Tyler Shough knows exactly what keeps going wrong. The New Orleans Saints quarterback said it plainly this week, days after a 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings dropped New Orleans to 1-4. The problem is that knowing hasn’t fixed it yet.
“I’m not trying to get it all back. I don’t need to be Superman and try and make up for a previous play,” Shough said Wednesday. “There’s a couple times where either I can go find a running lane or just take the sack.”
The Superman problem keeps showing up
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Sunday was the clearest example yet. Both of Shough’s interceptions went to Byron Murphy Jr., one on second-and-26 and the other on third-and-12. Those are the exact spots he described, where the Saints were already behind and he tried to win it back with one throw.
The numbers say this is a trend, not a bad afternoon. Shough has five interceptions on 205 attempts this season, according to Pro Football Reference, after throwing six on 327 attempts as a rookie. He has already fumbled five times in five games, after fumbling three times in 11 games last year. The turnovers are coming faster, not slower, and they’re a big reason he dropped in the QB rankings this week.
To his credit, Shough isn’t hiding from it. He called one of Sunday’s picks “a stupid decision” and “a bad mistake,” and said he should have tucked it and run more often. That self-awareness is worth something for a second-year quarterback, but admitting it doesn’t count as fixing it.
So when does it stop?
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It stops when the Saints stop putting him in second-and-long. Shough said himself that “right now we were stopping ourselves,” pointing to penalties and pre-snap movement that left the offense in obvious passing downs. Defenses have figured that out, and he cited the Giants bringing cover-zero blitzes late in their game against Washington as a preview of what’s coming.
That isn’t all on Shough, and it’s why the fix is as much Kellen Moore’s as his. Cleaner early downs would take the hero-ball moments off the table. But when those moments do come, Shough has to take the sack, punt and play the field-position game he talked about. He said that out loud Wednesday. Now he has to do it.
Sunday at MetLife Stadium is the first chance. The 3-1-1 New York Giants are going to bring the heat and test whether Shough means it, and with Gayle Benson publicly calling a 1-4 start unacceptable, there isn’t much room left for “learning moments.”
More on the New Orleans Saints
- Will Jameis Winston Beat His Old Team? The Saints Pass Rush Gets Its Chance Sunday
- Tyler Shough Responds to Gayle Benson’s ‘Not Acceptable’ Message as the Saints Sit at 1-4
- New Orleans Saints’ 12.3% Play-Action Rate Raises Kellen Moore Questions
- Is Tyler Shough’s Job Safe? Where the Saints’ Quarterback Stands After a 1-4 Start
