Three plays into the New Orleans Saints’ devastating loss to the Atlanta Falcons, one of the team’s weaknesses in the early season was on full display.

Falcons star Bijan Robinson took the handoff on a wide zone play off left tackle. He made a nifty jump cut to elude Chase Young in the backfield, found a crease and exploded through it for 59 yards. On the play in which Robinson went untouched to the end zone, only six of the Saints’ 11 defenders were blocked.

Atlanta finished with four explosive runs, defined as runs that pick up 10 or more yards, to bring the Saints’ season tally to 15. Only the Detroit Lions (16) have allowed more explosive runs through four weeks. Three of those explosive runs against the Saints have gone for touchdowns, which is tied for the most in the league through four games.

Some of it can be chalked up to whom the Saints have faced: Of those 15 long runs given up by the Saints, 12 belonged to Robinson, Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, arguably the three most explosive runners in the league.

But New Orleans knows it has had its own part in those numbers.

“That film taught us a lot about who we thought we were,” edge rusher Cam Jordan said. “… We didn’t play anywhere (near) the brand of football we’ve been putting on film. There’s a reason you see the score go the way it did. I think if we get back to playing our way, playing with technique across the board, we eliminate a lot of those plays.”

When coordinator Brandon Staley’s defense is playing well, it is limiting explosive plays and forcing the opposing offense to play near-perfect football over the course of a long drive.

It’s a brand of football that is built upon discipline and intelligence, with the players being in the right spot and playing with the correct technique. New Orleans has had a few notable leaks early this season.

“Our game is playing 11 on 11,” Staley said. “We’ve got to play team defense. … I thought after that first (Robinson touchdown), our guys kind of went outside of themselves too often, trying to force something to happen to turn that game in our favor instead of just playing the right way.”

Staley still believes in his unit. He pointed out the three possessions that immediately followed the long Robinson touchdown, when the Saints forced a pair of punts and then, after Kendre Miller fumbled the ball away deep in Saints territory, appeared to get a fourth-down stop before it was nullified by a penalty.

But Atlanta scored on the first play after that penalty and quickly piled on from there.

The Falcons ran the ball at will on the Saints defense, then found plenty of room in the secondary to hit on more explosives: Coming into the game, New Orleans had only allowed six pass plays of 20 or more yards, and the Falcons nearly doubled that by connecting on five of them Monday night.

The nine explosive plays followed a fixable trend, Staley said.

“You can study each of those plays and see a breakdown in technique,” Staley said. “The good news is they weren’t mental errors, where you have this catastrophe of missed assignments. It was really just guys playing with the wrong technique and maybe putting their eyes in the wrong spots.

“When you’re off enough against a group that is dangerous, that can happen.”

The three pillars of the defense, Staley said, are assignment, technique and effort. He was pleased with the effort but deemed the other two areas lacking.

His players didn’t disagree with that sentiment after getting a chance to review what happened against Atlanta.

“Nobody’s perfect, right? What you try to limit is too many mistakes on each play,” Young said. “There’s a difference if I make a mistake on one play, but everybody else is doing their job. It’s probably a 3-yard gain. But when you’ve got a play where it’s five people (not doing their jobs), that’s the explosive.

“That’s the game, though. So we’ve got to do our best to limit mistakes, go back to the basics, and just do our job.”