Saints lose again in front of dissatisfied customers

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints’ performance Sunday afternoon was perfectly consistent with their overall performance this season.

At times it was terrible. Periodically it was encouraging. Ultimately it was not good enough.

And it was unsatisfying to the organization’s customers.

The Saints weren’t good enough in a 33-28 loss to the Detroit Lions in the Caesars Superdome, just as they have not been good enough to avoid a 5-7 record.

This white elephant of a team is accelerating toward an organization-defining crossroads with dwindling opportunities to veer off into a more positive direction before the season ends.

The coaches, players and front office are all responsible for the direction in which this group is headed. It’s too late for the front office to do anything about the course it has charted.

If this season is going to wind up in a better place than the one where it’s headed with five games remaining, it will require the coaches and the players doing significantly better than they have done to this point.

Logic suggests that this team isn’t going to suddenly emerge from a three-game losing streak to demonstrate in the next five games that it is significantly better than what it has been for 12 weeks.

Football does periodically provide results and turnarounds that defy logic and expectations. But it’s unwise to bank on that happening.

For those who possess a Pollyanna streak, the Saints’ schedule and division have provided hope.

The schedule has been and will continue to be relatively weak – and the NFC South requires a level of competency much lower than the norm for teams to win a division championship.

But even those straws are getting increasingly elusive to grasp.

The extremely average Atlanta Falcons have a one-game lead on the Saints and have a leg up on the tiebreaker by virtue of their win last week in Atlanta. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers caught up to second-place New Orleans on Sunday and they too have a leg up on the tiebreaker.

We have reached a point where the standings, the schedule and any playoff potential (real or imagined) are essentially meaningless because the crossroads to which this organization is headed doesn’t feature any signs that provide outside guidance.

The Saints have to fix the Saints.

They have five games to fix this team, which may or may not be enough.

They’ll have the offseason to fix the program.

To be honest, Sunday’s outcome, the early 21-0 deficit, the respectable comeback and the ultimate failure all are less significant than the statements made by the franchise’s customers.

It was apparent a good 30 minutes before kickoff that the Superdome and especially the premium plaza level seats were going to be shared roughly equally by Saints and Lions fans.

Presumably thousands of New Orleans season ticket holders put their tickets on sale on the Internet and tourists from Detroit gobbled them up.

The crowd involvement was a wash at kickoff, then turned in the visitors’ favor as their fans celebrated the fast start and the home fans understandably became ornery.

The mood of the Saints’ fans was revealed during pre-game introductions when quarterback Derek Carr was greeted by as many boos as cheers. That dynamic was repeated as the Saints periodically put Taysom Hill at quarterback as they traditionally do.

But this was different.

Each time Carr returned to the field to reclaim his position from his understudy a significant number of fans booed the starter.

Finally when Carr sustained back and shoulder injuries and entered the concussion protocol for a second time this season, the fans were respectful upon his departure midway through the fourth quarter.

When the home team fought back to get within 24-21 and 33-28 (after falling behind 33-21) the home portion of the crowd was energized.

So was the home team.

But the home team came up short and the home fans went home disappointed.

The atmosphere was a significant topic of post-game conversation. The Saints generally accepted their responsibility in providing customer satisfaction while acknowledging the value of being uplifted by the crowd when the team is in most need of being uplifted.

“You impact us because we’re trying to lift you up,” said Jameis Winston, who stepped in for Carr, to the fans. “We’re trying to put on the show for you. So your support, your cheering, the inspiration that you give us is why we do this. We do this for you.

“We wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for you all. So I just encourage all y’all to get behind us. … We’ve got to stand together because the only people that can fix this is us, and that’s y’all included. That’s the fans. That’s the team.”

Safety Tyrann Mathieu is a New Orleans native. He played at St. Augustine High School and LSU. He understands the relationship between this team and its city’s citizens.

He acknowledged the presence of “a sense of urgency.”

“After a while,” Mathieu added, “you run out of opportunities, right?”

Right.