Interim New Orleans Saints coach Aaron Kromer continued to preach positivism on Monday after the Saints' latest loss, a 28-7 heartbreaker at Green Bay. Admitting the obvious, that an 0-4 record for a presumed Super Bowl contender was nowhere near acceptable, he still pointed to improvement.

“Week one, we didn’t look very good,” he said. “Week two, we started to look a little better. Week three, we played three good quarters and had a great chance to win that game and didn’t because we didn’t make the plays in the critical times. This game obviously came down to (playing) at Lambeau (with) a chance to win. … Credit Green Bay, they played well and they have a very talented team, but you can see the progress.”

The difference, as it always is in a one-point loss, was a few crucial plays. The Saints had a six-point lead and the ball in the fourth quarter but went three-and-out on three straight incompletions. Green Bay followed with a 57-yard TD drive, and the Saints’ final drive ended in Garrett Hartley’s missed 48-yard field goal.

“We didn’t quite make a play here or a play there at the end of the game that we had been making,” Kromer said. “This team is all in and they are on the cusp of becoming a very productive, winning team.”

They were a losing team on Sunday. Again.

Kromer addressed a few of the factors that left them winless.

On why the Saints passed three times in a row after getting first-and-goal at the Packers 1 on the opening drive of the third quarter (The first one lost a yard, and the next two were incomplete, leading to a short field goal):

“We had five passes that we were ready to call inside the 3-yard line that we thought were outstanding, and then we had four run-pass checks that we liked. So we had the plays we wanted to call, and we were ready to execute but just didn’t execute at that time.”

On why the Saints receivers were dropping more passes than last year (WR Lance Moore, who probably has the best hands on the team, dropped two, and RB Darren Sproles, an excellent receiver, dropped a crucial one on the Saints’ last offensive play):

“It doesn’t make sense to any of us because if you look at just Lance Moore in particular, he made a spectacular catch the play before to convert on third down and give us a first-and-10, and then he drops one that would have been a normal catch for him, and then the next play he makes another spectacular catch.  He’s two-for-three, and you’re wondering why he didn’t catch all three because that’s not like him.”

On the running game, which produced a meager 45 yards on 19 carries:

“It’s hard to say disappointing when you have almost 500 yards of offense, so when you have something that’s working, you go with it and stay with it. We had one game with 162 yards of rushing and then we had three others where we have not. Sometimes it’s a product of the game and sometimes it’s a product of who’s hot.”

Follow Saints reporter Guerry Smith on twitter @CBSSaints.