Saints have ‘no excuses’ after loss to Rams crushes playoff chances: ‘We just have to win out’
The New Orleans Saints’ 30-22 loss in Los Angeles on Thursday night made things extremely difficult, but it did not remove them from playoff contention.
With two games left, the Saints’ record plummeted to 7-8 as a result of the loss, which also cost them the NFC South. After the loss, Next Gen Stats projects the Saints’ postseason likelihood to be 22%. Even if they defeat Tampa Bay the next week, the Bucs may still win the division if they win their final two games of the season, including Sunday against Jacksonville, which might not have Trevor Lawrence.
Thursday’s loss was the latest where the Saints didn’t look like they belonged with the upper echelon. Dennis Allen’s team fell to 1-6 against clubs with a .500 or better record — the only win against an Indianapolis Colts team in Week 8 that had yet to go on a run. 
According to defensive end Cameron Jordan, “We are who we are,” as reported by Katherine Terrell of ESPN. Two more games remain. This s— cannot be minimized. This is a frustrating place to be. We just need to prevail; I don’t know what the chances are right now. Ultimately, we must prevail; there are no justifications.”
The Saints are a patchy team that can dominate the bottom teams in the league but can’t compete with the big guns. For supporters, they’re in the worst possible situation: a no-man’s land with no chance of escape.
Derek Carr continues to struggle to find consistency in his first season in New Orleans. Coming off his best game as a Saint, he cratered again against L.A., missing a host of passes, particularly on key downs early, including two fourth-down failures, and he took a bad sack on the opening drive that knocked New Orleans out of potential scoring range.
Allen went for it on two fourth-and-mediums in the first half, coaching like a man who knows he’s under pressure, including a head-scratching fourth-and-5 late in the first half after New Orleans had pulled to within three points. The misfire allowed the Rams to turn a short field into a touchdown and a 10-point lead at the break.
“We went for it twice on fourth down in the first half. We came into this game wanting to be aggressive and knowing the type of team we were playing, the offense we were playing, we knew field goals weren’t the way to try to win this game,” Allen said. “We didn’t want to be reckless but we felt like, in both those situations, we felt like we had plays that we liked. And unfortunately it didn’t work out. There was a mindset going into it to be aggressive.”
The mindset might have been aggressive, but the outcome was dismal.
Through three quarters, New Orleans had seven non-kneel drives, they turned it over on downs three times, Carr tossed a brutal interception, and they scored once. Of those drives, one went longer than 45 yards. That singular possession included a 45-yard bomb from Carr to Rashid Shaheed. In summation: A single play went longer than the Saints’ six other drives through three quarters.
As flimsy as Allen’s defense was, Matthew Stafford scorched it, allowing 458 yards overall—the first time New Orleans has allowed 400 yards or more this year.
Allen’s career has been marked by dubious choices and teams that falter throughout significant changes. Another occurred on Thursday at 3:59, when he decided to attempt an onside kick after his team had closed the gap to eight points. With no timeouts, Allen thought his best opportunity to recover the ball would be a low-percentage onside play, which if it failed would put Los Angeles in a position to comfortably run out the clock.
“Honestly we hadn’t done a great job of stopping them up to that point … so I felt like the onside kick was the right play. We didn’t get it. We were going to have to stop them either way,” Allen said. “We went for the onside kick to try to get it and see if we couldn’t go down and tie the game.”
The final score doesn’t look so lopsided, but make no mistake, this was a blowout for the bulk of the contest.
If they don’t win out and receive some assistance, New Orleans might now miss the playoffs for the third straight year.
Two more games remain. That seems to be the way it works. If we win out, I’m not sure what will happen in the playoffs. There are two more options for us,” Jordan stated. “As I mentioned last week, the significance of each of these games is increasing. The message remains the same—we have to prevail, as I stated before the game. Put your best foot forward; this guy is injured, and no one has time for excuses. We are all really hurt. Ultimately, the NFL season lasts 17 weeks. No one will be in good health.”
Read more on sportupdates.co.uk
Leave a Reply