Saints Playoff Report # 18 - January 20, 2018

Botched.  Another season ends with a visit to the Heartbreak Hotel. The Saints lost the NFC Championship to the Los Angeles Rams 26-23 Sunday.  The home field advantage that the Saints had coveted all year was not enough.  The Saints played well enough to win, but also played poorly enough to lose.  They botched several opportunities, but you have to give credit to the Rams.  They took away Michael Thomas, they took away the running game, and a sudden injury bug took away the tight ends and a wide receiver.  The Saints offensive line was outplayed.  Meanwhile, the defense played well, but not as well as the crowd played.

This will move to the top of the Saints heartbreak list because of a penalty that wasn’t called.  With the game tied at 20, the Saints got the ball with 5 minutes left in the game.  The game was there for the taking if they could produce a game winning drive.  At the 2 minute warning Brees threw a 43 yard completion to Ginn down to the 12.  The Saints were sitting pretty.  The Rams had only 2 timeouts left, so 3 runs and a field goal would have given the Saints the lead, and the ball back to the Rams with less than a minute left – a huge challenge for the Rams. 

But inexplicably the Saints threw on first down – incomplete and giving the gift of a clock stoppage to the Rams.  Following a run by Kamara, Brees threw a 3^rd down pass to TommyLee Lewis approaching the end zone.  The clock was about to stop again on an incomplete pass.  But, what an incomplete pass it was!  A blatant pass interference occurred that should have put the ball around the 2 yard line.  A panicking defensive back named Nickell Robey-Coleman blasted Lewis as the ball approached.  We’ll see this non-call the rest of our lives.  It snatched defeat from the voodoo grip of victory.  The Saints settled for a field goal with 1:45 left on the clock, too much time to be giving to the boy genius Sean McVay.

Make no mistake it was a horrible non-call which the NFL would quickly admit.  What should happen?  The entire crew should be fired, because flags should have come raining down all over the field.  Ironically the Rams had complained about the referee and asked for his removal last week.  Could that have influenced him and his crew to freeze at this critical juncture?  Who knows? I have officiated many games in my life, so I empathize, but this call was obvious and makes me again consider an old question – was the Superdome really built on a cemetery? 

Back to the game.  The Rams drove down to kick the game tying field goal and send the game to overtime. 

The Saints won the toss which meant the first possession went to them.  It was squandered when Brees got hit as he threw and the ball fluttered in the air and was intercepted and the Rams only had to drive a few yards for Greg Zuerlein to kick a 57 yard game winner, sending the Rams to the Super Bowl.

So, how did the Saints botch this one?  They started the game with 2 field goals to take the dreaded 6-0 lead in the first quarter.  Brees underthrew an end zone pass to Thomas and the remaining tight end Dan Arnold, whom no one would confuse for a real tight end, dropped a tough pass in the end zone.  14-zip would have been almost insurmountable.  But, the Saints put together a third drive to take a 13-0 first half lead, (could’ve been 21-0) which the Rams closed to 13-10 as the half expired.  A key play was a 4^th down pass out of a punt formation, which certainly shouldn't have surprised the Saints.   Neither team ran the ball much and former Saint Brandin Cooks was a difference-maker with several big catches.  He was matched by the Saints’ Alvin Kamara, but in the end it was several incredible clutch throws by Jared Goff that brought the Rams back into the game. 

I put this botch directly on the shoulders of Sean Payton, who illustrates my old adage – "Your biggest strength is your biggest weakness." His daring, gambling approach to football has won many games for the Saints, but it lost this one.  It never should have come down to a third down pass, to TommyLee Lewis, of all players.  In that situation, you run the ball 3 times, make the Rams use their time outs, and you kick the field goal.  They have less than a minute to get into field goal range.  It’s Football 101, not infallible, but certainly a good percentage play.

This game becomes the 6^th heartbreaking playoff loss in the Payton/Brees era. 

