Saints must do much more to honor Tom Benson than opening day effort

NEW ORLEANS – The Saints organization honored Tom Benson at halftime Sunday by adding his name to their Ring of Honor.

The former owner’s name was unveiled on the facing of the East Terrace near the 50-yard line in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It joins a string of names that also includes Archie Manning, Rickey Jackson, Willie Roaf and Morten Andersen.

Much of the build-up to the start of this season has included the importance of making this season one that Mr. Benson, who died in March at age 90, would have been proud of. He bought the franchise in 1985 and turned it from a laughing-stock to a successful organization that won the Super Bowl after the 2009 season.

But this year’s Saints team couldn’t put together a performance that would have made Mr. Benson proud. In fact, given the opponent, it was hard to watch the 48-40 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and not be reminded of the first meeting between these long-time division rivals, which took place before Benson bought the franchise from John Mecom Jr.

It was 1977 and the expansion Buccaneers had lost their first 26 games. They came into the Superdome and embarrassed the Saints, 33-14.

There’s no reason to believe this Saints team will be as bad as that one, which finished 3-11 under Hank Stram. But if Sunday’s opener was any indication of how this team is going to play, it won’t be nearly as good as last year’s team either.

That team went 11-5, won the NFC South, advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs and fell one tackle short of a trip to the NFC Championship.

But after giving up 529 yards, allowing 13 third downs to be converted into eight first downs, committing eight penalties for 77 yards, turning the ball over twice without taking it away and failing to make a sack, the Saints have a tremendous amount of improving to do if they’re going to compete for another division title.

“We didn’t hurry the passer,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “Guys were open. Third downs were awful. They had over 500 yards. We didn’t disrupt the timing to any element of the passing game and too many penalties. I can’t think of any positives (on defense).”

The loss was the Saints’ fifth straight in season openers and each of the previous four was followed by at least one more loss as New Orleans started 0-2 in 2014 and 2017 and 0-3 in 2015 and 2016.

They’ll try to avoid another season-opening losing streak next Sunday when they host the Cleveland Browns, who ended a 17-game losing streak when they tied the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

“Nothing brings guys together like adversity,” Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said. “It’s not something that we want to deal with this early in the season, but the great thing about this game is that you get another week to go out and try to prove yourself again.”

If there’s any solace to be had it’s that the Saints’ 0-2 start last season was followed by an eight-game win streak that propelled them to that division championship. So there is recent evidence that a poor start can be followed by significant improvement.

As for improvement, there’s no need for that from Drew Brees or the passing game. Brees completed 37-of-45 for 439 yards and three touchdowns. Michael Thomas caught 16 of those completions, breaking Tony Galbreath’s single-game record of 14, while gaining 180 yards and scoring a touchdown.

But the Saints ran just 13 times for a meager 43 yards, thanks in large part to playing from behind for most of the game, including as much as a 24-point deficit.

“Regardless of what’s happening on the other side of the ball,” Brees said, “we are always focused on scoring points. We expect to score on every drive.”

They might need to if the defense is going to continue to play as it did Sunday. The run defense was terrible, the pass rush was non-existent and the lack of pass rush magnified poor coverage.

“Protection beats coverage,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said.

That protection enabled journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick to pass for 417 yards and four touchdowns while compiling a near-perfect 156.2 passer rating.

“I thought the quarterback for the most part was pressure-free,” Payton said, “and that’s going to be tough. If he’s pressure-free then the receivers are running through the defense and that makes it doubly hard.

“Somewhere you have to disrupt the timing of the pass. Giving a good quarterback in this league time to throw and then you have talented receivers, that’s not a good combination.”

Defensive end Cameron Jordan took responsibility for the lack of a pass rush.

“That’s on the defensive line. That’s on me,” he said. “The good thing for us is that it is week one. It’s early. We can adjust. We have to address ourselves as to who exactly we want to be.”

They might want to look at Mr. Benson’s initials, which are printed on their jerseys, as a reminder that they’re trying to be a team that would have made him proud.