NEW ORLEANS — You want words? 99 percent of all endings stink for sports fans. There's only one champion, everything else is just varying degrees of pain.
The New Orleans Saints have built a monument to sports heartache the last three seasons.
The Saints on Sunday were like that cuddly animal we all root for in those nature documentaries trying to avoid getting eaten alive by some terrifying reptile. Just as it seems the Saints had sidestepped their way out of debacle, they tumbled right back into fiasco.
The latest Saints playoff chapter of bleakness ended with a controversial officiating decision, because, of course it did. This time the officiating wasn't the sole reason the Saints lost, it was just one in a list of ingredients in the recipe that leaves a bitter taste after a delicious regular season.
There's no rage about the unfairness of it like last year's officiating debacle in the NFC Championship. After the Saints lost 26-20 in overtime to the Minnesota Vikings, I'm just filled with sadness. The Saints got out-coached, outplayed and couldn't overcome their self-inflicted wounds and continue to play football.
I'm not going to blame the officiating for this loss and the referees not calling offensive pass interference on Kyle Rudolph because, as my Saints Happy Hour co-host Andrew Juge said after the game, “I don't want to be labeled as a fan base that complains about calls because that cheapens how unspeakable the no call in the NFC Championship was.”
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The refs didn't cause the Saints to lose Sunday. They did that all by themselves.
When was the moment you realized the Saints were going to be in mud pit fighting for their playoff lives? For me, it was on the Saints third offensive series when they went 3-and-out for a second straight time and the Vikings were playing their two best pass rushers inside, instead of on the edges like usual, and Minnesota was DESTROYING the Saints offensive line.
It was an incredible plan by Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, and I thought, “I'm not sure how Sean Payton fixes that?”
The Vikings game plan on defense was like watching someone you hate invent some million dollar product. Why did it have to be this week Sean Payton had to face one of the brilliant defensive minds?
Mike Zimmer gambled that the fact he barely had enough healthy corners to suit up wouldn't matter because his pass rush would blow a hole big enough in the Saints interior offensive line it would end the Saints season. The gamble paid off.
Drew Brees was an absolute mess for three quarters and if not for Vikings fumble and a Taysom Hill bomb, the Saints wouldn't have even had a chance to get the game to overtime.
It was a weird game to watch because Minnesota had the better plan, was executing it flawlessly, and yet, if Wil Lutz connects on a 42-yard field goal to close the half the score would've been 13-13. So, I was conflicted on how to feel.
The Saints were down 3, but if Kirk Cousins was actually a good quarterback, they'd have been down a lot more. Cousins was missing throws all over the place in the first half, so I was hopeful if Sean Payton and Drew Brees could figure out things, the Saints could survive.
Drew Brees has been so flawless these last nine weeks but has a Sunday with two bad plays and his game feels like it was a disaster. The interception at end of the first half was devastating because the Saints led 10-7 and could have scored to close the half AND got ball to open the third quarter.
Instead, after the Vikings turned the interception into a touchdown, the Saints trailed 13-10. The fumble late in the fourth quarter was just bad ball security and Brees refusing to just take a sack and move on to the next play. Playoff games have the smallest of margins. Committing 25 percent of the amount of turnovers the Saints had in all 16 games in their opening postseason contest was deadly.
The thing that made me most sad about the Saints losing is this: Taysom Hill rescuing his team from playoff defeat would have made all the football analytics nerds cry such delicious tears, and Eric Paulsen and me could've cackled like school girls on the WWL-TV morning show about our love for Taysom. I was going to make a home made jersey and wear it on the air.
When Hill rumbled 28 yards to the Viking 20 and the Saints only trailed by 3 with four minutes to go, I believed the Saints would score a touchdown, Kirk Cousins would do his usual Cousins mistake, and the Saints would escape to Green Bay.
It was like Taysom was going to drag the Saints into the next round all by himself. Then, misfortune said hello in the name of Danielle Hunter, Vikings defensive end.
Eventually, we'll remember the fun from all this winning the last three years but right now the Saints have lost three consecutive playoff games on the final play, with two coming in overtime.
They are the first 13-win team to lose in the wild card round and everything for Saints fans is awful.
In 2017, the Saints lost on a miraculous disaster, in 2018 the officiating incompetence cost them a Super Bowl trip, but yesterday the Saints just weren't good enough. And somehow that hurts just as much.
Ralph Malbrough is a contributing writer and Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast or download the NSFW Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
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