49ers walk off with wild 48-46 win over Saints

  • December 8, 2019
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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NEW ORLEANS – With the strong possibility of a No. 1 seed in the balance in the NFC, the Saints played their most important game of the season Sunday against San Francisco in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

New Orleans answered the call on offense, scoring 46 points, allowing no sacks while amassing 465 yards against a team that came in with 45 sacks, allowing 15 points per game and just 134 yards passing per game and 250 yards per game to opponents.

That sounds like it would have been a win if not an easy win.

Unfortunately, there are two sides of the football and the other side was simply miserable for the Saints on this day.

San Francisco piled up 516 yards and 48 points against a porous defense and picked up a huge road win.

Granted, one of the touchdowns for the 49ers was set up by a fumble by Alvin Kamara but you get the picture clearly.

Here are my Quick Takes on a bitter 48-46 loss for the Saints to the 49ers:

**San Francisco won the toss and deferred, giving the Saints the ball first.

**The Saints took the opening kickoff and drove 73 yards in nine plays with Drew Brees connecting with Jared Cook on a 38-yard touchdown pass to give New Orleans a 7-0 lead with 11:34 to play in the opening quarter. Cook got in the seam in the deep middle and Brees hit him in strike. Cook broke a tackle and roared into the end zone.

**The 49ers answered in similar fashion, driving 75 yards in just six plays with Jimmy Garoppolo hitting Kendrick Borne on a 5-yard touchdown pass to tie the game 7-7 with 8:26 to play in the opening quarter. On the drive, Garppolo had three huge completions against the New Orleans secondary, hitting Emmanuel Sanders on completions of 19 and 31 yards and connecting with Deebo Samuel for 25 yards.

**Garoppolo was 4-of-5 for 81 yards and the score on the opening drive.

**Deonte Harris then returned the ensuing kickoff 51 yards to the New Orleans 46-yard line. Brees promptly drove New Orleans 54 yards in six plays, taking 3:35 off the clock with Brees hitting Jared Cook, who made a great catch, on a 36-yard touchdown pass to make it 13-7.

**On the play, Cook was hit in the head on a personal foul and had to leave the game. The Saints took the penalty to go for two, chasing points in the first quarter. It did not work out well. Taysom Hill was hit for a loss and the lead was only six points. Cook suffered a concussion and was out for the game.

**Demario Davis got a sack to stop San Francisco on its next possession. On the punt, Deonte Harris returned it 25 yards to the San Francisco 29-yard line.

**New Orleans took advantage, driving 29 yards in five plays, taking 2:31 off the clock with Brees hitting Josh Hill on a 3-yard touchdown pass to give the Saints a 20-7 lead with 14:57 to play in the half.

**The scoring pass was a great concept. Hill lined up at fullback on first-and-goal from the 3-yard line, in front of Latavius Murray. Brees executed a good play-fake to Murray, Hill leaked out of the backfield into the left flat and popped wide open.

**Nick Bosa left the game injured in the first quarter.

**It took San Francisco one play to get the touchdown back, Garoppolo hit Sanders on a deep route for a 75-yard touchdown pass. On the play, Marcus Williams did not locate the ball early enough, then when he turned, he fell down, giving Sanders an easy catch. Sanders, who also went down on the catch, got up and simply ran into the end zone for the score.

**Ahkello Witherspoon left the game injured for the 49ers early in the second quarter but did return.

**The Saints went 84 yards in 12 plays, taking 8:12 off the clock. On fourth-and-goal inside the 1-yard line, Sean Payton elected to for it, the absolute correct decision. It paid off. Brees used his patented leap over the top to score to give the Saints a 27-14 lead with 7:29 to play in the half. The big play of the drive was a 30-yard completion from Brees to Murray.

**It took San Francisco all of three plays to answer. On a trick play, Sanders lofted a 75-yard touchdown pass to Raheem Mostert to cut the deficit to 27-21 with 5:59 to play in the half. On the two plays before that, the Niners gained 21 and 19 yards, respectively, chopping up the New Orleans defense in surgical fashion.

**Marcus Davenport went down injured in the second quarter. He was able to return.

**The 49ers took their first lead of the game in the final minute of the half, driving 80 yards in nine plays with Raheem Mostert running straight up the middle untouched for a 10-yard touchdown and the extra point by Robbie Gould made it 28-27 San Francisco with 37 seconds to play in the half.

**The Saints had 262 points and 27 points at halftime and trailed. That is because San Francisco had 319 points and 28 points. The 49ers averaged 14.5 yards per play in the half. New Orleans had the ball for 19:11 in the half to just 10:49 for the 49ers.

**Brees was 16-of-19 for 174 yards and three touchdowns while Garoppolo was 11-of-12 for 206 yards and two touchdowns in the half.

**Per Pro Football Reference, this was just the third NFL game in the last 55 years where both teams scored 27+ points in the first half.

**On the first series of the second half, Garoppolo threw for Sanders. He missed the ball, tipping in the air and Craig Robertson intercepted it at the San Francisco 40-yard line. The Saints went 3-and-out but Wil Lutz boomed a 55-yard field goal to give New Orleans a 30-28 lead with 12:36 to play in the third quarter.

**Lutz had a 58-yard field goal in the season opening game against Houston to win the game. He is now 3-of-5 from 50+ yards this season.

