NEW ORLEANS — Despite dealing with a slew of injuries and a less-than-stellar performance from a rusty-looking Drew Brees, the Saints battled Kansas City to the wire before succumbing 32-29 Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The second straight loss, coupled with Tampa’s come-from-behind victory over Atlanta means the Saints still have not clinched the NFC South.
The defense harassed Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, forcing a fumble, making him errant on several passes and sacking him four times - but, the Chiefs ran 40 more plays than the Saints and had the ball for 41 game minutes to the Saints 19.
The Saints did not get a first down until the second quarter, constantly putting the defense right back on the field chasing Mahomes.
"Offensively we didn't start real well," said head coach Sean Payton. "You can point to one position. Our third down numbers weren't good enough. We battled back, but, you've got to be better on 3rd down."
Brees, in his first game back in almost a month, was already without Michael Thomas and Deonte Harris and he lost Tre’Quan Smith along the way, but the future Hall-of-Fame looked compromised with several passes off the mark, one intercepted and a few more that could have been.
It didn’t help that he couldn’t throw to his usual, dependable targets.
RELATED: Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas won't play against the Chiefs, his 7th missed game of the season
Brees completed fewer than half of his pass attempts for one of the few times in his career. He hit on only 15 of 34 passes for 234 yards. Brees had three touchdown passes.
"I still have a ways to go, to be honest," said Brees after the game. "There are things I'm still working on."
Brees was then asked directly, "Are you 100 percent?" His brief answer, "No, but I'm on my way."
Despite Brees having trouble getting on the same page with receivers and despite the Saints falling behind 14-0 early, the team actually led in the third quarter and closed to within a field goal after the Saints most impressive drive of the game - a 75-yard scoring drive in 8 plays that ended with a 17-yard touchdown from Brees to Lil'Jordan Humphrey.
But the Saints couldn't get Mahomes and the offense off the field and the Chiefs ran out the clock.
Mahomes was actually harassed quite a bit by the Saints defense but that D wore out by being on the field almost twice as long as their counterparts and an apparent injury to Trey Hendrickson and Cameron Jordan being tossed for tossing a punch, made things even tougher.
Mahomes didn't look his sharpest, finishing 26 of 47 passing for 254 yards and three touchdowns.
"We played our hearts out," Payton said of the defense. "It wasn’t good enough."
He did show plenty of his magic though, making passes like a high-level NBA point guard, including a flip to Travis Kelce for one touchdown and what looked to be a throwaway pass that ended up as a touchdown to Mecole Hardman.
The Saints don’t even have time to physically recover, facing Minnesota in five days.
