The New Orleans Saints defense did enough against the Pittsburgh Steelers to keep Sunday’s loss from getting out of hand, but the final stretch told the real story. They held Pittsburgh to one touchdown, yet still couldn’t summon one last stop when the game was on the line. If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t break free for that eight-yard scramble and move the chains, the finish might look very different.
That late breakdown wasn’t the only issue, either. After the game, captain Kaden Elliss pointed to the defense’s inability to get the offense the ball back fast enough.
“We kinda let them have a lot of those long drives, and I know our offense only scored 10 points, but at the end of the day, we're not getting them back on the field quicker,” the linebacker said to the media. “Yeah, we held them to 16 points, but we need more three-and-outs, some takeaways, and some opportunities where you give the offense the ball back with momentum.”
The numbers back that up. The Saints are tied for fourth in the league with 18 three-and-outs forced and tied for 11th with nine takeaways.
Those aren’t disastrous figures, and in some ways they’re better than you’d expect. But they still haven’t translated into enough wins, and there’s plenty in the overall defensive approach that still needs work.
Sunday’s loss in Paris showed how close this group is to holding together for four quarters, and how far away it still is. New Orleans has enough to get to the doorstep.
It just hasn’t quite figured out how to walk through it. After the bye week, the hope is that the Saints can prove they’re capable of playing all 60 minutes.
The defense spent 32 minutes and three seconds on the field, which was about 14.7% more action than the offense saw. Short possessions, turnovers and just 18 rushing yards from the Saints offense kept sending the defense right back out there.
By the end, the unit simply had no more room to breathe. For a Brandon Staley-led defense, it was striking that the collapse waited until the final minutes.
Even with the fatigue, New Orleans hung in there for most of the afternoon. It allowed 148 rushing yards, but it kept Pittsburgh out of the end zone on the ground. The group was bending, not breaking, and trying to keep the Saints in it while the offense struggled to do much of anything.
Then came the crucial snap with 2:46 left. It was third and six, and a stop would have given the offense one more chance to salvage the game. Instead, the pass rush couldn’t finish, Rodgers escaped, and the first down ended it.
That wasn’t a one-off. The Saints have already seen this kind of late-game fade before, including the Week 6 loss to the Giants.
And it wasn’t new then, either, with the defense giving up three touchdowns in the final 17 minutes of the Week 3 game against the Raiders. This has been a season-long problem, and Sunday just put it back in the spotlight.
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For a Saints offense still searching for more juice downfield, Brown brings a different kind of stress for defenses than the rest of the receiver group. The question now is whether New Orleans will keep treating him mostly as a specialist or start carving out more designed opportunities to let his vertical burst show up on offense. [Read more 🡒]