If you’ve been a Saints fan since day one, you know the Heartbreak Hotel very well.  Here’s my purely personal list of the worst:

1. Botch 2019.  Inexplicable play calling leads to a blatant missed pass interference call that would have almost certainly lead to a Saints victory.  The Saints lose in overtime, costing them a trip to the Super Bowl. The officials botched, but the Saints also blew a 13-0 point lead for the first time in 59 games.
2. Minnesota Miracle 2018.  A missed tackle by safety Marcus Williams on the last play of the game leads to a long touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs, keeping the Saints out of the NFC championship game against the Eagles, who would go on to win the Super Bowl.
3. West Coast heartache 2012.  QB Alec Smith and Tight End Vernon Davis run wild to snatch a 36-32 victory from the Saints one game away from the NFC Championship.  Each team scored 2 touchdowns in the last 4 minutes.  The 2011 Saints offense had been an unstoppable record setting one, but the defense wasn’t up to the challenge.
4. West Coast heartache 2011.  The Saints follow up on their Super Bowl win by going 11-5 to capture a wild card berth, but are forced to go to Seattle to face the 7-9 division winning Seahawks.  Their 41-36 loss is sealed by Marshon Lynch’s Beast Mode touchdown run.
5. West Coast heartache 2014.  The Saints late rally falls short as they again fall to Seattle 23-15.  The Seahawks go on to obliterate Denver in the Super Bowl.
6. Bears 2006.  The Saints make it to the NFC Championship game in the first year of the Brees/Payton partnership but horrible field conditions slow the Saints offense in a 39-14 pounding.
7. Anthony Carter 1987.  In the Saints first ever playoff game the Saints lay a 44-10 egg.  Carter runs back a punt 84 yards to begin the carnage.
8. Randy Moss 2001. Following the Saints first ever playoff win, an upset of the seemingly invincible “Greatest Show on Turf” Rams, the Saints go to Minnesota and get torched by Randy Moss 34-16.
9. Falcons 1978.  You think Big Ben is Rothlisberger?  To Saints fans it’s the Falcon’s name for the Hail Mary Play that Steve Bartkowski throws to beat the Saints 20-17, while the other 20-17 loss a few weeks later was the result of a phantom pass interference flag thrown by referee Gordon Klemmer.  The Saints finished 7-9 and the Falcons went 9-7 making the playoffs. 
10. Falcons 1991.  The Saints win the division but are upset by the wild-card Falcons 27-20 in the playoffs in the Superdome when Chris Miller hits New Orleans native Michael Haynes with a 61 yard touchdown bomb late in the fourth quarter.

I feel the worst for Drew Brees.  The Rams go off to the Superbowl to meet the Patriots and Tom Brady, who many say is the Greatest Football Player ever.  He may be, and I will concede that the harder you work, the luckier you get.  But Brady’s good luck outweighs his bad luck (Giants) by a lot.   Brady’s series of breaks continued Sunday, and there is no sense in going through them.  In 2001 the tuck rule propelled him.  In 2006 he threw a 4^th down interception to the Chargers with 5 minutes left that should have ended their playoff run, but the intercepter, Marion McRee (who should have just knocked the ball down) fumbled it back to the Patriots, who went on to win.

But Brady’s luckiest break has been playing in a non-competitive Division with the Dolphins, Bills, and Jets, as the Patriots coast to the division title year after year.   Each of those inept team’s last Super Bowl trip occurred with a western Pennsylvania quarterback at the helm.  (Think about it.)  Meanwhile the Saints have had to battle against the consistently competitive Panthers and Falcons who have both been to the Super Bowl recently.

Saints fan sums it up this way.  Brady gets a knee injury and the NFL changes the rules about hitting the quarterback.  The 2009 Saints win the NFC by kicking an overtime field goal on their first possession against the Vikings, and the NFL changes the overtime rules.  One question that you have to honestly answer is this:  Do you think if Brady had thrown that pass, pass interference gets called?  Of course it does.  I wonder if Brees eats sour grapes at night.  Probably not.  He’s too classy.

Maybe they’ll change the rules this winter to make pass interference reviewable.  If they do, as sure as I’m sitting here, the Saints will be the first victim.

The future is not all that promising for the Saints.  The window is closing on Brees, and the draft choice cupboard is almost bare.  The Super Bowl Patriots have 12 picks in the upcoming draft, while the Saints only have 6, starting with pick 62. They need help in the secondary, receiving corps, and tight end, as well as a QB of the future.  The current renaissance has only been made possible by exceptional drafting that brought in upgraded personnel in early rounds.  Even Saints recent draft cast-offs are playing around the league.

Look, football is not life or death.  It’s just another billion dollar entertainment industry.  No team should mean as much to their home area as the Saints mean to theirs.  Saints fans have come to just expect the worst and if it turns out better than expected, we can adapt.

Today we move into The Shining phase – an offseason in the Heartbreak Hotel.  Again.