NEW ORLEANS — When the game in the Superdome was over, the Cowboys and their fans were celebrating and the Saints had reached a new low in the Sean Payton era.
So, my first takeaway is just that – that this is unchartered territory.
For Saints fans my age or over, we’ve seen this before, way too many times. It took me a minute to figure out, but in the first tens years of the team, the Saints had five game losing streaks, five different times.
It was the norm. Mike Ditka was the Saints coach for three years and he had two different five-game losing streaks in three years.
But in the first 15 years of the Sean Payton era, since 2006, the Saints had never had a five-game losing streak. Actually, other than the Katrina season in ’05, when everything was horrible, it hadn’t happened to the Saints in this century, until now.
My second takeaway is the Mallet finger.
Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Mallet finger until this year.
It’s a tendon injury in the last joint of your finger. It makes the finger swollen and painful and it obviously makes throwing the ball accurately, extremely problematic.
It sounds like an injury that’s fairly common in the middle earth.
Taysom Hill may not be the Saints quarterback of the future, but, with his digits intact, he doesn’t throw four interceptions.
So, in a game which you didn’t have Alvin Kamara or Ryan Ramczyk or Terron Armstead, the Saints were able to manufacture some new offensive success and then your quarterback suffers a Mallet finger. And, how’s this, even with a quarterback playing with a mangled middle finger on his throwing hand, the Saints passed for more yards than the Cowboys.
My third takeaway is the defense being solid again. Not great, but solid.
Dak Prescott’s quarterback rating was way below his season average, but, for a team with no margin for error, Tony Pollard’s 58-yard touchdown run was a back breaker.
Good, but with a sub-par offense, not good enough.
And, the last takeaway is that it’s not over yet. There still is a path to the playoffs.
That might sound crazy, but, if Taysom Hill didn’t mangle a finger on his throwing hand, I think the Saints might have beaten Dallas without Kamara or the tackles.
The Saints have five games left and they have to win four of those five, but four of those five are against teams with losing records. The Saints still have to beat the Jets Sunday, and, if they do, they are still alive.
Here’s the way it stands. It appears 9-8 will be good enough to get to the playoffs. The hope right now is to get the Kamara, Ramczyk, Armstead trio back and run the ball a lot in New York.
Being down is the overriding emotion, but get a win Sunday and the Saints are still alive, and that’s my top takeaway from the depressing loss to the Cowboys.