It wasn’t quite the start that the New Orleans Saints or their fans were looking for, as they fell to the Arizona Cardinals by the score of 31-19 in Arizona. Most gave the better chance to win the game to the Cardinals, but it was disappointing because for large portions of the game, it felt as if the Saints weren’t doing all they could to give themselves the best chance to win. There was your typical early season sloppiness, but it wasn’t just the players. The coaching was a bit unimpressive, leaving us all scratching our heads a few times. With that said, let’s dive into the details of how things played out.

The Cardinals opened the game by easily marching down the field for a 9 play, 80 yard touchdown drive. On a 3rd and goal from the Saints 10 yard line, Carson Palmer had all day to throw as he scrambled nearly all the way to the right sideline, when he finally found John Brown in the end-zone for a touchdown. New Orleans answered with an 11 play, 61 yard drive that stalled at the Arizona 19 yard line after Drew Brees just missed Brandin Cooks in the corner of the end-zone. Zach Hocker then booted his first NFL field goal from 37 yards out to cut the score to 7-3.

Both teams traded punts on their next two drives before the Cardinals found the end-zone for the second time. On a short 3rd and 2 from his own 34 yard line, Palmer hit a wide open Darren Fells on a quick slant that he turned into a huge 48 yard catch and run to get Arizona in to the red-zone. Fells was lined up as the wide man in a three receiver bunch set and was sprung open by a pick route that kept Damian Swann from being able to close in on his coverage. Following a pass interference call on Delvin Breaux in the end-zone, Chris Johnson bulled his way in for the touchdown. The score gave the Cardinals a 14-3 lead.

The next drive for the Saints was going to be a very crucial one. Down double digits and really struggling to stop the Cardinals offense, a score was pivotal. It appeared as if they had failed, being forced to punt from the Arizona 38 yard line. They caught a huge break, though, when the Cardinals had twelve man on the field for a five yard penalty that resulted in a first down on 4th and 3. Six plays later, the Saints took advantage when Brees hit Brandon Coleman, who spun out of a tackle and dove for the pylon for his first NFL touchdown.

After a couple more punts, Arizona drove in to Saints territory with a chance to tack on a field goal before half time. With no timeouts left, Palmer scrambled down to the Saints 27 yard line, but he stayed in bounds and the Cardinals were short just a few seconds of the chance to spike the ball and attempt a field goal. The half then ended with Arizona holding a 14-10 lead.

Coming out of half time, the Saints opened up the third quarter with a bang. Undrafted rookie Willie Snead made his first career catch on a slant, then took it for huge gain of 63 yards down to the Arizona 12 yard line. Unfortunately, New Orleans could not capitalize on the great start and stalled at the 4 yard line, settling for a 23 yard field goal from Hocker to make it 14-13.

Both teams then traded punts, which then led to the first turnover of the day. With his team driving, Ellington had the football stripped from behind by Hau’oli Kikaha and Breaux was there for the recovery. After a few plays, the Saints were able to get into Cardinals territory with the chance to take the lead with just a field goal, but a 3rd and 7 pass ricocheted up off of the hands of Marques Colston as he was going to the ground into the waiting arms of safety Rashad Johnson. Arizona did what New Orleans couldn’t, capitalizing off of the turnover, going 35 yards in 5 plays to extend their lead back to four on a 43 yard field goal by Chandler Catanzaro to make it 17-13.

The Saints came right back down the field with a 9 play, 53 yard drive, but could only muster up another field goal. Hocker made his third of the day, this one being his longest from 45 yards out, cutting the lead back down to just a point. On their next possession, the Cardinals finally started to make the Saints pay for settling for field goals. A 2nd down and 8 from the Arizona 43 yard line is what killed New Orleans, as Kyle Wilson was called for defensive pass interference, netting the Cardinals a 23 yard gain. Three plays later, Palmer found Fells for a 17 yard touchdown strike to give his team a touchdown lead. After the extra point, it was 24-16 in Arizona’s favor.

