Frustrations reach a new high as Saints defense reaches a new low point

Tyrann Mathieu’s frustration was evident after another lousy Saints defensive performance Sunday. And unfortunately for this team, it wasn’t the first time.

Mathieu blamed execution, but he also blamed preparation and play calling. When it gets this bad, it’s a combination of all of it.

And when it gets this bad, players such as Mathieu bite their tongues less and less.

“You have to prepare harder. You know, away with the walk-throughs – I don’t think the Chiefs are walking through,” Mathieu said of his former team. “I’ve won a lot of games. Where we won, it was full speed, it wasn’t a fucking tag-off.”

And when it came to the Saints’ epic third-down woes, Mathieu said, “It’s a combination of executing – I think at some point you have to execute whatever play call comes in. But throughout the course of the week, we knew that they were gonna run mesh routes or crossers. But we don’t call plays to necessarily defend that.”

“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Mathieu continued. “You want to make a play. I think me personally, you want to do what you’re good at doing. And a lot of times, you just feel like you’re covering grass. Like you’re not in the football game.”

Of course Mathieu deserves his share of the blame, too. He’s been a part of some of those missed tackles in recent weeks. He’s been a part of a defense that has only forced one turnover in the past six games.

Yes, let that soak in. Just one turnover in the past six games!

But like I said, when it gets this bad, everyone deserves blame. And to me, the erosion of the Saints’ defense has been the most disappointing and deflating aspect of this abysmal season.

I’m not saying the defense is the No. 1 reason for New Orleans’ 2024 collapse. Far from it. That’s probably injuries or coaching or poor drafting in recent seasons – and the list of contenders goes on and on from there.

But I used the words disappointing and deflating because the defense is the one area of this team that we’ve seen really crumble from a strength to a liability over the past year. And they’ve mostly had their players healthy during that stretch outside of cornerbacks Marshon Lattimore and Paulson Adebo.

To put it bluntly, this defense has started to act its age – with veteran pillars like Demario Davis and Cam Jordan now 35 and Mathieu 32.

And Sunday was a new low point.

A 25-10 loss to the lowly Raiders, with unheralded 10th-year running back Ameer Abdullah cruising to the first 100-yard rushing performance of his career. It was 115 yards, to be exact, at an average of 5.8 yards per carry.

Worse yet, the Raiders converted 10 of 18 third-down attempts, plus another third-down conversion via penalty, while possessing the ball for nearly 38 minutes.

The bad tackling we saw against Tampa and Denver and Green Bay, among other teams this season, was back with a vengeance too.

“Some of the same things that’s kind of been plaguing us. Not really good against the run. Our third down was horrible. And then tackling,” said Mathieu, who was asked to pinpoint where those tackling woes have come from.

“Well, it starts with the offseason,” Mathieu said. “They’re taking practices from us, they’re taking days from us. It’s voluntary. And you show up to camp, you’re really trying to stay healthy, you’re not trying to bang. And I think it’s a process to it. You have to be able to prepare a certain way. You have to practice harder. You have to prepare harder. … Those type of things affect you when you come to the game. You were walking through all week in practice, and now in the game, everything’s full speed. So angles become different and things like that. So we need to work on that and nip that in the bud.”

Mathieu acknowledged that “that’s just me like nitpicking, looking back as a veteran.” But he estimated that his former teams would run around 200 plays in practice when he played for Bruce Arians with the Cardinals and again in Kansas City. And he said it’s been more like 24 or 36 followed by walk-through plays for much of his time in New Orleans.

Again, Mathieu acknowledged multiple times that injuries have played a huge role in that, especially this year. And Mathieu said the Saints’ training camp was more intense this summer before those injuries started to become an issue again. So you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

“I get it, it’s like, ‘Get us to the game,’” Mathieu said. “But you have to be able to practice, you have to be able to prepare.”

Mathieu has also expressed his frustration on multiple occasions about how he isn’t really used as a playmaker in this defense. He was hoping that might change when defensive coordinator Joe Woods replaced Dennis Allen as the play caller – but instead it’s gone the opposite direction, with Woods preferring a lot of two-deep zones or single-high coverages.

Mathieu also fully acknowledged that a big part of football is reacting and responding to what plays out on the field – and, “I just don’t think our response has been to the level we’re capable of.”

“The things we work on throughout the week, we have to be able to execute those things when the bullets start flying,” Mathieu said.

Other players were less pointed, but still clearly frustrated after that performance.

“We can run all the excuses you want. At the end of the day, we lost to a team that we should have beat,” Jordan said. “And that's how I've always felt for the last 14 years. Anytime we lose, I'm like, ‘It's on us more than it is on them.’ There might be a handful of times where I'm like, ‘Alright, we got beat this time.’ But in my mind, it's always about us and it's always gonna be about us.

“So, it's not what they did, it's how we didn't tackle, how we didn't get in the backfield, whatever it is. I'm always gonna put it on us before them.”

Davis pointed the blame toward execution as well.

“I think our coaches have done a good job of making sure that we were prepared for the games. I don't think we came in any game where we weren't prepared, and that's been from the beginning of the season to the end of the season,” Davis said. “It comes down to us being able to go in and execute the game plan at a high level. That's our responsibility as players, is to go out and get the job done.”

Safety Will Harris, who spent his first five years with the Lions before coming to New Orleans this year, said “every situation is unique” when it comes to the level of live practice reps he’s seen in the past.

“We had a little bit of both (in Detroit). Obviously when you got guys banged up, you can’t afford to go 100% all the time and risk something else happening,” Harris said.

But he added that it’s “obvious everything’s been detailed” and there is “attention to detail” in New Orleans and said he’s never enjoyed working with a group of guys more than he has here.

Defensive end Chase Young, another Saints newcomer who previously played in Washington and San Francisco, declined to get into that subject saying, “I do what the coaches say to the best of my ability.”

But he did list tackling as the biggest culprit for the Saints’ defensive struggles.

Another theory of mine is that bad defense is a problem that compounds itself. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most lethargic Saints defensive performances have come in the most deflating games of the year (those non-competitive losses to Tampa Bay, Denver and Green Bay before this game that had so little to play for).

“I guess you could say that (can be a factor),” said Young, who started listing off the names of key offensive players who got injured this season and sucked some of that life out of this team.

Again, it has been an avalanche of reasons.

But as a result, it now feels like the Saints have a mountain to climb to get this defense back to a strength.