METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints are ready to put the issues of the past week behind them.
It's been a week of frustration for the Saints' offense since a 31-24 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 7. Wide receiver Chris Olave in particular has been the subject of intense scrutiny after television cameras and an opposing player's microphone caught Saints quarterback Derek Carr yelling at him during the game.
Carr was heard yelling "What are you doing?" at Olave after he appeared to slow down on a route late in the game. On Friday, head coach Dennis Allen said that Olave didn't run that route the correct way.
"What didn't get caught is, right after that happened, him and I went face to face and we talked calmly and he goes, 'OK, cool.' It was good," Carr said. "But then all of a sudden, you lose, people hear it, it's a bigger deal than as football players we may have thought in that moment. We cleared it up, I said where I was wrong, he said, 'Oh yeah, I thought this.'"
Olave was back in the spotlight Monday when he was arrested for reckless driving while on his way home that night.
"We've had a chance to sit down and visit with him," Allen said Wednesday. "He obviously understands he made a mistake, and he's got to slow down. That's really what it was. We're not going to make any more of it than that."
All of those things seem to have been put behind them by Wednesday, when Olave was practicing as normal. Carr said that Olave "is in a good place."
Carr said he spent time talking with Olave during the Saints' weekend off, texting with him and video chatting when they were away from the facility.
"We're good and moving forward, I think that's really how our whole team is," Carr said. "And it's been almost a week, so we've had a lot of good days in between."
The Saints (3-4) are trying to figure out how to stack the good days together on offense after they've struggled to score in the first half of the season. They'll go into a Week 8 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts (3-4) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Lucas Oil Stadium, Fox) tied for 28th in red zone efficiency and 26th in third down efficiency.
When Saints tight end Juwan Johnson, who will likely be back this week after a calf strain kept him out four games, was asked for his assessment of the offense, he said he thinks there's "not a lot of juice" at the moment.
"Not a lot of confidence right now. That could be from numerous things," Johnson said. "I just think guys need to go back to ... the basics, having fun. I think right now, us sitting at 3-4, obviously not where we want to be, but the biggest thing is having fun, doing what we've been doing since camp, really, just going out there and playing ball and not taking it too serious. ... If you just have fun, have energy, run to the ball, good things just happen. I think if we get back to that, we'll be fine."
Carr said he knew there would be bumps in the road, like in any season, but thought they'd have more wins at this point. He's admitted the frustration of losing has gotten to him at times, and he's allowed himself to get overly emotional.
Carr said some of the situations, like him appearing to get upset with offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael on the sideline during a loss to the Houston Texans in Week 6, have been misconstrued. But, he admitted, he needs to rein in those emotions.
"It's funny, everyone thought I was yelling at Pete one time, I wasn't even talking to Pete," Carr said. "Everyone thought one thing, or this thing, I'm mad at that or mad at this. Ten years ago when I got in the league, every quarterback was cussing everybody out. I didn't even cuss nobody out and everyone thinks that everyone is mad at each other. Times are definitely changing, I can tell by the gray hairs in my beard and by people getting upset at a quarterback yelling.
"I do have to temper my emotions. I think with a little bit of the frustration of losing, I've let that get the best of me if I'm being honest. ... I also realize how good we can be, and I won't change the demand of excellence from myself, from my teammates, but there is a better way to do it."
The one positive the Saints have taken away from their last loss was their success running no huddle against the Jaguars. The Saints were unable to get in the end zone until they ran an up-tempo offense and scored twice in those situations in the fourth quarter.
It's one thing the Saints have discussed moving forward outside of figuring out how to get the offensive chemistry back on track.
"I think that's something that we'll look at as we go along," Allen said. "It may be something we try to incorporate. You're not going to live in the game in a two-minute offense. I think people have tried to work the up-tempo in our league. It works for a little while and loses its effectiveness. I think we've got to be able to have differing tempos that we're going to use throughout the game. But it was good to see our offense executed in that type of situation."