NFL Week 9: What the Saints Must Execute On Against Panthers to End the Losing Streak

The Saints enter Sunday with another must-win situation even though it's just Week 9. Fortunately, they have one of the worst teams in the league ahead.

Oct 27, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill (7) runs the ball against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Saints (2-6) travel to Charlotte to take on the Panthers (1-7) this Sunday, which somehow has a pretty decent broadcast market for it. New Orleans has lost six straight games, something that hasn't happened since the 2005 season. Fans are restless and fed up, and there's major questions of whether or not the building has any sense of urgency to correct it. We'll see if they can at least stop the hemorrhaging in Week 9, but here's what it'll take.

Saints Keys to the Game vs. Panthers - Week 9

Oct 27, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) runs the ball as center Connor McGovern (61) provides coverage against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Get Points Up Early

The Saints have just 2 points in the past four games in the opening quarter. That's right, only the safety in the Chargers game on Sunday is the only scoring they've done in the first part of the game in their last four losses. Even if you factor in the other two games against the Falcons and Eagles, that only adds 10 points to the table in 90 minutes of football action. That simply has to go away for New Orleans to even be in a space to compete.

Gain Some Confidence

Yes, it's the Panthers. It's the worst team in the league. New Orleans is only a couple spots ahead of them at the bottom of the conference. Beating Carolina won't make believers out of anyone, but it would be a step in the right direction and at least end the losing streak. How you do that is stacking good plays on top of good plays. Regardless of whether it's Andy Dalton or Bryce Young, the defensive execution has to be there and if this is the game to help convince you that the process can work, then so be it.

Clean Up The Issues

There were six penalties for the offense against the Chargers that totaled 50 yards: Offensive holding (3), False start, Ineligible downfield pass, Illegal block above the waist. New Orleans shot themselves in the foot a good bit, which is putting it lightly. They also weren't good on 3rd Down (2/16), and overall the execution wasn't there.

Obviously, getting Derek Carr back in the mix should help a bit here, but it certainly won't fix everything. Getting some pre-snap penalties cleaned up will go a long way in this game, and at least put them back on some semblance of the right track. Even if the Saints win (which they should), there's nothing to suggest that the team is back in any way. New Orleans has a lot of ground to make up before that happens.

Defensively, the explosive plays are what you have to worry about. Getting Pete Werner back certainly helped the defense, and they played better, but the big plays allowed were a major difference in the loss. New Orleans gave up plays of 60, 45, 38, 27 and 24 yards when they played Los Angeles, so against a lowly Panthers team, you can't put on a repeat performance.