New Orleans Saints Players Drop Honest Thoughts on First Four Games

The New Orleans Saints have had as tough a four-game stretch as any team in the NFL. It's been so difficult because of how good they have proven to be, and how mismatched the team's expectations are from their 1-3 record.

The Saints may be the best 1-3 team in the NFL given how good they are on offense. That's a small consolation prize in an NFC South division in which 2-2 puts a team in first place.

Mediocre results are not acceptable in a season tailor made for New Orleans to win the division. The Saints face a last place schedule and are benefited by several fellow division teams struggling.

Saints players are well aware of how the season should be playing out. New Orleans defensive end Chase Young added his thoughts on the frustrations of the first four games.

"You should be upset. We didn't play to our standard, but the positive is seeing everybody come in today, how they're dealing with it. And that's what you want to see: dudes who have a sour taste in their mouth, dudes who are mad about it. I hope you mad. You get punched in your mouth, hopefully you ain't smiling."

The good news is the Saints' issues are fixable. The bad news is that New Orleans will need to get right against the undefeated Minnesota Vikings (4-0). And while the Vikings haven't produced much offense, their defense has been good enough to keep them in the win column.

The Saints are still looking to how to get back to their winning ways this weekend. Starting quarterback Tyler Shough provided the solution.

"More than anything, as players, we just have to do a better job of executing faster earlier. I think what we've done in the past and what we did last year, I think what we're going to start doing, is just have a compete period at the beginning of practice instead of the end. And that way you're immediately going right into it, and that's something that you can work on."

The Saints are not that far from being a good team. And despite a blowout loss to the Falcons, they are good enough to right the ship. They're good enough, that is, if they use the loss as a wakeup call and take the necessary time to diagnose the real issues they have on the defensive side.

New Orleans will look to start their comeback with a surprise win over the undefeated Vikings.