NEW ORLEANS -- For the record, yes, Drew Brees insisted he remains "annoyingly optimistic" about the New Orleans Saints' ability to turn their season around.

But Brees' words have never rung more hollow than they did after New Orleans' most disturbing loss of the season -- a 27-10 drubbing by the Cincinnati Bengals -- at home, no less.

If the Saints (4-6) can play this uninspiringly at home against a team they should've been able to match up against, when exactly is that turnaround going to take place?

The only thing that kept the Saints from hitting rock-bottom Sunday was the pile of other woeful NFC South teams that keep cushioning their fall. Amazingly, New Orleans is still tied for first place.

But this loss felt different. For the first time, the Saints looked like a team that just might not be good enough to take advantage of playing in the NFL's worst division.

"We've gotta look closely at everything we're doing, or else we'll find ourselves in this up-and-down swing we seem to be in," said Saints coach Sean Payton, who said he told players after the game that he's obviously not doing his job well enough either.

Safety Kenny Vaccaro said Payton suggested he'll make some unspecified changes this week. Whether that's to the routine or personnel is unknown, but clearly the message was different than the more encouraging messages Payton sent after the Saints had played very well in parts of recent losses to Detroit and San Francisco.

The mood was also a little different this time in the postgame locker room. There weren't any significant meltdowns or cases of finger-pointing. But some players expressed more frustration than usual over how their relentless confidence and hard work haven't translated to success on the field.

"When you're turning over every leaf, what do you do? I don't know," Vaccaro said. "I mean, does the film really matter? Why'd I watch all that? What's the point in doing all that if you're gonna lose anyway?

"But at the same time, like Drew said [in a postgame speech to the team], that's always been the formula to winning. So you've gotta keep doing it, and eventually something will click. ... He's a Hall of Fame quarterback, so whatever he says, obviously, it works. But I think you've gotta have 22, 23 guys all doing that. You know what I'm saying? We're not good enough to just slap something out there and win."

Vaccaro suggested there has just been a "different vibe" with the Saints' defense this season, and he wondered if it's because they let go of so many veteran players in the offseason who had played together for so long.

Vaccaro stressed he doesn't blame the coaching, though, and called Payton the "best coach in this league."

"At some point as players, you just take over a team," Vaccaro said. "If I did have a solution -- just as players, you've gotta take over a team and just refuse to lose."

Vaccaro, Payton and Brees all agreed the Saints didn't come out "flat" and lacking desire or energy. They all put the onus of blame on their execution.

"Everybody's hyped up, ready to roll, there's always energy [to start]," said Brees, who explained the Saints just didn't produce any of those big moments that guys "feed off of" as the game went on.

The biggest killer was the Saints third-down defense, which Payton called "awful." The Bengals converted nine of their first 11 third-down attempts, including a third-and-18, a third-and-11 and three third-and-8s on their opening touchdown drive.

The Saints offense also couldn't close the deal. They marched into the red zone on their first two drives. They first settled for a field goal, then got stuffed on a goal-line stand.

Brees actually completed 33 of 41 passes without a turnover, but the Saints didn't have a single play of more than 17 yards.

True to his nature, though, Brees kept insisting he believes in the Saints team that produced so many of those big moments over the past month, including big wins against Green Bay and Carolina.

Brees said he's confident the Saints will use the "Monday Night Football" stage at home next week against the Baltimore Ravens "to come out and make a statement as to how we see the rest of our season going."

They have to. Otherwise, even Brees might start to lose confidence in this team.