New Orleans Saints

Observations from the Saints game sitting in the cheap seats

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

There’s nothing like being inside the Mercedes Benz Superdome during a game. Here are the things that were noticed specifically from being present on Sunday against the Raiders.

The game was better than expected – our Saints played better than expected for three quarters at least – but the end result was what had been expected. The New Orleans Saints lost a heart breaker 35-34 on a gutsy call by Oakland Raider coach Jack del Rio. The Raiders decided to go for a two-point conversion rather than tie the game with less than a minute to play. Many things could be gleaned from the game – many more will still be wait and see; but the overriding narrative is simple: if the Saints want to be a playoff contender, they MUST win games like these.

Leading 24-13 to start the 4th quarter, Saints fans had to like the Saints’ chances. In fact, fate seemed to play a cruel and ironic trick on the Who Dat Nation Sunday. Saints fans recall things like “The Meachem Miracle” in Washington during the Super Bowl season of 2009 as signs of goood things to come.

When the normally sure-handed Willie Snead fumbled on a long pass play at the 25-yard line and Michael Thomas comes up with a pure hustle play to recover the ball at the 2-yard line, the Saints faithful must have felt the gris-gris had worked. The feeling in the dome was that the Saints would be able to score and escape with a win. Score we did – escape with a win we did not.

It was disheartening to see the Saints defense, which bent but didn’t break in the first 45 minutes of play, giving up 22 fourth quarter points was an understatement. Oakland scored on each of its fourth quarter possessions including a 75 yard run from scrimmage, which is always a negative note in the big play category.

Big pass plays are tough to swallow – big rushing plays are devastating.Pete Carmichael was the offensive play caller for the game yesterday. Allegedly, Sean Payton wanted to have more opportunity to truly evaluate the players and the game as opposed to being bogged down with the offensive play calling.

In short, the Saints lost one they should have and could have won. And not only did they lose, but they lost a solid lead in doing so at home. It was the type of inexcusable loss that playoff type teams don’t have on their resume. Suffice to say, I’m sure if Who Dat Nation looked back at the end of the season at all teams who have scored 34 points at home, nearly 100% of them will be victorious. That’s how much this one stinks.