NEW ORLEANS – After a mediocre 2023 season, the New Orleans Saints seemed to make the NFL sit up and take notice by opening the 2024 regular season with two overwhelming victories.

With an incredible 91 points scored and just 29 allowed, and enough highlights on both sides of the ball to produce a season's worth of hype videos, the Saints marched into Week 3 as one of only nine NFL teams with a perfect record.

The question remained: Are the Saints serious?

Did the offseason signing of offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak really revitalize quarterback Derek Carr and an underperforming unit, and did the continuity on defense really turn New Orleans into a superpower that beat the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys in the same stunning fashion?

The Saints returned to the Caesars Superdome on Sunday to face the Philadelphia Eagles, who suffered a 1-1 loss but are considered by many in the NFL to be one of the NFC's elite teams.

The game that set the benchmark ultimately revealed weaknesses and weaknesses, and the Saints lost 15-12. After two weeks of scoring at their best, New Orleans' offense had to fight for every yard and point against Philadelphia. And after the Saints had comfortably defeated their first two opponents, the Saints' defense collapsed too often.

GO DEEPER

Saquon Barkley helps the Eagles to a sluggish 15-12 win over the Saints: Takeaways

A 6-of-13 performance on third downs, a measly 89 rushing yards, four punts and an inability to capitalize on two defensive takeaways and two special teams stands doomed the Saints. Two defensive errors that resulted in two plays of over 60 yards paved the way for the Eagles' two touchdowns, including the game-winning score with 1:01 left.

“You knew it wouldn’t be The “Simple,” Carr said as he reflected on his team’s first two games.

His interception with 48 seconds left sealed the Saints' loss to the Eagles, but he remained optimistic afterward. “It's a great opportunity for us,” he said. “It's a slap in the face, you know?”

Carr referred to Mike Tyson's famous quote: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The reaction to this punch, the fighter continued, is the most formative.

Indeed, NFL seasons are long and one loss does not define a team. What will determine the Saints' legitimacy, however, is how they respond to their first encounter with adversity. Can they quickly regroup and pull out a win at their NFC South opponent Atlanta next week?

If the Saints learned anything on Sunday, it's that their offense works best when it can take advantage of success and balance on early downs. Balance and a strong running attack are the 1A and 1B principles of offense that Kubiak inherited from his father, Gary, and Mike and Kyle Shanahan. Successful runs keep pass rushers from focusing on quarterbacks and lead to play-action passes and big shots downfield. A healthy mix of running and passing leads to rhythm.

The Saints' possession early in the game was characterized by big gains on first downs as well as second and third and manageable scenarios, which Carr and his team took advantage of as they marched down the field at a brisk pace.

But then the Eagles defense made adjustments that the opponents had botched in the running game. Defense guru Vic Fangio sent a five-man front against the Saints, which had difficulty overcoming this tightly packed front and therefore could not produce the same performance in the first attempts. Sacks or tackles with loss of space in the first attempt led to second and third-and-long situations and finally to punts.

“When you look at it, I think they did a better job up front than we did,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said. “And I think that's really where it started.”

The Saints led 3-0 in the first half, but had only gained 65 meters.

Fortunately for New Orleans, there was a strong defensive effort that included an interception by safety Tyrann Mathieu in the end zone as Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts tried to force a touchdown pass to wide receiver DeVonta Smith. Defensive lineman Carl Granderson also forced a fumble by Hurts that was recovered by linebacker Willie Gay. The Saints later regained possession thanks to a blocked punt by JT Gray, and a defensive effort also forced Philadelphia to settle for a 60-yard field goal attempt that Jake Elliott narrowly missed.

The Saints defense kept defending. The offense kept stalling. And that has a problem: At some point, a defense is weakened by all those extra snaps.

Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Saquon Barkley delivered the first deep blow – a 65-yard run in which he stabbed through the heart of the New Orleans defense virtually unchallenged and ran for the win, giving his team a 7-6 lead. The Saints converted Elliott's 60-yard miss into a touchdown run (Carr found Chris Olave for a 13-yard throw that capped a 50-yard run) that gave them a 12-7 lead after a botched two-point conversion with 2:03 left.

Then came the final and most costly defensive error. Philadelphia tight end Dallas Goedert ran a crisscross pattern under him and Saints defenders Marshon Lattimore and Jordan Howden and Gay collided as they tried to get to him. Goedert caught the ball easily and galloped 61 yards before being tackled at the 4. Barkley ran in the touchdown and two-point conversion on back-to-back plays and the Eagles took the win.

.@saquon Bayou messed up 😏 pic.twitter.com/8b91mBwEDe

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) 22 September 2024

Sometimes players and coaches are baffled after losses and look for answers to the problems that plagued them. But there was no great mystery behind the Saints' loss. Yes, they looked drastically different offensively. But simple mistakes often lead to crippling results.

“Defensively, we just allowed too many explosive plays,” Allen said, “and that was really the key to the game: the explosive plays we allowed and really our inability to move the ball offensively. … We made too many mistakes. And when you play against a good team and you make mistakes, they take advantage. And I think that's what they did today.”

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Bitter rivals hate moral victories, so no one at the Saints will expect anything positive to come out of Sunday's loss. However, they will accept the challenge of coming back stronger after the defeat.

“Adversity is like a building block of life,” Mathieu said. “You can't go through life expecting great things without there being hiccups, without setbacks, without adversity. So, yeah, I mean, that sucks. We put our heart and soul into the game. We sacrifice a lot to get to Sunday, and we want to win, not just for ourselves, but for everybody. And that's why it doesn't always go the way you think it would. But the positive is there are a lot of great teams – a lot of great people – that wouldn't be great without the tough times. And yeah, we have another game next week, a division game. So I think we can't sulk too long.”

Carr urged his teammates to show up for the next round of meetings and training with the same energy they showed after their two victories, but with an even greater sense of urgency and a hypercritical eye for self-assessment.

If the Saints can do that and get back to winning ways next Sunday against a fierce Falcons team, the answer to the question, “Are the Saints legit?” may be yes. If not, then maybe the great results of Weeks 1 and 2 were just a ruse.

(Photo of Will Harris of the Saints and Dallas Goedert of the Eagles: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)