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New Orleans Saints search for victory remains elusive

"Dudes got to show exactly who they are in times of adversity"

Oct 11, 2026 at 05:32 PM

Senior Writer

The New Orleans Saints insist that the ingredients are available. But combining them to create a satisfying result has been a frustratingly elusive endeavor, the latest attempt being a 23-13 loss to Minnesota on Sunday in the Caesars Superdome.

The Saints (1-4) lost their third consecutive game, all in the Superdome, as they searched and again failed to find any sustained mix of consistency and execution against the Vikings (5-0).

"There's 12 opportunities left," edge rusher Cameron Jordan said. "Dudes got to show exactly who they are in times of adversity. Last week we got punched in the mouth? Cool, how do you respond? There's guys that have made business decisions, there's guys that fought through. As a team, we're not disciplined enough at the end of the day.

"I think, from last week, we learned there's ups and downs of the game. This week, everybody was locked in, everybody was focused on how to get this win. We got up going into halftime, you can't come out and give that ball back. You've got to be a disciplined team. You've got to be able to overcome."

In the first two games this season, overcoming was a staple. New Orleans rallied from a 21-0 deficit in a 31-30 loss to Detroit in overtime, and from a 14-6 halftime margin to post a 24-17 victory over Baltimore. But since springing to a 27-16 lead against the Raiders in the third quarter in Week 3, the Saints haven't conjured enough offense, strung together enough defensive stops, protected the football well enough or played clean on special teams consistently enough — all in the same game — to finish a game on top.

The lead was 7-6 on Sunday, the day Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees was inducted into the Saints Ring of Honor, courtesy of a touchdown drive set up by defensive lineman Khristian Boyd's forced fumble and edge Chase Young's 27-yard recovery and return. But it was short-lived.

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Jayden Price fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, the Vikings recovered and six plays later, on third-and-6, Kyler Murray threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson for a 13-7 Vikings lead. Saints quarterback Tyler Shough threw the first of two interceptions to end New Orleans' next drive, and the Vikings drove from the Saints' 37 to the 14 on seven plays, took a delay of game penalty, and faced third-and-15 from the 19 with 2:49 left in the third.

Murray's short pass to receiver Myles Price gained seven yards, but as cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. and linebacker Pete Werner converged to combine for the tackle, Emerson stripped the ball out and safety Jonas Sanker recovered. Sanker ran 87 yards untouched down the right sideline — the second-longest fumble return in franchise history — to tie the game at 13-13.

Even that euphoria was short-lived; Daniel Carlson missed the point-after attempt and New Orleans didn't take the lead.

The Vikings drove 70 yards in six plays on their next possession, ending with Aaron Jones' bruising 8-yard touchdown run with 14:06 left in the game, and the Saints didn't again threaten to score against the league's top defense, which entered the game allowing 12.8 points per game.

Defensively, the Saints shrunk the numbers from the 45-24 loss to Atlanta; from 420 yards (205 rushing) and six touchdowns allowed to 364 (153 rushing) and two, and created two turnovers, one returned for a touchdown. But offensively New Orleans totaled 142 yards, including 87 net passing yards by Shough (16 of 25 for 96 yards, no touchdowns and two interception). The touchdown drive — 15 plays, 66 yards, capped by Kendre Miller's 2-yard run — was the lone offensive highlight possession.

"You're living in these red situations, we call them, where you're not in an efficient run or pass situation, you're behind the sticks," left guard David Edwards said. "And so any time you're in that, it just makes it harder on everybody. Our process and our operation has to improve for us to continue to be where we want to go. We got work to do.

"I thought staying on track was going to be one of the main keys for us and as players, we didn't do that. When you're living in second-and-long and third-and-long, that's just hard football to be playing. The touchdown drive that we had we ran it well, we threw it well, we were efficient — that's us. That's us.

"Can we look at that drive and really focus on the great things that we did and build off that? That's what I want to be focused on. We proved that we can do that time in, time out, snap in, snap out. I'm encouraged with that sort of stuff moving forward, because I think that's really who we are."