Too many obstacles for Saints to overcome in Atlanta

The deck was completely stacked against the New Orleans Saints. It was too much to overcome.

The Falcons needed the game to remain in the playoff hunt. They played an early game the previous Sunday while the Saints played a late game. The Saints had to travel on Wednesday.

Then came the game.

The Saints had seemingly every call imaginable go against them. They were missing key players entering the game.

During the game, they lost Alvin Kamara, A.J. Klein, Senio Kelemete, Trey Hendrickson, Kenny Vaccaro and later Ted Ginn, Jr. For good measure, Michael Thomas and Mark Ingram had to leave the game for a period of time. Marshon Lattimore was out for a few series as well. It was pure survival. They almost survived.

In a game where New Orleans came up with three turnovers, it was a critical, crucial, costly turnover by the franchise player that killed the Saints.

While the Saints were banged up, trying to go to Josh Hill with the game on the line, with all due respect, was a bit puzzling.

Former Jesuit and LSU star Debo Jones ate it up, picking off Drew Brees to seal the deal for Atlanta.

That the Saints tried to win it was, of course, the thing to do. That said, they clearly had at least a tie in their sights.

It did not happen.

Jones had 13 tackles, including three for loss, two passes defensed and, of course, the game-winning interception. Do you think he enjoys playing against his hometown team?

Here are my quick takes from the 20-17 win by Atlanta over New Orleans:

**Lattimore, Terron Armstead and Marcus Williams were all active.

**Taysom Hill was in on the opening kickoff as a blocker for the Saints.

**The stadium was barely half full at the start of the game.

**New Orleans took the opening kickoff and drove 54 yards in 10 plays. The drive stalled and Wil Lutz booted a 34-yard field goal to give New Orleans a 3-0 lead with 9:50 to play in the opening quarter. Alvin Kamara caught a 23-yard pass from Drew Brees for the big play of the drive.

**Kamara was shaken up on the drive on a screen pass on which he lost four yards. It appeared to be helmet-to-helmet contact. He was taken to the tent on the sideline and then to the locker room. He was later diagnosed with a concussion and ruled out of the game.

**Then, Klein was injured on the first series of the game for the Atlanta offense. It was a groin injury and he did not return.

**Atlanta responded on its first possession with an eight play, 65-yard drive which stalled and Matt Bryant kicked a 28-yard field goal to tie the game 3-3 with 5:33 to play in the opening quarter.

**The big play was a 38-yard completion from Matt Ryan to Julio Jones on a quick slant. He beat Lattimore inside and ran for an extra 30 yards after the catch. Jones also drew a holding call on Lattimore on the drive.

**Bonnabel’s Arthur Maulet got a tackle on the first punt return of the game by the Falcons.

**The Saints appeared to Atlanta stopped in the second quarter but a terrible roughing the passer call on Sheldon Rankins cost the Saints 15 yards and kept the drive alive. Rankins gave Ryan a slight push. It was nothing. It was an awful call.

**Trey Hendrickson went down late in the second quarter with an ankle injury.

**Atlanta took total advantage of the bad call on Rankins, driving 90 yards in 15 plays, taking more than half the second quarter, 8:25, with Devonta Freeman scoring on a one-yard run to make it 10-3 with 4:29 to play in the first half. The drive included 15 plays, eight passes and seven runs.

**Freeman has now scored a touchdown in six straight games against the Saints.

**Senio Kelemete went down in the second quarter, replaced by Josh LeRibeus. Like Kamara, Kelemete was diagnosed with a concussion.

**Vaccaro was injured in the second quarter as well and went into the tent for further examination.

**New Orleans answered with a big drive and it did not take long. The Saints went 66 yards in five plays with Tommylee Lewis catching a 26-yard touchdown p+ass from Brees to make it 10-10 with 1:53 to play in the half. It was the first touchdown in Lewis’ career.

**Lattimore then proved his tremendous worth with an interception of Ryan to kill an Atlanta drive and he returned the interception to the Atlanta 30-yard line.

