Saints Report # 12 - Thursday, November 28, 2019

It was a typical ugly Thursday Night NFL game, but the Saints came away with a 26-18 win, to give New Orleans their third straight NFC South title, and maybe more importantly a redemptive win over the hated Atlanta Falcons, who embarrassed the Saints just a few weeks back.  

We will remember that we got the win, and we’ll try to forget the profanity filled 4^th quarter when the Falcons, seemingly dead at 26-9, recovered two onside kicks (the football version of make it, take it) and made a game of it.  In the end it was the relentless defensive line pressure, particularly by Cameron Jordan (4 sacks) that put the game away with less than a minute remaining.

While Wil Lutz was pounding home 4 field goals to bail out a rather anemic Saints offense, for the second straight week the Saints benefited from the short-range ineptitude of the opposing kicker who missed a short field goal and an extra point.  As far as I’m concerned if you line up to kick an extra point from a hashmark, you deserve to miss, and we’ve seen that in these last two games, a lot.

The Saints had jumped out to a big lead on the backs of Taysom Hill, who blocked a punt (a Saints vs. Falcons tradition), caught a shovel pass for a touchdown, and sprinted 30 yards for the Saints other touchdown. 

The Saints won the turnover battle, with a fumble recovery by Vonn Bell, and interceptions by rookies Shy Tuttle, and CJ Chauncey-Gardner who has shown a penchant for “Being There.”  It must be said that Cam Jordan also diminished an interception with another stupid penalty, this one a block in the back.  The Saints also continued to be heavily penalized, particularly on pass interference calls, and they dropped numerous passes.  Ted Ginn and Jared Cook missed end zone passes that could have put the game away, and even Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara had drops.  But having watched Matt Ryan for what seems like a century, his penchant for holding the ball too long makes him a feast or famine passer of the football.  The Saints re-found the pressure they lacked in the first meeting and held Ryan in check. 

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So, this game was sloppier than my Thanksgiving plate of food, and while the Saints didn’t look like a team ready to challenge for the Super Bowl, the 4^th quarter of the season starts now.  The Saints are 10-2 and have a big matchup on December 8th with the San Francisco 49’ers, whom any reputable Saints fan hates as much as the Falcons.  We’ve been tortured by Montana, by Rice, by Young, and even by Alex Smith.  The Saints do not at this moment look like a team worthy of first seed in the stacked NFC, but December tells the tale.  They get the 49ers, after a little longer rest, in the dome, although Sean Payton may take a day to just practice recovering on-side kicks.  Then, another extra day of rest before playing the Colts in the dome on a Monday night.  Win those two, and it's on to the trap games.  The last two games are at Tennessee and at Carolina. 

So the last 4 games are winnable but if we learned anything watching these Saints, they’re also lose able.  It’s the ground game that wins in December and so far the Saints running attack has the consistency of cranberry sauce.  It can lead to bouts of profanity.