METAIRIE, La. -- Coach Dennis Allen knows the New Orleans Saints are capable of being a good football team.
Statistically, New Orleans is still the best scoring offense in the league at 31.8 points per game and 15 touchdowns. They rank seventh in scoring defense, having given up 17.5 points per game, although the defense has only allowed four touchdowns so far.
But for the Saints it's been a tale of two halves in the first quarter of the season. The team that coasted through the first two weeks has found itself struggling to close out games. New Orleans' recent losses could be attributed to a number of reasons like miscommunications, mistakes and injuries.
"Sucks to lose a game like that," Allen said after a 26-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. "Those are the kinds of games that f----ing rip your heart out. Excuse me. But I know we've got a good football team in that locker room."
Losing close games is a problem that has persisted since early in the 2023 season. The Saints, who were also 2-2 through Week 4, blew a lead to the Green Bay Packers in Week 3, couldn't tie up the game late against the Houston Texans in Week 6, dropped a potential game-tying pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 7 and had failed fourth quarter comebacks against the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams in Weeks 10, 12 and 13, respectively.
That's the kind of team they don't want to be this season.
When the Saints beat the Carolina Panthers, 47-10, and Dallas Cowboys, 44-19, in easy blowouts, multiple players on the team cautioned that it didn't mean much that early in the season. That proved to be correct after the Saints fell to 2-2 following their losses to the Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles.
"When you play a lot of football in this league, you realize that blowing people out and doing all that, that s--- don't matter. That's fanfare," running back Alvin Kamara said. "I mean, that's cool. ... These type of games? These are the type of games that matter. When it's nail-biting, one score ... these are the games that winning teams win. And when you look further down the line ... when you look at those teams that are playing, they're able to close these things out. ... We've got to close it. We've got to get a W."
Now the Saints have to figure out how to get back on track if they want to match the Kansas City Chiefs' offense at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night (8:15 ET, ESPN).
"Defending Super Bowl champs. Multiple Super Bowl champs. They're a really good team. I think they're really well coached. I think the quarterback is outstanding," Allen said on Monday. "They're playing good defense right now. They've always been really good in the kicking game. And it's tough to go into Kansas City and win. We've got our work cut out for us but that's the task that we've been dealt, and we've got to be able to rise up to the occasion."
The Chiefs scoring numbers (23 points per game) are slightly down from their first four games last year, when they averaged 25.25 points per game. But unlike the Saints, they've been able to make the plays necessary to close out close games.
There was a miscommunication error on defense against the Eagles that caused players to run into each other and set up a game-winning touchdown. Paulson Adebo's pass interference penalty with 29 seconds left set up a game-winning field goal for the Falcons.
There were other mistakes, such as Rashid Shaheed's muffed punt and Derek Carr's pick-six on Sunday.
"We laid our heart out on the field and got that last fourth quarter drive to score and try to put us up and try to take the game. But just all around as a team, we had some mistakes that we really couldn't overcome," said offensive lineman Landon Young. "And that's a team thing. It's not just one play, it's not just one penalty. You never know when that defining moment in the game is that your play, if you would've done a little better, could have changed the outcome of the game."
The team also has worked through a slew of injuries that included key players such as tight end Taysom Hill (rib), linebacker Demario Davis (hamstring), offensive linemen Erik McCoy (groin) and Cesar Ruiz (knee) and safety Tyrann Mathieu (calf, heel and groin). Chris Olave (hamstring) and Kamara (hip/ribs) also played through injuries to have a big game against the Falcons.
"Last week, I don't know if we played good enough to win and yet we put ourselves in a position that we had an opportunity to," Allen said, "This week I felt like we played good enough to win in a lot of areas and still came away with a loss. So that was frustrating."
The Saints will likely still be dealing with a number of those injury issues even with the extra day of rest before their game against the Chiefs. Of those, the injuries to Hill and the linemen loom large. When Hill was on the field against the Falcons, the Saints averaged 6.1 yards-per-rush compared to 2.6 yards-per-rush without him in the lineup.
But the Saints know that won't be an excuse. The Chiefs are dealing with injuries of their own, including injuries to wide receivers Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown and running back Isiah Pacheco.
"We've got a lot of tough dudes," Kamara said. We've got a lot of dudes that want to play, that fight through things. We scratch, we claw. ... I think we're a violent team. We're a tough team. We find ways to put ourselves in position to win. We just have to win. That's it."