily make them unique from other NFL teams in that aspect, but it does matter for the style of offense that they want to run.

This style of offense is going to lean on their ground game to help set up cleaner looks for Carr in the passing game. They want to be a heavy play-action team that allows Carr to minimize his risk taking by forcing the defense to respect the run. Due to injuries and strong play by the Eagles’ defensive line, the Saints offense was severely hampered and showed their first sign of limitations.

“It’s not going to be that easy all the time,” Carr said afterward. “For us, it’s a great opportunity. You get hit in the mouth, and with that said, I thought we responded to a tough, gritty game.”

Carr only managed 5.7 yards per attempt in this game and spent the majority of it under 100 total yards passing before ending up with 142 yards in the end. When the Saints got in situations where they just needed to throw the ball down the field, and everyone knew they needed to throw, they struggled to get much of anything going. Outside of stud wide…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-22 22:12:50

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