Anyone who has watched the New Orleans Saints since last November has come away with an appreciation for Tyler Shough's game. He's a quarterback the Saints can win games because of -- not just with him happening to be the one handing off the ball or throwing it around. But that doesn't mean they should be asking him to throw 40 times per week. Right now, with no run game and a porous defense, they're demanding he be perfect.

That isn't sustainable, and his teammates know it. Just ask Erik McCoy, the only guy who touches the football more often than Shough does.

"I think Tyler is a baller," the Pro Bowl center said after Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I think he is the future of this franchise, and I just feel like we put a lot of pressure on him today, and that’s not fair to him.”

Shough completed 30 of 38 passes against Pittsburgh, gaining 278 yards and posting a passer rating of 95.0. He also scored a touchdown. But he threw a red zone interception, missed a wide-open Chris Olave over the top (which led to Daniel Carlson botching a 52-yard field goal), and fumbled at the goal line, which luckily went out of bounds. The play calling finally gave him some easy buttons to smash, with four play action passes and two screens, but the Saints are still asking him to play with a high degree of difficulty.

Even though he's older for a quarterback on a rookie contract, he only started 32 games in college, and this was his 16th career start in the NFL. He doesn't have the benefit of experience or ambitious play calling on his side. Asking him to drop back and pass 40 or more times each week and not make a single mistake is just setting him up for failure. You'd hope the Saints can make adjustments during the bye week, get playmakers like Travis Etienne Jr. and Jordyn Tyson off of injured reserve, and reassert themselves. But if Kellen Moore had the answers to these problems, we'd probably have seen them by now.