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What's troubling the Saints? Life on the road

What's troubling the Saints? Life on the road

DALLAS – Who dat in the Saints uniforms lately?

A team with a long-held reputation for big plays on both offense and defense looked meek against the Cowboys here on Sunday in a 38-17 loss, raising all the old questions about why New Orleans doesn't seem all that potent away from the Superdome.

This season, those questions are hitting harder than ever. It's one thing to have trouble with a vertical passing game in bad weather, as the Saints did last year against the Seahawks and Panthers. It's quite another to struggle in a climate-controlled setting against a team that the Saints beat 49-17 last season at home. The Saints are now 0-3 on the road this season, with two of those games inside and the third, against Cleveland, in mild weather. They are 1-8 in their past nine away games.

"Offensively, the Saints' road woes have a lot to do with the quarterback's inability to get comfortable in the pocket," said former Saints defensive back Jabari Greer, who was in attendance on Sunday.

Greer doesn't blame Drew Brees himself, or even the offensive line. Instead, he sees it as an inability to start and keep offensive momentum – which seems easier for the Saints at home.

"They've been coming from behind," Greer said. "Sean [Payton] has wanted to get Drew going with big plays, but sometimes to get him started Drew needs to incorporate some quick game: slants, hitches, something to get him comfortable early in the game. Bring the defense up."

The key phrase there is: "They've been coming from behind." The Saints are third in passing and 11th in rushing, but they are 29th in team defense, 21st in rushing defense and tied for 29th in passing defense. Shootouts are winnable when Brees is your quarterback, but they are far more difficult to win on the road. And the loss of defensive playmakers like Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper hasn't helped either. The game-changing plays are missing on both sides of the ball. The Saints defense has committed seven turnovers and created one.

"They're in a battle right now to believe they have what it takes to be dominant," Greer said. "It's momentum built on the defense swarming ball carriers and creating turnovers. If you can suck momentum out so you can look in their eyes and see they are going to pack up and go home, that's where the momentum develops."

The Cowboys did to the Saints what the Saints have not been able to do to their opponents: weaken them with the run game and then crush them with the pass. Mark Ingram is out with a hand injury and Darren Sproles is now in Philadelphia, so there's more pressure on Brees than ever to make things happen down the field. That's tougher when defenses are waiting on it to happen. And when the Saints are losing, defenses wait on the pass even more.

So instead of building chemistry, the offense seems to be losing it. The Saints' point total has dropped each week this season, from 34 to 24 to 20 to 17 against the Cowboys.

Coming home isn't necessarily going to turn things around. The Saints' post-bye Superdome schedule features Green Bay, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Carolina and Atlanta. New Orleans is now 1-3 and a loss at home this weekend to Tampa Bay means the Saints can afford to lose only three more games to have a real shot at a playoff game – on the road.

"The defense has to get the monkey off their back with turnovers," Greer said. "If they win by one touchdown and don't have any turnovers, I believe it's not going to do well for them going into the bye week."

A lot of the criticism has gone to defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, but the energy that he brought to a rejuvenated team last season is still there. The energy in the Superdome is certainly still there. Brees and Payton are still there, along with Jimmy Graham and Marques Colston.

What's still there beyond that might not be enough.