The New Orleans Saints fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Derek Carr and New Orleans offense never really got the ball moving in the right direction, while the pass defense gave up three touchdowns to Baker Mayfield and Co.
It was unclear if Carr would play in the first place given his sprained throwing shoulder. While one has to admire Carr's confidence and toughness, the former Raiders QB could have sat this one out. Instead, he played through injury. Alvin Kamara returned as well for the Saints, but failed to get much going on the ground, as he received just 11 touches for 51 yards.
New Orleans Saints to blame: Dennis Allen
Allen gave the go-ahead for Carr to play in the first place, despite considering him week-to-week initially when he went down. The star quarterback signed a four-year deal this offseason, and it's far too early to be testing a sprained shoulder in Week 4.
"He was limited in practice today," Allen said literally just a few days ago. "Every day he's gotten better. I thought he did a nice job today, we'll see."
"Nothing has changed. We said we're going to evaluate him throughout the week and see where he's at. He didn't practice today, we'll see where we're at tomorrow with him. But I'm not ruling anything out."
Evidently, Allen thought Carr was healthy enough to play, though his performance on the field suggested otherwise.
Allen also has a say in much of the defensive play-calling. New Orleans gave up 26 points and three passing touchdowns to Mayfield when they needed a solid performance given the injury to their quarterback.
New Orleans Saints to blame: QB Derek Carr
Any competitive quarterback wants to play even when injured. Derek Carr is no exception to that rule, and he fooled his coach into thinking he could put up decent numbers wiht a bum shoulder.
"I hurt it in the game, but I'm doing everything I can – as always, whether when I broke my back, when I tore my groin, broke the finger – I do anything and everything I can with my rehab, everything with the trainers, I'm going to do everything I can to be out there with my guys," Carr said during the week. "If I can play, I'll play. If I physically just can't play, then I can't play. But if I'm out there, that means there's no fear of re-injury, there's no fear of being able to help the football team. So, I'm going to do everything I can to be out there, but never hurt the team at the same time."
Players like Carr rarely have the foresight to see the forrest through the trees. Rather than forcing a Week 4 dud against the Bucs, he could be fully healthy heading into Week 5.
Carr completed just 23-of-47 passes for 123 yards. That's a brutal yards per pass attempt percentage, as the Buccaneers took away Carr's downfield passing threats.
New Orleans Saints to blame: Pete Carmichael
Perhaps even worse than Carr's decision to play, or Allen's choice to let his quarterback make that call, was the offensive play-calling from coordinator Pete Carmichael. Alvin Kamara came back this week from his four-game suspension, meaning he had fresh legs when the Saints needed him most. It was the perfect combination, and Kamara averaged over four yards per carry. The only problem? Well, Kamara only go 11 touches on the ground.
New Orleans is averaging just 13.8 points per game through Week 4. Against Tampa Bay, those flaws were exposed once again. The Saints relied too heavily on the arm of Carr, and threw the ball 37 times. Carr's injured shoulder was obvious, and it limited New Orleans' opportunities to move the football.
As John Sigler of Saints Wire wrote, it may be time for the team to consider a change in offensive play-calling:
"A team with so many weapons like this one shouldn't struggle to score points. A receiving corps boasting Chris Olave, Michael Thomas, and Rashid Shaheed with Alvin Kamara, Taysom Hill, Juwan Johnson and Foster Moreau in the mix shouldn't be struggling to score twice per game. Carmichael's latest version of the offense has lost more turnovers (5) than they've scored touchdowns (4)."
Expect Saints fans to call for change as long as Carmichael is employed.