**With four seconds remaining in the half, Lutz drilled a 47-yard field goal but LeRibeus was ruled to be lined up illegally, off the line-of-scrimmage. It negated the field goal and by rule, the time was allowed to elapse and it killed the Saints, costing them the lead at halftime.

**Brees finished the first half 14-of-17 for 154 yards and a touchdown. New Orleans finished the half with 189 yards to 177 for Atlanta.

**On the first play of the second half, Ryan threw short to Hooper. He simply dropped it, tipping it into the waiting hands of Chris Banjo, who made a nice play to pick it off at the Atlanta 29-yard line.

**Four plays later, Brees connected with Thomas on a 1-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-10 with 13:10 to play in the third quarter. On the play, Brandon Coleman went inside, effectively blocking defenders legally from getting to Thomas. It was not an obvious or illegal pick play, though it served the purpose.

**Atlanta drove to the New Orleans nine-yard line but Marcus Williams intercepted Ryan in the end zone to kill the drive. Williams made a nice play but a bad decision to run it out of the end zone. He was stopped at the seven-yard line, rather than giving Brees the ball at the 20-yard line.

**Hau’oli Kikaha had a big sack of Ryan to stall the next Atlanta possession. Kikaha stayed home, not going for a fake on a bootleg play-action pass.

**New Orleans had just 12 offensive snaps, 14 total snaps counting two punts in the third quarter.

**Lattimore then left the game, needing oxygen.

**David Onyemata left the game hurt in the fourth quarter.

**Atlanta took advantage of three penalties on the Saints and drove 69 yards in 11 plays, taking 7:06 off the clock to tie the game on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Ryan to Mohamed Sanu, who whipped Sterling Moore to make it 17-17 with 9:55 to play in the game.

**Atlanta got another stop and drove 38 yards in eight plays with Bryant connecting on a 52-yard field goal to give Atlanta a 20-17 lead with 3:49 to play in the game.

**Thomas got poked in the eye on the final drive and left the game. He returned.

**Then Ingram was hurt on the next play. He returned.

**Then Ted Ginn, Jr. got drilled and was injured and left the game.

**Brees expertly drove the Saints into field goal range but the Saints tried to win it. Brees tried to throw over the top for Josh Hill in the end zone and Debo Jones of Jesuit and LSU picked it off to win it for the Falcons.

**Thomas did his best, catching 10 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown, scoring in his second straight game.

**The Saints ran for just 50 yards, a losing total.

**The Saints had 11 crushing penalties for 87 yards while the Falcons were flagged just four times for 35 yards.

This one conjured up memories, bad memories of Grover Klemmer, Big Ben and Morten Andersen beating the Saints. Remember 1978? Steve Bartkowski threw a 57-yard Hail Mary pass to Alfred Jackson which became popularized as “Big Ben.” Klemmer made the phantom pass interference call on Maurice Spencer to set up a one-yard touchdown pass from Bartkowski to Jim Mitchell, the game-winner at Atlanta.

Remember 1999 and the end of the ill-fated Mike Ditka era in New Orleans? Morten Andersen booted a pair of fourth quarter field goals to beat the Saints in New Orleans.

The common denominator is that all three games ended with a 20-17 win for Atlanta over the Saints. The Saints are now 0-4 against the Falcons in games ending in that final score.

Sean Payton used to own the Falcons. Those days are gone. Atlanta has now won the last three in the series and five of the last seven.

It was a crushing loss for the Saints, who lost a field goal prior to halftime and lost at least a field goal late on the interception.

I stated going into the final four games that I expected the Saints to split with the Falcons and beat the Jets and Bucs. Now, they have to.

With a few extra days before playing a week from Sunday, perhaps the Saints will get a few players back. They will need to. They resembled a Mash unit.

The rumblings will grow louder about playing games on Thursday night. Unless the NFLPA bonds together to do something about it, nothing will change. Most, if not all of the injuries were to Saints players on this night.

Had the Saints won this game, given what they had to overcome, it would have been a phenomenal victory. Instead, it was a very, very hard loss to suffer.

Forget about getting a bye. The goal is clear. Win the final three games, win the NFC South and host a first-round playoff game. That does not sound too bad, does it?