Here’s a look back at what was a woeful performance by the Saints on Thursday night. Unfortunately, there was more bad than good. Without many positive thoughts to look back at, we’ll go ahead and jump right in.
Saints
Pierre Thomas
With the hopes of many lying in his hands, nothing went right for Drew Brees on Thursday night.
After what has seemed like weeks of an ongoing disappearing act from Pierre Thomas, he stepped up huge and quite frankly did everything he could to give the Saints any chance to win. He carried the ball 14 times for 84 yards, which was good for an impressive 6.0 yards per carry. He looked fresh and rejuvenated, after not seeing the ball very much over the last few weeks. He initially had a touchdown as well, but it was reviewed and overturned once his knee was ruled down short of the goal line. If not for the Saints constant deficit for the entire night, he may have even seen more carries and done much more damage. Regardless of how the rest of the season turns out for New Orleans, Thomas showed that he deserves to see the ball throughout the last few games.
Entire Saints Defense
That’s right, you are reading this correctly. The entire New Orleans defense finds themselves on the “Saints” list. After an abysmal opening drive for the defense, which Atlanta took the ball 80 yards in 6 plays for a touchdown, they really turned things around and kept any chances the black and gold had alive. Aside from that drive, Atlanta was only allowed to pick up 203 yards for the rest of the game. The Saints locked down receivers, clogged running holes, and put some pressure on Matt Ryan to keep him off balance. If not for their performance, the game would’ve certainly been a blow out. The defense has seemed to improve weekly over the second half of the season. Although the Saints’ playoff chances are hanging from a thread, it’s hopefully a sign of the potential they can carry through the next four weeks and in to next season.
Sinners
Drew Brees
We’ll leave it up to you to decide what’s more shocking. Is it the New Orleans defense being “Saints” or is it Drew Brees being a “Sinner”? To me, it’s the latter. Drew was flat out awful on Thursday night. It was quite possibly the worst game he’s ever played in a Saints uniform and certainly one of his worst in his entire career. Oddly enough, while he played such a bad game, it was the first time he threw for 300 yards in his past five games. He finished 28/50 for 341 yards and a whopping 5 interceptions. His record streak of 54 consecutive games with a touchdown pass sadly came to an end, leaving Tom Brady only 10 games behind after extending his own streak to 44 yesterday. Drew’s decision making was horrific, as he put the Saints in tough spots all night long. It’s apparent that he is trying to do too much on his own and it’s downgrading his effectiveness. A five interception game would be hard to look past under any circumstances, but it makes matters worse coming just four days after Brees gave away all of the momentum and their chance for victory last week vs. San Francisco with his two INTs for touchdowns. He also made another terrible decision that didn’t lead to a turnover, but it certainly cost the Saints some much needed points. His decision to throw a pass to the middle of the field with no timeouts and less than 15 seconds remaining, disallowed the New Orleans the chance to even get a field goal attempt before halftime. Brees is worth every penny that he received from his extended negotiations with the team during the summer, but he needs to get back on track soon before the media starts to have fun and exaggerate things as they often tend to do.
Lance Moore
It may be odd seeing a player such as Moore on the “Sinners” list after producing the numbers that he did. He put up 7 receptions for 123 yards, but he dropped the one that meant the most. Coming out of halftime, the Saints drove down the field with the opportunity to close the Falcons’ lead to one score. They succeeded, but only with a field goal. Lance Moore dropped a routine touchdown pass that hit him directly in his hands and could have really given the Saints a good bit of momentum. Instead, Atlanta held New Orleans to three points after working down to a 1st and goal from the seven yard line. The goal line stand instilled confidence in the Falcon defensive unit, after the Saints offense stalled inside the ten yard line for the second consecutive drive.
Jimmy Graham
Graham finds himself on this list not for a drop or a fumble, but instead for a very costly penalty. Two plays before the first half ended on the clock management debacle, Darren Sproles found his way in to the end zone on a seven yard touchdown reception. Unfortunately, Jimmy Graham was called for offensive pass interference, which nullified the touchdown that could have closed what was once a 17-0 Falcons lead to 17-14. The design of the play was most likely for Graham to set a pick on whichever defender was trailing Sproles, but he took things to a whole different level. He literally attempted to take the Falcon defender off of his feet, making the penalty one of the easiest OPI calls a referee will ever have to make.
New Orleans needs to turn things around quickly and they’ll also need a lot of help. 10-6 is usually the benchmark to make the playoffs, with 9-7 sometimes being a possibility. The Saints have put themselves in a must win situation from here on out after they dropped to a disappointing 5-7 record.
