METAIRIE, La. -- ESPN analysts Steve Young, Trent Dilfer and Ray Lewis absolutely nailed the current state of the New Orleans Saints in their postgame breakdown after Monday night's 34-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Naturally, the ex-QBs Young and Dilfer were defensive of Drew Brees. But they correctly pointed out that Brees' woes are magnified because -- as Young put it -- he's been "neutered because he has no help."

Here's the recap:

Young: "You gotta know that whoever that wild-card team that has to come down here if that's the case ... (the Saints) are just not gonna play enough defense. There's nothing about this Saints team that's scary, other than No. 9..."

Dilfer: "And he has to be perfect ..."

Young: "And he's been neutered because he has no help and he's not getting protected. So, to me, whoever comes out of the division, put 'em in the playoffs and they're gonna be one-and-out. There's no way you can go forward with what they have. Now, we've seen teams get hot and strengthen and turn the ball over defensively. But (Sean Payton said last week) it's a six-game season? I think it's gonna be tough for them to get very far."

Dilfer: "What's unfair is when you're not supported by a good defense, it magnifies every mistake..."

Young: "And you're unprotected by the offensive line..."

Dilfer: "Yeah, it magnifies every mistake you make. So Drew (had some) missed throws. He wasn't perfect. But hardly any quarterback is perfect. But his mistakes become magnified because you feel like every time he has the ball, he has to be perfect."

Dilfer and Young then dissected how often Brees was under pressure on Monday night, when Brees was sacked four times and hit as he threw the third-quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown.

"It just takes away from his brilliance, because there is so much good that No. 9 does to get things going," Dilfer said.

Protection hasn't been a constant issue for Brees this season -- but it certainly was on Monday night since the Saints couldn't run against Baltimore's defense and became one-dimensional.

Young put Brees in the elite class with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers and said all of them "go south" when they have protection issues.

"The problem with what's happening with Drew now is he's 35 and everybody's starting to talk about (a decline), and this is only going to add to that. And that just frustrates him, I'm sure," Young said. "But unfortunately he doesn't have a lot of weapons to fight back with right now."

Host Steve Levy then pointed out the Saints can no longer count on their home mystique, either, after dropping three straight home games for the first time since 2006-07. The Saints' streak of 14 straight prime-time wins in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome fell on Monday night.

Then Lewis interjected with perhaps the most damning line of all:

"They were good then, Steve."

"That's a big deal," Young added. "The whole league knew, no matter how they were playing they could come down here (in the Superdome) and get healthy. Things could get right. Now that's all gone. You have nothing left."