The New Orleans Saints got taken to the cleaners by the Denver Broncos on Thursday night. In Sean Payton's return to the Superdome, the Spencer Rattler-led Saints put up zero fight as the visiting side steamrolled to a 33–10 victory. The loss dropped the Saints to 2–4 and marks the team's fourth consecutive defeat after a hot 2–0 start.

Making matters worse, it was clear from the outset that the Saints didn't show up to play. Or at least it came across that way to Richard Sherman, the longtime NFL cornerback who works for Amazon Prime as an analyst in retirement. At halftime, with the Saints down 16-3, Sherman tore New Orleans to pieces and suggested the effort he's seeing on the field is so bad the only explanation is that the Saints players are trying to get head coach Dennis Allen fired.

"I'm confused. I'm vexed. I'm perplexed. I don't get it," Sherman shouted over the noise of the halftime show happening behind him (clearly no lessons were learned from the CBS Arrowhead debacle of 2022). "They don't want to tackle. They don't want to make plays. These are good players. Tyrann Mathieu is a good player. Easiest interception of his life to send him to No. 36 (on his career) and he drops it. I see guys not having effort to get to the ball carrier, to make tackles. I don't understand this.

"It seems like they want to get their coach fired. That's the effort they're playing with. And Dennis Allen! You call a timeout so we can watch your quarterback take a knee? Do you want to torture these fans? They're going to be waiting at his car after the game."

Sherman was never afraid to speak his mind during his playing days and that trait clearly carried over to his post-playing career. What a rant.

Matters did not improve, either. Surely Sherman's opinion didn't, either. The Saints managed only a garbage time touchdown in the second half and lost by 23.

New Orleans has over a week to prepare for a Week 8 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers. From the looks of things tonight, a lot has to change if the roster is to keep their head above the water while starting quarterback Derek Carr recovers from an oblique injury.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Richard Sherman Ripped Saints to Pieces During Blowout Loss to Broncos.

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