NEW ORLEANS -- The thrill is gone.
The New Orleans Saints have always had their share of flaws during the Sean Payton-Drew Brees era. A lousy defense here, a sputtering run game there.
But their offense has never looked so ... toothless. Especially inside the Superdome.
For the second straight week, the Saints (0-2) stalled early and fizzled late, this time in a 26-19 loss in their home debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brees admitted that some of his deep throws were affected by shoulder soreness after a hit he took early in the game. But the Saints' offense was struggling even before that.
They had just seven points through three quarters. They were averaging less than 2.5 yards per play with zero points through the first 26 minutes.
Brees, who once dubbed himself "annoyingly optimistic," said he still believes the Saints have the ability to create those explosive plays that used to be so commonplace inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. But Brees was as dejected as anyone after the Saints lost at home for a stunning sixth time in a row.
"I'm with you," Brees said when asked about the lack of explosive plays. "When I look back to the times when, man, we were at our best, you felt like we were calling a lot of those, a lot of them were working. If they didn't, we knew we were gonna come back to them.
"What gives you the confidence to call those and to get those kind of rolling? I think it's just the tempo and the momentum that's created offensively. If you're able to kind of move the ball and get a defense on their heels. I don't think we've been in a position the last two weeks where we've kind of gotten the defense on their heels and really dictated the tempo of what was happening to them. And we have to get back to that."
One obvious factor is the trades New Orleans made this offseason, shipping away its top two pass-catchers from last season, Jimmy Graham and Kenny Stills. And maybe it will take time for Brees and Payton to adjust to new playmakers such as Brandin Cooks, Brandon Coleman and C.J. Spiller, who played a limited role in his return from a knee injury Sunday.
But this is a trend that began in 2014. The Saints had only 29 pass plays of 25-plus yards last season, which was their lowest total since 2007, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
This year they have three -- and they had none on Sunday.
Brees was just 2-of-12 on throws of at least 15 yards down the field Sunday (16.7 percent). That was his worst completion percentage on such throws in the last 10 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Another downward trend for the Saints in recent years has been pass protection -- which was arguably their biggest problem Sunday. Brees was hit repeatedly throughout the game, including three sacks and two fumbles in the first half (both recovered by New Orleans). That is supposed to be an improved area with the acquisition of former Seattle Seahawks center Max Unger in the Graham trade and the improved health of left tackle Terron Armstead. But right tackle Zach Strief and left guard Tim Lelito both had issues in pass protection Sunday.
The run blocking wasn't any better early in the game. New Orleans gained 1 yard on six carries in the first quarter.
Then when the offense finally started moving in the second half, receiver Willie Snead and running back Mark Ingram lost fumbles and kicker Zach Hocker missed a 42-yard field goal and had an extra point blocked.
"When you have a game like today, you get frustrated as a head coach, you're frustrated as a playcaller, you're frustrated in a lot of areas," said Payton, who said the blame starts with coaching and also pointed to too many penalties (10 for 115 yards) for an overall "sloppy" performance.
The one thing the Saints got right was the red zone -- where they scored touchdowns on all three of their trips inside the 20-yard line. That was their biggest problem in Week 1, when they were 1-of-4 in a 31-19 loss at Arizona.
But suddenly with the Saints' offense, if it's not one thing, it’s another.
"It's very disappointing, because I feel like we have this great home-field advantage that we have not taken advantage of," said Brees, who stressed earlier in the week that the way for New Orleans to regain its home-field advantage was by jumping out to a quick start for a change. "Every one of these games, we've gotten down early and we haven't ever come back. We haven't padded a lead in any of these games where we can ignite the crowd."
