Saints’ Problems Resurface in Narrow Loss to Steelers

The New Orleans Saints (2-5) were close to a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. With their postseason chances dwindling with every loss, close won’t cut it anymore.

A 16-10 loss to Pittsburgh continued the trend of New Orleans not playing a complete game in all three phases. The Saints defense stepped up but the offense wilted when needed most.

It’s hard to blame quarterback Tyler Shough for the Saints’ inability to generate offense. Still, a costly red zone misfire and 10-point outing left something to be desired from his performance.

Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Cwik described the Saints’ long day on offense. Here’s some of what Cwik had to say on the dominant Pittsburgh performance.

“The Steelers' defense caused problems for Saints quarterback Tyler Shough and the rest of the team's offense the entire game. Pittsburgh's defense nearly broke things open early, as Patrick Queen nearly picked off Shough on the Saints' first drive of the day.

Queen actually had the ball in both hands, but couldn't control the catch, leading to a punt.

After limiting the Saints to 10 points in the first half, the Steelers' defense would finally get its turnover in the third quarter. It came at a crucial time, as the Saints just entered the red zone after a promising drive. While Shough made some big throws to keep the drive alive, he was responsible for it ending prematurely.

With the Saints threatening to score, Shough threw an interception to Payton Wilson, who read Chris Olave's out route perfectly.“

The frustrating part about this five-loss Saints squad is as simple as our anbove assertion. The Saints are good enough to perform in any of the three phases: offense, defense and special teams. They just simply struggle to do it all in the same game.

New Orleans has plenty to figure out but may need to reassess the team they have and reset expectations. At any rate, the game they put on the field Sunday wasn’t good enough to compete with a playoff team.

There’s still plenty of football left. The Saints proved they can string together good football over a sustained period of time last season with a four game winning streak late. They’re not far off from winning some of these games.

New Orleans will look to right the ship as it returns home from the tough overseas loss to Pittsburgh in Paris.