Saints coach Kellen Moore acknowledges frustration with the club’s worst 9-game start since 1980

NEW ORLEANS AP New Orleans Saints rookie coach Kellen Moore is less than a year removed from celebrating a Super Bowl triumph in the Superdome as offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles That same famous stadium has been home to a lot of losing for Moore s new association during the first half of this season and going on the road has been even worse The Saints - now have their worst nine-game record since when they lost their first games before finishing - We haven t met our goals We haven t met the standard We re not playing winning football enough And so it s obviously frustrating Moore declared on Monday Can we grow Can we get better Is there plenty of football ahead of us Certainly you can look at it from that lens Moore added But we ve got to go through selected challenging times right now We ve got to push through them Moore noted that there are plenty of good examples of rebuilding teams that have had miserable starts to a season but ultimately turned a corner and began winning more regularly again By no means is it fun right now Moore disclosed But it shouldn t be fun right now We re not winning football games And so we ve got to get through that and come out on the other side a better club better individuals and once we get there we can head where we ultimately want to go The Saints lone achievement came in Week against the also-struggling New York Giants - Since then New Orleans has changed quarterbacks from second-year pro Spencer Rattler to rookie Tyler Shough a second-round pick who made his debut as a starter in Sunday s - loss to the Los Angeles Rams Shough who finished his first start of for yards one touchdown and one interception made a few big-time throws Moore disclosed referencing specifically a -yard completion to Chris Olave after his QB had escaped pressure I thought there were a few trends going upward Moore continued I really like Tyler s performance something he can build on Still the loss in Los Angeles was the Saints second straight by or more points and third this season We re still building and growing Moore announced But we ve got to have specific urgency to get there What s working One of the limited officially measured statistics in which the Saints rank near the top of the league is in fumble recoveries The Saints have recovered six putting them in a five-way tie for third most of in the NFL entering Monday behind only Pittsburgh and the Rams What necessities help While the Saints rank near the bottom of the NFL in preponderance categories their competitiveness seems to have been particularly hampered by their inability to run the ball which would ease pressure on and open opportunities for a young inexperienced QB The Saints who had just yards on the ground against the Rams have not rushed for yards in a meeting for five straight games Their yards per match rushing ranks th in the NFL We ve got to do a better job on first down runs so we can keep running Moore stated We ve got to look at it from a schematic standpoint We re not getting it done yet Stock up Receiver Chris Olave leads the Saints in catches yards receiving and TDs receiving this season Meanwhile after missing the first five games of this season with a calf injury defensive end Chase Young has three sacks a forced fumble fumble recovery six QB hurries and three batted passes in four games Stock down Alvin Kamara s yards per championship rushing and receiving have left the -year-old ninth-year pro on a pace to finish with the lowest production of his career in either category However age might have less to do with his decline in production than playing in a new offense that is struggling generally Injuries RT Taliese Fuaga and TE Jack Stoll both are rehabilitating a high ankle sprains from Sunday s event Those will be week to week Moore reported Likely going to be tough to play this week but we ll see how those guys progress Key number That s the Saints average time of possession per event this season which ranks last in the NFL Next strategies The Saints play this Sunday at NFC South foe Carolina before their bye arrives in Week AP NFL https apnews com NFL Source