If you've ever had a rough night in Las Vegas, then you know how the New Orleans Saints feel this week. After the team's ugly 34-24 loss to the Raiders on Monday night, Saints coach Sean Payton was so frustrated with everyone that he decided to postpone the team's flight out of Sin City so that they could hold an impromptu film session.
According to The Athletic, the Saints were scheduled to leave Vegas at 10 a.m. Tuesday, but that ended up getting pushed back more than three hours after Payton decided the team needed to go over the loss as soon as possible. When all was said and done, the Saints flight from Las Vegas didn't take off until 1:16 p.m. and they didn't get back to New Orleans until 6:01 p.m. local time.
Now let's be honest, this isn't the first time that a flight has been postponed due to a rough night in Vegas, and it certainly won't be the last. The Vegas airport is surely built upon the change fees that hungover people pay to change their departure flights to a later time. The good news for the Saints is that they had a chartered flight, so it didn't cost them much to move their departure time.
Due to the delay, Payton also decided to skip his weekly radio show appearance so that he could start game-planning for the Packers, who the Saints will be playing in Week 3.
The fact that Payton decided to make everyone sit through a surprise film session shouldn't come as a huge shock, and that's because he didn't really try to hide his frustration after the team's 10-point loss. Following the game, Payton said his offense has played "average" at best over the first two weeks of the season.
"The last two weeks, I think it's been average at best offensively," Payton said, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We're not functioning well enough and taking advantage of some of the opportunities we've had."
Not only did Drew Brees echo Payton's comments, but he also admitted that the offense didn't seem to be on the same page just yet.
"Are we totally in sync right now? No, We're not," Brees said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "We're not even close to what we are capable of. Not even close."
It was an ugly game for the Saints offense and a big reason for that is because Brees' struggles. The Saints quarterback completed just nine of 18 pass attempts in the first half while also throwing an ugly interception. Although Brees was slightly better in the second half, the fact of the matter is that he got outplayed by Derek Carr.
If the Saints are going to win on Sunday, they're going to need to turn things around and they're going to need to do it quickly. That's because they'll be hosting a Packers offense that has scored more points than any other team in the NFL this year. Normally, the Saints don't have any problem keeping up in a shootout, but with receiver Michael Thomas on the sideline, this year's team hasn't yet proven it has the firepower to keep up.
