There's an old saying that goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 

In the case of the New Orleans Saints, things are quite broken, and there's no fix in sight. 

After an exciting win against the New York Giants in Week 5, the Saints put together an ugly showing that featured many of the team's same mistakes in a 25-19 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday. 

Let's start with the good. Spencer Rattler put together another solid performance despite not finding the end zone, completing 20-of-26 passes for 227 yards and rushing for 20 yards on four carries. Although his final pass of the game -- one that would've kept the offense's final drive alive -- was off the mark, he certainly wasn't helped by some key drops by receivers and a late fumble by Juwan Johnson. 

The rushing attack was another problem. Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller combined for 52 yards on 18 carries and were unable to get any separation on the ground. They contributed much more through the air, with Kamara recording five catches for 45 yards and Miller adding a reception for 11 yards. 

The Black and Gold defense managed to limit New England to just 73 rushing yards... that's about the only good thing that unit did. Not only was the defense as a whole nearly incapable of stopping drives -- giving up six third-down conversions on 13 attempts and one fourth down conversion -- the secondary had its worst performance of the year by far.

Patriots' quarterback Drake Maye was made to look like the second coming of Tom Brady himself, with 261 yards and three touchdowns. He had no trouble getting the ball downfield to wide open receivers; even when those receivers were impacted by some sort of coverage, it wasn't enough for New Orleans to pick up a stop. All three of New England's scores came through the air from 53, 25 and 29 yards out, respectively. In most of those cases, nobody even touched the wide receiver once a catch was made. 

You could say that the Saints' defense stepped it up a bit in the second half by allowing just one field goal, but by then, the damage was done. Offensively, New Orleans couldn't do much beyond a single field goal either, despite looking solid in the first half. It was once again a battle of consistency on both sides of the ball. 

Of course, penalties will overshadow the game's results. It was one of the most heavily-flagged games the league has seen in a while, with the Patriots picking up 11 penalties for 65 yards, and the Saints being flagged eight times for 67 yards. There were certainly some questionable calls along the way, but that's a discussion for another day.

Up next, the Black and Gold will hit the road for another long trip: this time, to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears. The Saints haven't fared well in road games so far this season, but perhaps they've learned enough in the last two weeks to string another win together.