On the ensuing drive, New Orleans once again stalled in the red-zone and settled for their fourth field goal of the day. It was the second time in the second half that it happened after having a gigantic 50+ yard play. On a 3rd and 4 from his own 26 yard line, Brees faced a heavy blitz from the Cardinals defense, but was able to flip the ball to Mark Ingram out of the backfield, who then took it 59 yards down the sideline. Brandon Coleman displayed beautiful down field blocking to be a big part of the gain. It just wasn’t enough as the Cardinals regrouped and forced Hocker to boot a 33 yard field goal.

New Orleans was able to force an Arizona punt, getting the ball back with 2:12 left on the clock, but needed to go 97 yards to win the game. In three plays, the Saints could only gain four yards and went in to the two-minute warning facing a 4th down and 6. It seemed as if it was an obvious call to go for it on fourth down, considering the two-minute warning stoppage was already behind them and the Saints only had two timeouts left, but for some strange reason, Sean Payton elected to punt the ball, effectively sealing his own fate.

Arizona got a two yard run to start the drive, then boldly went to the air to try and put the game on ice and it paid off big time. Rookie running back David Johnson took a pass out of the backfield and went 59 yards to the end-zone to put the nail in the coffin. New Orleans would then turn the ball over on downs and the Cardinals took a knee to finish it off with the score 31-19.

Observations

• From a day filled with shaky play, it’s the coaching that has me scratching my head the most. I’ll elaborate on the entire game from both sides of the ball on my next few bullet points, but first I have to start here. In what I instantly felt was one of Coach Sean Payton’s worst coaching calls in his career, he oddly chose to punt the ball back to Arizona with less than two minutes to play. Let me first explain the full situation, then I’ll explain why I think it was such a bad decision. There was 1:58 left on the game clock, the Saints only had two timeouts left, and they had the ball at their own seven yard line. Best case scenario (realistically speaking) was the Saints punting the ball back to the Cardinals, then holding to a quick three and out. Here are the problems. First, the two-minute warning had already passed. Second, they only had two timeouts left, which means that if Arizona kept the clock running until they punted, there would be about 1:00 left on the clock at best. Third, with Arizona punting the ball with around a minute left, they’d most likely be pinning New Orleans at least around the 10 yard line. That means that Drew Brees would have then had to go around 90 yards in no more than a minute with no timeouts and against a good secondary. Basically, the best case scenario would have put you in about the same exact field position, but with no timeouts and the clock cut in half. I still haven’t even mentioned that Arizona was averaging 4.8 yards per carry, so it’s not even like the defense had shown the ability to come up with a big stop. There were so many factors and things that needed to happen perfectly to give them a realistic chance to get the ball back and go score. With a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback, taking your chances on 4th and 6 seem about one hundred times better than all of that.
• That poor decision was just the icing on the cake for what I believe to have been a very rough day of play-calling for Sean Payton. They seemed very reluctant to throw the ball ten yards or more down the field. It felt like half of Brees’ passes came on screen plays, check downs to running backs, or quick passes to wide receivers at the line of scrimmage. Arizona certainly has playmakers in their secondary, but when has that ever stopped New Orleans from attacking? The screen passes worked for a while, but it seemed as if the Cardinals finally caught on, especially when the Saints tried running them on a few big third down plays.
• I’m not sure if it was because of Jairus Byrd and Keenan Lewis being out, but Rob Ryan seemed to run a lot more zone defense than what we’ve seen in any game over the past two seasons. Not that running that defense was a problem, but it was being executed very poorly. Arizona killed them all day with five to eight yard passes, because the defenders were playing ten yards deep the entire day. It seemed as if there were adjustments to be made and Ryan just didn’t get it done today.
• On a positive note, Mark Ingram and Khiry Robinson looked phenomenal catching passes out of the backfield. They combined for 13 receptions, for 149 yards. If those two can do that, I’m truly excited to see what a true pass-catching running back like C.J. Spiller can do.
• Delvin Breaux was called for three holding penalties, but it doesn’t concern me much. That’s a fix that is as simple as learning what he can and can’t get away with in the NFL. Other than that, he was in great position throughout the day and even made a huge play to break up a 3rd down pass and force a Cardinals punt late in the fourth quarter.
• Damian Swann also struggled at times, but the same can be said for him, too. He put himself in good positions in coverage and looked like he could actually be a solid contributor as the team’s fourth cornerback.
• Stephone Anthony flashed his talent a few times today, making a few tackles in the backfield and jumping in front of a pass, despite dropping the possible interception. I continue to be excited about his potential.
• Zach Hocker proved that the Saints made the right decision in choosing him over Dustin Hopkins. Not only was he four for four on his attempts, but every single one of them split the uprights right down the middle.

