METAIRIE, La. (AP) -Carl Nicks' family had to take a rain check.
An evening on the town with visiting relatives was out of the question after the Saints' stunning overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Saints' offensive lineman wasn't up for it, and instead went home and watched a recording of the game - twice.
``I took it bad,'' Nicks said. ``I just hate losing.''
The Saints' offense, so prolific most of this season, has gone into a minislump coinciding with New Orleans' first two losses of the season.
Averaging an NFL-leading 33.3 points per game this season, the Saints have matched season lows in scoring in their 24-17 loss to Dallas and 20-17 overtime loss to Tampa Bay.
``We certainly hope to score more than 17 in a game and I think obviously we're capable of doing that,'' said Saints coach Sean Payton, who calls the plays for his offense.
Although the Saints' defense has been falling in the league rankings - now 24th in yards allowed - it didn't become an issue until the offense began to sputter.
``We only scored 17 points the last two weeks ... so that's on us, too,'' Nicks said. ``We can't put (blame) on the defense at all.''
Payton and several Saints players also pointed out that isolated statistics can be misleading. For example, the Saints gave up 439 yards to the Buccaneers on Sunday, but twice intercepted Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman and allowed only one offensive touchdown, which wasn't scored until the fourth quarter. The Buccaneers scored only 10 points before tying it at 17 on Michael Spurlock's 77-yard punt return with only 2:25 left in regulation.
Tampa Bay stuck with a punishing ground attack all game, and by the time the Bucs won the coin toss to open overtime, the Saints' defense was too worn out to stop them. The Buccaneers, who had the ball for more than 36 minutes, marched down the field on nine Carnell Williams runs and one scramble by Freeman on third-and-6 to set up the winning field goal.
After reviewing film on Monday, Payton pointed to several areas in which his offense came up short, starting with the fact that it was shut out after Garrett Hartley's field goal made it 17-0 with 6:42 left in the second quarter.
There were three third-down plays on which the Saints came up a yard short, one of which forced the Saints to settle for Hartley's field goal and two of which led to punts later on. There was Marques Colston's fumble after a catch and run inside the Tampa Bay 40-yard line in the fourth quarter. Then there was Hartley's missed field goal at the end of regulation.
The Saints' running game, which initially looked strong with 96 yards in the first half, stalled in the second, accounting for only 28 yards.
``Our focus is on, as an offense, how can we put our team in a better situation to win,'' Saints offensive tackle Jon Stinchcomb said. ``We start off with three scores in three series and then don't produce anymore points the rest of the game; that puts a lot of pressure on your defense. If we were able to continue to mount drives and sustain drives, keep the defense on the sideline and put points on the board, that puts them in a much better situation to be successful.''
Stinchcomb said it would be easy during the Saints' last couple losses to pick apart shortcomings on either side of the ball, but that team unity remains strong and players remain firm in their belief that they win and lose together.
Even after New Orleans' defense allowed Tampa Bay to drive for a winning score in overtime without throwing a pass, offensive players were looking inward, at their own shortcomings, Stinchcomb said.
``If we as an offense had done a better job, we're not in that situation. That's our perspective,'' Stinchcomb said. ``No way are we pointing fingers as to, 'Gosh, they should have stopped the run in overtime.' They could just as easily have pointed the finger at us and say, 'If you score any points in the second half, we're not in that situation.' But like I said, that's not happening in here. We're not pointing fingers at anybody. What we're doing is addressing our own issues of what can we do to make us a winning football team again.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
