Rod Walker: Saints season may be done

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers gave their fans plenty of reasons to wave those yellow Terrible Towels on Sunday.The New Orleans Saints, meanwhile, gave their fans a reason to wave the white flag on what to this point has been a terrible season.Following Sunday’s 20-10 loss, the Saints dipped to 3-7. That’s their worst start through the first 10 games of a season since 2005, Jim Haslett’s final year as head coach.Despite what the final numbers on the Acrisure Stadium scoreboard read, this one had to feel much worse than just a 10-point loss for the guys in the white jerseys.Six days ago, the Saints were embarrassed at home by the Baltimore Raves, the best team in the AFC North.This time it was a loss to the worst team in that same division, a Steelers team that had won just two games before Sunday and hadn’t tasted victory since the middle of October.“This s*** does not feel good,” Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “To be honest, we have to find our way or this is going to be the result every game. We show a lot of fight, we show a lot of heart, but we don’t get the job done.”This one hurt.And no, I’m not just referring to Jordan’s swollen eye or the cut near quarterback Andy Dalton’s nose. This one also left a bruise to the Saints’ ego.The struggling Steelers were supposed to be the perfect opponent to help salvage a season that at this point just might not be salvageable.The Saints are only two games behind Tampa Bay in the NFC South standings, but the Saints and Buccaneers are clearly heading in opposite directions. The Bucs have won two straight, rallying to beat the Los Angeles Rams last week and the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.The Saints, meanwhile have dropped two in a row since shutting out the Las Vegas Raiders two weeks ago and haven’t fixed any of the issues that have haunted them all season long.Ten weeks in and the penalties, turnovers, injuries, the ineptitude on offense and a defense that can’t stop anybody are problems just as concerning now as they were a month ago.This latest loss leads you to believe that this is just who the 2022 Saints are.The players are saying all the right things about turning things around. Many of them, though, are probably in a bit of denial. That’s understandable considering many of them have never experienced a losing season in a Saints’ uniform.“Nobody in here has given up,” guard Cesar Ruiz said. “Nobody is throwing in a towel or nothing like that.”Ruiz and Ramczyk were the only two regular starting offensive lineman playing by the end of Sunday’s game, a big reason the Saints could manage just 29 yards rushing.“It’s different,” Ramczyk said about losing. “The first four years we were winning. We cannot continue to keep doing this week after week, so there has to be a sense of urgency. It’s a frustrating feeling. We’ve got to be better.”But can they?First-year Saints coach Dennis Allen looked about as defeated as he has after a game all season this time around.“When you get in situations like these, you have to fight your way out of it. There is no other way to get out of it other than to fight your way out of it,” Allen said. “This is where you’ve got to lean on the leadership of the group and they’ve got to pull us through.”The top of that leadership, of course, is Allen himself. These issues start at the top with him and work their way down to his coaching staff and the locker room leaders like Jordan, Demario Davis, Alvin Kamara and Ramczyk.“There is adversity, but we have to stay positive and keep pushing and clawing and fighting,” Ramczyk said. “We have to do everything we can Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and put it all on the field on Sundays.”Tyrann Mathieu is in his fist season with the Saints. He came to his hometown team thinking it had a chance to win a Super Bowl just like he won three seasons ago in Kansas City.“Obviously, anytime you lose in this league, it takes a hit at the confidence,” Mathieu said. “But I’d probably say as far as spirit and morale, I think we all kind of know what we’re capable of. But like I said, we’re just not a good football team right now. Seven losses with the kind of talent that we have in the room, yeah, we’re just not good right now.”On day when the Saints should have been the best team on the field, they weren’t.Heck, they may not have been even the second best team. That distinction may go to the flock of pigeons that flew down to the playing surface and were on one accord throughout much of the first quarter and some of the second.Eventually, they flew out of Acrisure Stadium, their business there done.A few hours later, the Saints left the same stadium, their business undone, their season maybe done.
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