Game Stats

Saints

• Drew Brees – 30-48 / 355 yards / 1 TD / 1 INT / 62.5% completions / 83.2 QB rating
• Mark Ingram – 9 carries / 24 yards / 8 receptions / 98 yards
• Khiry Robinson – 8 carries / 19 yards / 5 receptions / 51 yards
• Brandon Coleman – 4 receptions / 49 yards / 1 TD
• Brandin Cooks – 4 receptions / 41 yards
• Willie Snead – 1 reception / 63 yards
• Marques Colston – 3 receptions / 29 yards
• Ben Watson – 3 receptions / 19 yards
• Zach Hocker – 4/4 FGs (37, 23, 45, and 33 yards)
• Damian Swann – 6 tackles / 1 pass defended
• Delvin Breaux – 5 tackles / 1 pass defended
• Hau’oli Kikaha – 5 tackles
• Stephone Anthony – 4 tackles / 2 tackles for loss / 1 pass defended
• Cam Jordan – 2 tackles / 2 tackles for loss / 2 passes defended
• Brandon Browner – 2 tackles / 2 passes defended

Cardinals

• Carson Palmer – 19-32 / 307 yards / 3 TDs / 0 INTs / 59.3% completions / 122.8 QB rating
• Andre Ellington – 12 carries / 69 yards / 1 TD
• Chris Johnson – 10 carries / 37 yards
• Larry Fitzgerald – 6 receptions / 87 yards
• Darren Fells – 4 receptions / 82 yards / 1 TD
• John Brown – 4 receptions / 46 yards / 1 TD
• David Johnson – 1 reception / 55 yards / 1 TD
• Michael Floyd – 1 reception / 18 yards
• Chandler Catanzaro – 1/1 FGs (43 yards)
• Tyrann Mathieu – 8 tackles / 1 tackle for loss / 3 passes defended
• Jerraud Powers – 7 tackles
• Alex Okafor – 5 tackles / 2 sacks
• Rashad Johnson – 1 tackle / 1 INT
• Patrick Peterson – 1 tackle

Team Stats

• Total yards: Saints-408, Cardinals-427
• Pass yards: Saints-354, Cardinals-307
• Rush yards: Saints-54, Cardinals-120
• 3rd down conversions: Saints-7/18 (39%), Cardinals-5/10 (50%)
• Turnovers: Saints-1, Cardinals-1
• Points off turnovers: Saints-0, Cardinals-3
• Possession: Saints-33:24, Cardinals-26:36
• Penalties: Saints-7/73, Cardinals-5/30
• 1st downs: Saints-18, Cardinals-25
• Red-zone attempts: Saints-1/4, Cardinals-3/3

Week 2

Next week, the Saints stay at home in New Orleans for their home opener as they welcome the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 2015 #1 overall pick Jameis Winston. Winston will be making his first NFL start on the road. The Buccaneers got pummeled at home by the #2 pick in the draft Marcus Mariota (who’ll also come to New Orleans later this year) and the Tennessee Titans by the score of 42-14. The Saints should have a great chance to get in the win column with this one.

As always, Who Dat?!