What We Learned From the Saints In Week 3

Here's a good bit of things we learned from the Saints after a crushing loss to the Packers on Sunday.

GREEN BAY -- The Saints let Sunday's game against the Packers slip away from them, and everyone knows it. The locker mood was quite somber. There's a lot of hands dirty in the loss, and New Orleans is going to want to put this game behind them as quickly as possible after suffering such a stinging loss. Naturally, the bigger story is all about Derek Carr right now. Here's all of the things we learned from the black and gold in Week 3.

What We Learned From the Saints In Week 3

FOOTBALL IS 60 MINUTES

"Overall, I'm just going to say it wasn't good enough for any of us. I'm not pointing anybody out individually or anything like that. I'm saying as a team, we weren't good enough. We got to be better than that, particularly in the second half," said Dennis Allen following the game.

The Saints were in the driver's seat for this game. They played three outstanding quarters defensively. However, the last 15 minutes was pretty tough. It wasn't until the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter that they gave up the first points of the game, and it was just a field goal. 

New Orleans couldn't put Green Bay away, and penalties ended up doing them in to go along with being inept on offense. Even with the blown lead, the Saints did what was needed to get into range to take the lead, but Blake Grupe missed a 46-yard field goal. Grupe said that the snap execution and placement was perfect, but he's got to be better.

THIS IS ABOUT TO BE JAMEIS WINSTON'S TEAM

Derek Carr was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation on his throwing shoulder, and we hope the best for a positive outcome. However, it looks like Carr will be out for the foreseeable future. Naturally, all of the players only want Carr to be okay. We'll know more sooner rather than later, but the team is going to have to pull together and rally behind No. 2.

Although it won't be said now, this is going to be Jameis Winston's team for now. It's unfortunate how the offense has performed in the first few games, and it looked like it might have turned a corner early on. Play calling seemed quite opportunistic, and some of the decisions later in the game raised some eyebrows.

Allen was asked about his confidence level in Jameis Winston, to which he said, "Look, I'm confident in our football team. We stumbled today. We'll learn from it. We'll get better from it and we'll keep going."

THE PASS PROTECTION HAS WORK TO DO

“I think it needs to be better. For whatever reason, we got to figure that out, particularly in the beginning of the game,” Allen on the Saints offensive line performance. They gave up another four sacks today, bringing the season total to 12 through the first three games. Derek Carr was sacked three times, while Jameis Winston went down once. Perhaps there was no bigger sack than the play that led to Carr's exit from the game. There's a lot of football left this year, and this has to get corrected.

SOME FIRSTS AND GOOD THINGS HAPPENED

Anything positive is overshadowed by the loss, but it was good to see the Saints get their first punt return for a touchdown since 2019. They were due, and it was a tremendous play by Rashid Shaheed. Also, that was the first touchdown catch for Jimmy Graham since late December 2021. His last Saints touchdown catch was on Dec. 21, 2014. Lonnie Johnson Jr. got his first interception with New Orleans as well. Chris Olave also put on a show, totaling 104 yards on 8 receptions (11 targets). Aside the big 45-yard pass interference call, Alontae Taylor had a pretty strong game.