Bell: Saints need major changes to become elite again

METAIRIE, La. — With hopes for some sort of miracle playoff run now buried in the rubble of an appalling home finale, it's officially soul-searching season for the New Orleans Saints.

Sure, there's another game at Tampa Bay on Sunday. But there are no more games this season that matter, and no need to delay assessing the damage.

Not after this collapse of a season. The Saints, 6-9, plummeted from being a popular Super Bowl pick to a unit left clinging to the idea of winning a division title with a losing record.

Sean Payton, the architect, insisted during a very blue Monday at Saints headquarters he is not in shock by such a development.

Maybe that was one, home-for-the-playoffs declaration of defiance from the fiery head coach.

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He should be shocked.

The Saints couldn't even win a game on their own turf – which they used to do, not too long ago, with intimidating consistency – while facing elimination.

When's the last time, besides now, New Orleans lost five consecutive home games in a season?

Trivia answer: 1980.

Then again, maybe it's not shocking to Payton because he has seen the mistake-laced brand of football displayed during Sunday's loss to the Falcons on too many occasions this season.

Still, it's surreal enough for a team that carried such high expectations. A team that has always been able to make a playoff push as long as Payton and Drew Brees were working in tandem.

This time, the Saints will be no better than 7-9, which would match the worst finish in the Payton-Brees era, with the 2012 Bountygate season excluded while the coach was in NFL exile.

At least there's a bright side. If the Saints had managed to get into the playoffs, they had one-and-done written all over them – even with a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, given the recent track record. Now they can get a jump on next season, bolstered by one hellacious reality check.

Payton lamented the turnover margin that has plagued his team. With a minus-11 ratio, the Saints are tied for next-to-last in the NFL, and as the coach pointed out, the team that wins in that category wins about 80% of the time – apparently even teams like the Saints with a No. 1-ranked offense.

Yet the turnover woes, on both sides, merely connect the dots to bigger issues for the Saints that will undoubtedly fuel some hard questions this offseason.

On Sunday, it was clear that the Saints were no match in the trenches – both ways.

The 31st-ranked defense that has been such a mess that several defenders on Monday were asked whether they expect that coordinator Rob Ryan will be back next season, just doesn't bring the heat up front.

Meanwhile, the O-line that was once so solid, was pushed around by a Falcons' D-line that has been subject to many questions of its own.

Payton said that entering Sunday, his staff agreed that the cleanest quarterback would probably dictate the flow of the game, and as usual there's no arguing that point.

Brees -- who threw two picks and was stripped for a fumble returned 86 yards by Osi Umenyiora's for a TD as times expired – was sacked five times on Sunday.

And it is no way to run an offense.

It should also be noted that Brees, 36, acknowledged after the game that he is not getting younger – which should underscore how the window is getting smaller.

Not too long ago, though, Brees was in training camp talking about playing well into his 40s. This has been the type of season, with so much out of rhythm, to add years in a hurry.

It would be a stretch to say the coming offseason will represent the biggest challenge for Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis. It won't. Nothing will ever top the post-Katrina effort.

Yet the task is daunting enough, with salary cap dollars at a premium. It's unrealistic to expect a complete overhaul for an operation that is built around Brees and invested accordingly.

But they need a lot of personnel hits. Again.