Saints’ previously unstoppable offense had a big weakness exposed in loss to Eagles

After two weeks of looking like the NFL’s next great offense, the New Orleans Saints crashed back down to Earth in a tough 15-12 loss at home to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Saints scored at least 40 points in back-to-back games to start the season, but one of the NFL’s most efficient offenses was shut down for the majority of Sunday’s game and struggled to keep the Eagles’ defensive line from making plays as they suffered injuries to starting center Erik McCoy and guard Cesar Ruiz.

“That’s been the top offense in the league coming into today — ” a media member asked Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson after the game.

“Top what?” Gardner-Johnson repeated five times, touting his defensive teammates in the process.

The most important of them might have been the linemen. One thing that was definitely learned during the game was that the Saints will go as far as their offensive line can take them. This doesn’t necessarily make them unique from other NFL teams in that aspect, but it matters for the style of offense that they want to run.

This offense is going to lean on its ground game to help set up cleaner looks for Carr in the passing game. The Saints want to be a heavy play-action team that allows Carr to minimize his risk taking by forcing the defense to respect the run. Due to injuries and strong play by the Eagles’ defensive line, the Saints were severely hampered and showed their first sign of limitations.

“It’s not going to be that easy all the time,” Carr said afterward. “For us, it’s a great opportunity. You get hit in the mouth, and with that said, I thought we responded to a tough, gritty game.”

Carr managed only 5.7 yards per attempt in this game and spent the majority of it under 100 total yards passing before ending up with 142 in the end. When the Saints got in situations where they needed to throw the ball downfield, and everyone knew they needed to throw, they struggled. Outside of stud wide receiver Chris Olave, the Saints’ wide receivers really struggled to get open against the Eagles’ defensive backs — which is concerning because the Eagles don’t exactly have the Legion of Boom back there.

The health of McCoy and Ruiz is going to be paramount as the Saints try to rebound from this loss and get back to being an offense that can establish an early lead and keep it. New coordinator Klint Kubiak runs a Kyle Shanahan-style offense, and as other Shanahan-style offenses have shown, they can struggle to keep a rhythm when it’s time to play from behind and throw the ball. Being a front-running offense isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a legitimate dropback passing game is going to be something that the Saints will have to develop throughout the season.

There isn’t a need for the Saints or their fans to fall into a panic yet. New Orleans’ 2-1 start is better than what most had projected for the Saints, even though this loss to the Eagles is undeniably frustrating. This is where Kubiak will be able to really make his name in the NFL — figuring out what the counterpunches are going to be when the run game isn’t working.

They still nearly won, and did so while giving up a 65-yard touchdown run to Saquon Barkley and a 61-yard catch-and-run by Dallas Goedert on the Eagles’ winning drive. Those are the kind of plays New Orleans has been generating, not its opponents.

“Defensively we just gave up too many explosive plays,” said Saints head coach Dennis Allen, “and that was really the key to the game, is the explosive plays that we gave up and really kind of our inability to move the ball offensively.”

This was the first road bump on what can still be one of best offenses in the NFL. The Saints just need the health of their offensive line to stabilize, which should get them moving back toward being the offense that can move the ball down the field at will.