METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints badly need a win, but right now, they might settle for a lead.
The Saints (0-4) are winless through the first quarter of the season for the first time since 2012, and they haven't held a lead since the Sept. 7 season opener, when they led the Arizona Cardinals for 4 minutes and 15 seconds in the second quarter.
Saints coach Kellen Moore believes the team is "close," but with the amount of winless teams dwindling to three (including the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans), the Saints might be better described as "desperate" instead.
Standings aside, the mood in the locker room hasn't taken a downturn. Saints running back Alvin Kamara said after the roller coaster of the past few years that he and his teammates have learned how to take things in stride.
"We still zero in that win column, so we've got to find a way to get a win," Kamara said on Sunday following a 31-19 loss to the Buffalo Bills. "You got to get one, knock one off and then build from there."
The Saints have not won a game since Dec. 8, 2024, when they beat the New York Giants 14-11, despite losing quarterback Derek Carr to a hand injury toward game's end. On Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) they'll host a Giants team (1-3) that's coming off their first win of the season against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Saints are favored in their Week 5 game, marking the first time all season they're not underdogs (New Orleans is a 1.5-point favorite per ESPN BET).
"I thought there was progress made last week. We didn't get the ultimate job done, but I thought there's progress. I think our guys should have confidence coming out of that game in Buffalo, that we're close and obviously the opportunity presents ourselves to go play against a really good team in the Giants," Moore said. "They just beat a team in the Chargers that everyone thought was one of the best teams in this league playing as well as anyone and they were able to come out and play those guys really, really well."
Moore has maintained a positive attitude when discussing the losing streak, but he has also looked for ways to tweak things. He has met multiple times with the team's leadership council, a group of players the coaches have chosen over the past few months to help keep a pulse on the team.
Building a leadership council was something Moore wanted to do right away when he joined the team. It's something the Saints have had at times in the past, to varying degrees of success, according to defensive end Cameron Jordan.
"I think because Kellen is such a young coach (37), he's amicable to some changes, for the players, where sometimes you have a coach who's been in the league and it's his way and his way, but he says it's a leadership council, but it's really his way," Jordan said. "So it just depends. But at the same time, there's things that he wants his input on and he asked."
The leadership council meets as needed, but they felt it was critical to gather following a 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3, particularly to address issues that had been trending in their losses.
"Yeah, we met for sure," said offensive tackle and leadership council member Taliese Fuaga. "Obviously that game should never ever happen in Saints football, but it did. So you definitely had to meet up after that."
One thing that changed after that meeting was the attitude toward handling penalties. The Saints became the most penalized team in the NFL through three weeks, and 11 penalties played a role in the team's poor performance against the Seahawks. "I think the guys are really just tired of having those things, so it's personal for everybody," Kamara said.
On the Wednesday following that practice, Fuaga spoke up when someone had a false start, indicating that he and his teammates no longer would let a penalty happen without addressing it. Cleaning up penalties was also Moore's emphasis that week.
"At first it was like, 'Ah it's all right,' but I yelled. ... I'm not the biggest yeller, but if I have to be, I have to be. I love all my guys, they're all my brothers. I'm my brother's keeper," Fuaga said. "So if I got to get on you, I got to get on you."
The impact of that increased scrutiny resulted in four penalties against the Bills, and no pre-snap penalties on offense, which had been one of the Saints' biggest problems.
"So obviously last week wasn't the greatest performance of us at all," Fuaga said in the locker room following the Week 4 loss to the Bills. "So this week was just, everybody just came with a mentality like, 'Hey man, all right, we're 0-3, 0-4 but ... we had nothing to lose right now, so might as well just go play your game and just go for it."
The Saints also scored on their opening offensive drive, which Moore said was a key part of installing a winning attitude going forward. The Saints need to play with confidence and a lead instead of trying to play catch up.
"I thought it was a really good response by our offense. ... Kendre [Miller] had a phenomenal run to finish that drive off. That's what we need," Moore said. "You got to start fast and so now the goal is to continue to sustain that for a couple of drives, put yourself in some positive situations where you have a lead. You're playing with that confidence and that swagger that comes with the lead and so we're close. We're really, really close to accomplishing that.
"We're not there yet obviously, so there's frustration associated with that, but that's certainly something we can embrace."
The Saints will have to do more than just clean up penalties or score on their opening drive to get a win against the Giants. It's also about mindset and attitude, which to Moore, comes from players and coaches. The first-year head coach said he wants to continue to lean on his leaders, with hopes the team will trend upward and eventually get their first win.
"They were all in this together. So the feedback is the most important part of this thing, that we're all communicating. I'll have open dialogue, have conversations about that, the feedback on the sideline," Moore said.
"... And so I think when you create that environment that allows these guys to keep growing and have the confidence to make the adjustments they need, that's where the best offenses, the ones that I feel like execute at the highest level I've been a part of, it's a very collaborative environment that allows us to create that."