**San Francisco center Weston Richburg went down injured early in the third quarter. He had to be carted off the field.

**Then, the Saints got another stop but on the first play from scrimmage on the next New Orleans series, Kamara was hit by D.J. Jones, fumbled and DeForest Buckner recovered for the Niners at the New Orleans 20-yard line. It was the first lost fumble of the season by New Orleans. The Saints had not previously lost a fumble from scrimmage on offense all season.

**It took San Francisco just two plays to capitalize as Garoppolo hit George Kittle with a 5-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-30 with 9:40 to play in the third quarter.

**It was bad math for New Orleans. They got a turnover and got just three points. San Francisco got a turnover and got seven points.

**The Saints drew closer, driving 45 yards in 10 plays, taking 4:44 off the clock with Lutz connecting on a 48-yard field goal to make it 35-33 San Francisco with 4:51 to play in the third quarter.

**This was the first-ever Saints game where both teams scored at least 30 points in the first three quarters and just the second game in the NFL where it occurred since the start of the 2015 season.

**The Saints got another bad break, or call, depending on your perspective, on a third-down completion to Michael Thomas. He was called for offensive pass interference on a questionable call. That killed the drive.

**New Orleans try to fake a punt and Taysom Hill’s long pass for Tre’Quan Smith was incomplete. The defender was holding and contacting Hill all the way but there was penalty. By rule, with a team in punt formation, pass interference does not apply.

**Then, San Francisco drove 57 yards in 14 plays, taking 6:57 off the clock with Garoppolo hitting Kendrick Bourne on a 6-yard touchdown pass to make it 42-33 with 8:59 to play in the game.

**The drive was sustained by a pair of crucial penalties against C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The first was defensive holding when the Saints had a sack on a third-down play to apparently get a stop. The second was a personal foul on an illegal hit when the Saints had another stop. The second was hard to fathom. The receiver was going down. Johnson led with his shoulder to tackle him. His shoulder hit the player’s head. What else can he do?

**The Saints stayed in it by driving 75 yards in five plays, taking 2:53 off the clock. San Francisco was victimized by a defensive holding call on Richard Sherman. Brees hit Thomas on a 49-yard pass and then connected with Thomas on a 21-yard touchdown to cut the deficit with 6:06 to play.

**The 49ers drove 52 yards in 11 plays, taking 3:43 off the clock and Robbie Gould converted a 41-yard field goal to make it 45-40 with 2:23 to play in the game.

**Brees then engineered a clutch drive, taking the Saints 76 yards in 7 plays, hitting Tre’Quan Smith on an 18-yard touchdown pass to give the Saints a 46-45 lead with 45 seconds remaining. Earlier in the drive, Smith caught an 11-yard pass and drew a big pass interference penalty.

**New Orleans had to go for two. Brees’ pass fell incomplete, giving San Francisco a chance to win it as the 49ers got the ball back with 53 seconds remaining.

**And, almost predictably for the way the Saints played defense on this day, the 49ers drove 63 yards in seven plays and Gould kicked a game-winning 30-yard field goal as time expired.

**The Saints had San Francisco 4th-and-two from its 33-yard line to win the game with one stop. Instead, Garoppolo hit Kittle in the flat, he got through one tackle and rambled up the sideline 39 yards.

**To add insult to injury, Marcus Williams grabbed his facemask, held on to it and incurred a personal foul, giving the Niners the ball at the 14-yard line. From there, Raheem Mostert ran three yards before Gould calmly kicked the winner.

I guess you could say that the Saints scored too quickly near game’s end.

Brees was marvelous. What else can you ask of him? He completed 29-of-40 passes for 349 yards and five touchdowns against a terrific defense. It was the 11th time Brees has thrown for five touchdowns in his awesome career. Thomas was brilliant with 11 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown and he broke the single season for receiving yards.

Denote Harris was terrific in the return game, returning five kickoffs for 155 yards and two punts for 37 yards.

Kamara had no impact, other than the costly fumble. With the defense keying on him, Kamara rushed 13 times for 25 yards and caught four passes for 18 yards. The Saints missed Cook after he went out.

Garoppolo looked like an elite quarterback against the New Orleans defense. He completed 26-of-35 passes for 349 yards with four touchdowns and an interception which was not his fault.

Emmanuel Sanders, whom the Niners acquired in a trade earlier this season, showed why he could be the reason San Francisco wins the NFC. Sanders torched the Saints for seven catches for 157 yards and a touchdown. He also threw a 35-yard touchdown pass.

It is an easy second-guess about passing on a virtually certain extra point that the Saints passed on in the first half. If you kick that one and kick the one after the late touchdown, you are up by three and a field goal cannot beat you.

The Saints had a great offensive game plan with Cook early and came through with flying colors with the game on the line, scoring two touchdowns on long drives in the fourth quarter. It was not enough. This kind of reminded me of what happened in San Francisco in the playoffs to end the 2011 season.

That was a bitter pill to swallow and a memory that lingers to this day. This was a bitter pill to swallow and a memory that will linger for a long time to come.

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Ken Trahan

CEO/Owner

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Born and raised in the New Orleans area, CCSE CEO Ken Trahan has been a sports media fixture in the community for nearly four decades. Ken started NewOrleans.com/Sports with Bill Hammack and Don Jones in 2008. In 2011, the site became SportsNOLA.com. On August 1, 2017, Ken helped launch CrescentCitySports.com. Having accumulated national awards/recognition (National Sports Media Association, National Football…

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