The New Orleans Saints were handed their first loss Sunday night, as they were taken down 16-10 by the San Francisco 49ers on the back of a 13-point second quarter. While it is just a preseason bout with little to no implications for the regular season, it shows us a glimpse into how the starting offense may gel together, as well as who may be making the roster as backups. After the first week of preseason, it got off to a pretty abysmal start for the starting offense, specifically the offensive line and Derek Carr. Things turned around this weekend, including a 95-yard touchdown drive for the group.

One of the mainstays for this roster has been their depth at linebacker, in the secondary, and at defensive tackle, all of which came to fruition today as each level had quality playing time at one point or another throughout the game. Despite some early injuries to Kool-Aid McKinstry and Dallin Holker, things looked semi-decent for a low-scoring defensive affair that resulted in a loss. While there are certainly some heavy points to nitpick, the positives are also worth noting as well. Ultimately, the negatives start and end with the wide receivers and offensive line depth, which is where we begin today. Here are our four key takeaways from the preseason game:

The wide receiver room with minimal experience is not quite yet \u0022revamped\u0022 as first advertised

Beyond the obvious in Chris Olave looking solid enough (despite a whiffed block to seal the edge on an early play), the wide receiver room was lackluster all day and struggled to reign in many passes. A.T. Perry, coming off a quality performance and decent training camp appearances, had only 2 receptions for 24 yards on a whopping 6 targets (2 more than anyone else on the team in the game). He struggled to get his hands stuck to the ball most of the game, and even near the end was unable to draw defensive pass interference on a ball that he may have been able to come down with regardless.

Kevin Austin Jr. had one good reception no doubt, and it was impressive, but he also had 3 total targets. In fact, that was somewhat the theme, with Stanley Morgan Jr. not catching his one target, Kevin Rader (though not a wide receiver) missing two targets, Cedrick Wilson Jr. missing one of his two, and James Robinson even missing one. A tough day for receiver depth, and an indication that things may need to swap around a bit.

Chase Young may be as good as we hoped, maybe even better

After acquiring Chase Young in the offseason, many fans (including myself) were intrigued at minimum to see how the defensive end would pan out with the Saints. After an offseason neck surgery immediately after, it somewhat derailed that hope. However, after a pretty miraculous turnaround for his recovery time, Young has looked exceptional in his playing time, especially against the 49ers. He was constantly chasing down Josh Dobbs and various other players, making them have to sprint right into the linebacking core of the Saints including Anfernee Orji (who had a standout performance).

Seeing this type of quality play, potentially fueled on a bit by it being his former team, was very entertaining, and something we have hoped to see from the edge-rushing group of this team for quite a while now. After significant investments at the position in recent years via draft capital, maybe Chase Young will be the one to turn things around.

The secondary is not only top-heavy talented, it has unforeseen depth

We all know that Marshon Lattimore, Paulson Adebo, Kool-Aid McKinstry, and Alontae Taylor are practically locks to make the roster pending some enormous change. That leaves potentially one spot remaining on the roster for a cornerback, two if you really squeeze things around and take one less safety. If the Saints are to carry one more corner, things could get tricky, as two younger players could be vying heavily to make the 53-man roster.

Undrafted free agent rookie Rico Payton has looked absolutely exceptional in his first two games this preseason, locking up whoever he is tasked with, even when being targeted a multitude of times throughout both games.

Additionally, recent addition Rejzohn Wright has also looked very good at times, and while he has had a few more slips in coverage, he has made up for them with hard-hitting tackles all across the field. A group that initially looked very top-heavy talent wise has become immensely deep very quickly, which is a great problem to have ultimately.

The run game, while still not perfect, is trending in the right direction

After a very poor showing from the run game in the first week of preseason, things took a step in the right direction this week, with Jordan Mims, Jamaal Williams, James Robinson, and Taysom Hill all looking very solid. All four mentioned averages over 3.7 yards per carry, including 6.4 per for Jamaal Williams and 5.4 per for James Robinson. The entirety of the run game ended up with 35 rushes for 134 yards and a touchdown on 3.8 yards per carry. Against a very stout interior unit that has generally been great against not allowing big plays, the Saints were able to drive through the gaps and make space to run the ball.

Ultimately, the pass game was pretty poor, and despite that, the Saints kept the time of possession within reasonable range, losing out by only a minute and two seconds, largely thanks due in part to their ground attack. This has been something critical for New Orleans all offseason and even last season, as they need a rushing attack and offensive line to supplement it to have any chance of being competitive. Even without Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller in the fold, they looked solid, which is a great step forwards towards where they need to be.

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This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: 4 key takeaways from the Saints' close preseason loss to the 49ers