Blood in the water

Blood in the water

Good morning, folks. Welcome to the Tuesday, October 15 edition of the Saints Insider newsletter. I hope you've had a better time lately than the Saints because things are ... not great. With Sean Payton coming back to town this week with the Denver Broncos on Thursday, let's take a look what's going on:

Blood in the water

I thought Cam Jordan put it so well when he met with reporters Monday when describing his former coach: Sean Payton can sense when there's "blood in the water."

And the Saints are bleeding right now.

I wrote about the mood of the Saints after a 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Make sure to check out what players and coach Dennis Allen are saying. The vibe, as you can imagine, is not great.

Flowers and warm fuzzies

Payton spoke with reporters in Denver about how he doesn't expect "flowers and warm fuzzies" when he returns to New Orleans. Our Luke Johnson explains why.

Speaking of Luke, he also handled a lot of our other notebook items for Tuesday's print. Those include:

Allen era

Our Rod Walker took a smart look at the Dennis Allen era — and how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been a huge problem for him.

"The Bucs got their first ever three-game winning streak over the Saints at the beginning of the Allen era," Rod writes. "Allen’s only victory over the Bucs came late last season. Tampa Bay avenged that one in convincing fashion Sunday as Allen fell to 1-4 against the Bucs after the 51-27 debacle in the Caesars Superdome."

Rattler optimism

As bad as Sunday was for the Saints, the team left the outing encouraged by Spencer Rattler's debut. Juwan Johnson told reporters that the rookie is "only going to get better" and our Jeff Duncan was high on Rattler's performance, as well. Read Dunc's column for his full analysis.

Anyway, that's all for now. We have plenty more coming this week, even with the short turnaround for Thursday's game. Be on the lookout for that.

Take care,

Matthew Paras