Saints on the brink of playoff elimination after another stumble vs. strong competition

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints have struggled all season against teams with records at or above .500.

It happened again at Los Angeles on Thursday night with a 30-22 loss to the Rams. New Orleans also lost what little margin for error it still had in its bid to make the playoffs.

“The biggest thing is we’ve got two divisional games left to play," coach Dennis Allen said. "So, our focus is going to be on trying to win those two divisional games and then we’ll let everything play out from there.”

The Saints (7-8) have played seven teams that entered this weekend at 7-7 or better. New Orleans has lost to six of them: to Tampa Bay (7-7), Jacksonville (8-6), Houston (8-6), Minnesota (7-7), Detroit (10-4) and the Rams (8-7). The exception was a victory at Indianapolis.

New Orleans remains in contention for a playoff spot only because it is part of the NFC South — which doesn't have any teams with a winning record. And its two remaining games are against first-place Tampa Bay (7-7) and Atlanta (6-8).

“Thankful to be playing meaningful games in December, but we have to do our business,” quarterback Derek Carr said. "I’ll be studying on my off time and getting ready for these two games for sure because they’re big for us.”

WHAT’S WORKING

Excluding some clutch situations when the Saints needed drive-sustaining conversions, the passing game has functioned fairly well. Against the Rams, Carr exceeded 300 yards passing for the sixth time this season. The Saints ranked 12th in the NFL in yards passing after Thursday night's game. Carr also passed for three touchdowns. But two of those scoring strikes came after the Saints trailed by 23 points — and after Carr had thrown an interception and had been unable to convert three fourth-down plays in Rams territory.

“We were moving the heck out of the ball,” Carr said. “We had a lot of explosives in the pass game. We felt very confident with all that and that felt good. But the execution of critical situations wasn’t there.”

WHAT NEEDS HELP

Opening drives and the running game.

The Saints have not scored a touchdown on the first possession of a game all season — often forcing them to play from behind.

“We certainly would’ve liked to have started the game better, played better, finished better, but we didn’t," Allen said.

On Thursday night, the Saints rushed for just 35 yards. Alvin Kamara gained 19 yards on nine carries. Taysom Hill had 2 yards on two carries.

“We can’t just be a drop-back passing team or a play-action passing team,” Allen said. "We need to be able to run the football better.”

STOCK UP

Chris Olave returned from an ankle injury and caught nine passes for 123 yards. The 2022 first-round draft choice has 1,041 yards receiving this season after finishing with 1,042 yards as a rookie. However, he had a third-down drop that led to one of New Orleans' fourth-down failures.

“He was certainly not 100 percent, but I was proud of him for coming in and battling the way that he did,” Allen said. "Overall, there was a lot of good things I saw from him.”

STOCK DOWN

Although second-year defensive back Alontae Taylor has been among the Saints' promising young players, he took a step back against Los Angeles, essentially getting benched for blown coverages.

"They got him a couple times with his eyes and so I just felt like it was the right move for our team at that point,” Allen said of replacing Taylor with Ugo Amadi. “I just felt like we needed to get Ugo in there and give him an opportunity.”

INJURIES

RT Ryan Ramczyk (knee) missed his second straight game. Rookie RB Kendre Miller (ankle) missed his sixth straight. DE Cameron Jordan continued to play through an ankle injury but has just two sacks this season and could wind up with his fewest since having only one during his rookie season of 2011.

While DE Payton Turner (toe) has returned to practice from injured reserve, it's unclear when he might be activated. Allen has said he is optimistic CB Marshon Lattimore (ankle) and WR Michael Thomas (knee) could return from injured reserve to play before the season ends. But it wasn't clear Friday if they'd be able to practice next week.

KEY NUMBER

4 — The number of losses the Saints have in Carr's six games with more than 300 yards passing.

NEXT STEPS

New Orleans is at Tampa Bay on Dec. 31 and closes the regular season by hosting Atlanta on Jan. 7.