First Look: Jaguars vs. Saints
The Saints (3-3) take the national spotlight when they host the Jaguars (4-2) on Thursday Night Football. They look to put an ugly loss to the Texans behind them and move forward in their somewhat young season. Here's a good bit of things we're paying attention in this one leading up to the game.
Saints Storylines to Watch vs. Jaguars
WHAT'S THE OFFENSIVE LINE GOING TO LOOK LIKE?
The Saints got banged up in this game, and Andrus Peat was only around as an emergency offensive lineman. Dennis Allen said he got hurt on the last play of Thursday's practice, so we'll see where he's at this week. However, Ryan Ramczyk suffered a concussion and James Hurst is dealing with a foot injury. Allen said it's the foot injury previously sustained in practice that he was able to play through two weeks ago.
With all of that being said, New Orleans is likely going to have a new right tackle and Trevor Penning at left tackle for now. Max Garcia would likely go in at left guard. Cameron Erving, Mark Evans, and Tommy Kraemer are practice squad options. Landon Young (hip) is trending in the right direction, but it's unclear as to whether or not he'll be ready for Thursday.
HOW IS THIS TEAM GOING TO RESPOND?
To put it simply, the Saints didn't execute on Sunday. There was encouragement with how the defense was able to overcome their poor first half, but the offense struggled heavily when they had repeated chances to get the job done. Miscommunication and not being on the same page were a common theme for the offense.
“Until we get on the same page, there’s going to be sucky feelings,” Derek Carr said on Monday afternoon.
Demario Davis addressed the team following the loss, and it sounds like the players are keeping things in-house on the nature of the conversations. Winning will solve a lot of things, but this team can't afford to let things slip through their hands when they have advantages like a hurt Trevor Lawrence, no Anthony Richardson, possibly no Justin Fields, and then not having to face Justin Jefferson.
No more excuses or lip service, just deliver to the ability that everyone believes this team is capable of doing.
CAN THEY FIX THE RED ZONE ISSUES?
The team isn't getting it done in the red zone and it's obviously an area that has to drastically improve. More importantly, it needs to be stable and consistent each week. When you go from one week of executing in all the trips to not, that's definitely a sign of the wheels being off.
Dennis Allen said as much on Monday about the struggles. Allen said, "I feel like we've been able to move the ball effectively at times this season and whether it be by a penalty, a negative yardage play, we don't run a proper route, there's something that happens that keeps us from scoring touchdowns down there. That has to be cleaned up. That has to be better."
Another showing like Sunday in front of the Superdome on the national stage should really make the team strongly push to make some changes.
