What a tough loss for the Saints, to the Atlanta Falcons at home as the Saints go way down for three quarters, come storming back in the fourth, only to lose on a last-second field goal.
I think a couple of things stand out about this team:
We talk about it every week, but the Saints don’t have a great set of weapons – talking about receivers, tight ends and running backs, when you don’t count Alvin Kamara, I mean Mark Ingram has been good, but they had 4 critical dropped passes in the first half. They got so far behind, they dug themselves a hole that was too big because they just weren’t good enough from their offensive weapons. Two of the drops were from Adam Trautman, one of them from Kenny Stills and one from Deonte Harris, that may have been more of a slip than a drop, but four plays that made a huge difference in the Saints inability to score in the first half.
We don’t know what’s going to happen with Oddell Beckham Jr, but obviously, if the Saints aren’t able to get him, this group of weapons is not going to get better and that is something that until now has limited this team.
Now, when they’ve played perfect they’ve beaten a couple of terrific teams in Green Bay and Tampa Bay so they’re certainly capable but they need everything to go right and you sort of get that with this loss. This team has very little margin for error.
The other real problem – we’ve seen Matt Ryan against the Saints since 2008, twice every year. When the Saints can pressure him, he can be very bad. When they don’t pressure him and he’s able to get rid of the ball quickly, he can be very, very good. As he has been several times in his career, he was terrific against the Saints on Sunday.
But even as good as Matt Ryan was and as bad as the Saints offensive weapons were, Marcus Davenport rips the ball away with 50 seconds to go and the ball hits the turf – before the game-winning field goal – and it just bounces to right where an offensive lineman can scoop it. That ball bounces differently and Davenport can get on it more quickly, the Saints were so close to winning this one, but it’s an unfortunate loss.