Saints have work to do after lopsided loss

They know they have loads of hard work ahead of them after the Saints' most lopsided loss in four years, 34-14 to Denver on Sunday night.

A year after tying a franchise record with 13 wins in the regular season, New Orleans fell to 2-5 in Vitt's return from his six-game, bounty-related suspension.

"Understand this, it hurts," Vitt said. "But you have to swallow it. It's got to go down."

The one-dimensional Saints learned exactly how bad they were after the Broncos stifled Drew Brees and the passing game. Last in the NFL in rushing, New Orleans is the first team to give up 400 or more yards in seven consecutive games since 1950.

The Saints had nothing to fall back on when Brees struggled, going 22 of 42 for 213 yards. He connected on fewer than half of his passes until three straight completions on a meaningless late touchdown drive.

"This is a team effort," Vitt said. "When the passing game doesn't flourish the way we expect it to around here, we still are going to be held accountable to win games and compete."

They did not even come close in Denver.

Taking advantage of what Vitt said were poor tackling techniques and bad angles, the Broncos ran for 225 yards while Peyton Manning threw for 305. Coming off a bye, Denver surprised the Saints by using two tight ends and two wide receivers on most downs instead of the three-wide receiver look they expected.

Spagnuolo, in his first year with New Orleans, blamed himself for not making a quicker adjustment.

"This is uncharted territory," he said. "I'm not used to this. I've been blessed to be in places where we played pretty good defense. We're not doing that right now, and yet I really can't put my finger on it."

Offensive tackle Zach Strief said he would need more than one finger to identify the reasons for the Saints' rushing problems. New Orleans ran for 51 yards on 17 carries, lowering its NFL-worst average to 72.6 yards. The longest run was an 8-yard gain by Pierre Thomas.

"It's not one thing, it's a lot of things," Strief said. "On plays where the offensive line is blocking well, we might miss a block on the edge or we might miss a hole. On the plays where the edge is blocking well and the running back is hitting the right hole, we're missing a block. There's just a lack of consistency."