The New Orleans Saints walked out of Monday night’s game with a 45-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and the biggest problem was impossible to miss: Tyler Shough was under siege from the opening snaps.
Shough faced pressure on 49% of his dropbacks, got hit 12 times and was sacked twice. That kind of heat leaves little room for a quarterback to settle in, and in this case it never really did.
One of the sacks came so fast that he barely had time to think about his throwing motion. Even so, Shough held up reasonably well under the circumstances, going 13 of 22 for 146 yards and a touchdown when pressured.
He also finished without an interception and showed some toughness on a 23-yard completion delivered just as he was taking a heavy hit.
Overall, Shough completed 30 of 48 passes for 286 yards and one touchdown.
The trouble up front was glaring, especially on the left side of the line. Left guard David Edwards posted a Pro Football Focus grade of 51.8 in pass protection, while left tackle Asim Richards came in at 41.
Richards is filling in for the injured Kelvin Banks Jr., but the Saints still need far better work from that spot. Richards even ended up part of the problem on one play by getting pushed back so badly that he sacked Shough himself.
Banks Jr. is on injured reserve and won’t be back until late in the season at the earliest, so the Saints can’t count on a quick fix there. That means the protection plan has to account for Richards, and soon. Whether that comes through a cut block, a double team or some other kind of help, the message is clear: he needs support.
The concern gets sharper because Shough has already landed on the injury report. He was limited in Wednesday’s walkthrough with a left-hand injury, which only adds to the pressure on a line that already spent Monday night getting overwhelmed. The Saints will need that group to clean things up against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday if they want to avoid piling more damage onto their quarterback.
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