Saints blanked by 49ers, 13-0

  • November 27, 2022
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
  • icon
  • icon
  • icon
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The New Orleans Saints are 4-8.

That picture was crystal clear in the first half of Sunday’s 13-0 loss to San Francisco.

New Orleans fumbled it away on the opening series of the game, setting up a 49er field goal.

Then, a pre-snap penalty on the Saints killed the next drive.

Then, a catch became a drop, negating a 30-yard completion via instant replay.

Then, a holding penalty knocked the Saints out of field goal range.

Then, a senseless personal foul for a late hit set up a San Francisco touchdown.

Then, an obvious defensive holding call negated a big interception.

Then, a roughing the passer penalty extended another San Francisco possession.

Then, a false start penalty occurred when New Orleans was going to go for it on a fourth-and-five from the San Francisco 25-yard line.

Then, the Saints missed a field goal.

Then, the Saints reached the 1-yard line and, for the second time, their best offensive player fumbled it away again.

Then, the Saints got to the 4-yard line with a first-and-goal and did not score again.

New Orleans could not run the football and it hurt. That Andy Dalton was the team’s leading rusher with four carries for 21 yards speaks volumes.

There is no doubt that a few calls went against the Saints which hurt New Orleans but the Saints did enough to hurt themselves and did not do enough to help themselves.

Here are my Quick Takes:

**The Saints activated tackle Trevor Penning and cornerback Bradley Roby from injured reserve and elevated defensive back Isaac Yiadom from the practice squad for the game.

**Inactives included Marquez Callaway, J.T. Gray, Lewis Kidd, Marshon Lattimore, Payton Turner and Pete Werner.

**Alvin Kamara fumbled the ball away on the first series of the game, giving the 49ers the ball at the New Orleans 43-yard line. Fred Warner had both the strip and recovery.

**P.J. Williams was injured on the first defensive series of the game. That would prove pivotal as he would be replaced by Chris Harris Jr., who has been picked on weekly and would be picked on in this one.

**The 49ers took advantage but not full not full advantage as the Saints held San Francisco to a 24-yard field goal by Robbie Gould to make it 3-0 with 8:01 to play in the opening quarter.

**Taysom Hill reached the 2,000 yard mark from scrimmage for his career in the first quarter but he committed a false start penalty on the second offensive series of the game which led to a New Orleans punt.

**Hill made a perfect throw to Chris Olave for an apparent 30-yard gain and a first-and-goal at the San Francisco 8-yard line but upon review by instant replay, the call was overturned as an incomplete.

**Deebo Samuel went down late in the second quarter with some sort of leg injury.

**The New Orleans defense came up huge again, getting a big stop on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line as Jimmy Garoppolo, unable to find an open receiver, tried to step up and run but was tackled for a 1-yard loss by Shy Tuttle.

**Playing a third-and-10 from their own 2-yard line, Dalton threw deep for Olave and he was interfered with, which would have been about a 40-yard penalty. Instead, that interference was offset by a personal foul face mask penalty on Penning, making his mark the wrong way in his NFL debut and the Saints had to punt.

**Elijah Mitchell ran 32 yards for a touchdown but it was negated by a holding penalty against George Kittle.

**Then, Harris Jr., with the 49ers having no timeouts remaining, had a poor inside technique in coverage, rather than an outside technique to protect the sideline. He got turned around, fell down, then went and hit Jauan Jennings way late after he made the catch and got the first down, giving the 49ers the ball at the 5-yard line.

**It took Garoppolo just one play to take advantage, connecting with Jennings on a 5-yard touchdown pass on a throw that Tyrann Mathieu actually tipped, right into the waiting hands of Jennings to make it 10-0 at the half. It was the first touchdown of the season for Jennings.

**San Francisco had the ball for 20:11 to just 9:49 for the Saints in the half. The Niners ran 42 offensive plays to just 21 for the Saints. The Niners had 218 yards to 119 for the Saints in the half.

**Alontae Taylor then came up with a huge interception and returned it all the way to the San Francisco 10-yard line.

**Of course, it did not count as Harris committed another critical penalty with an obvious defensive holding, which occurred nowhere near the intended receiver.

**Then, Malcolm Roach was called for roughing the passer. Garoppolo was outside the tackle box but Roach went low on the hit.

**Still, the Saints held up defensively and forced a 46-yard field goal by Gould to make it 13-0 with 10:25 to play in the third quarter.

**The Saints finally sustained a drive which covered 11 plays and 55 yards. Dennis Allen elected to go for it on fourth-and-five from the San Francisco 25-yard line. Then came another mistake as Ryan Ramczyk committed a false start penalty.

**Then, Wil Lutz then missed a 48-yard field goal wide left.

**Then, the Saints had their best drive of the day, marching from their own 12-yard line to the San Francisco 1-yard line where Kamara, after catching a pass from Dalton, was hit by Talanoa Hufenga, fumbled again and Dre Greenlaw recovered.

**Then, after getting a stop. Dalton hit Juwan Johnson in the hands with a throw into the end zone but Johnson could not hold it.

**Then, Deommodore Lenoir was called for defensive holding, giving the Saints a first-and-goal at the 4-yard line.

**The Saints had not run the ball effectively all afternoon. They would not even try to do so.

**Instead, Pete Carmichael called four straight pass plays.

**The first two were incomplete and the third got to Hill in the end zone, a contested ball but it got to him and he did not make the catch

**Fittingly, on fourth down, was sacked by Nick Bosa at the 11-yard line with 6:27 to play in the game. On the play, it appeared that the 49ers were offside but there was no call made.

**New Orleans actually held the 49ers to just three points and 99 total yards in the second half.

When you hold an opponent to 13 points in the NFL, you are supposed to win.

How frustrating was this one?

The Saints had five possessions inside the San Francisco 43-yard line and scored no points.

Kamara has four fumbles this season. He had seven in his entire career entering the 2022 season.

The Saints now lead the NFL with 21 turnovers and are minus 15 in the turnover department this season. With those numbers, it is a wonder that New Orleans has even won four games this season.

The Saints were shut out for the first time since 2001, when New Orleans was blanked by, you guessed it, the 49ers by a 38-0 margin at home. It was the first time the Saints were shut out after scoring in 332 consecutive games.

By the way, prior to 2001, the last time the Saints were shut out was in 1998 at home by, you guessed it, the 49ers by a 31-0 margin.

And before that the last time the Saints were blanked was by, you guessed it, the 49ers by a 23-0 margin in 1997, also at home.

The Saints travel to Tampa Bay for a Monday night contest next week.

The Buccaneers are not good, now 5-6 after losing in overtime at Cleveland.

The Falcons are not good, having lost to Washington to drop to 5-7.

The Panthers actually beat Denver but they are not good, with a 4-8 record.

The New Orleans Saints cannot win with any consistency and are simply a below average to simply poor football team with a 4-8 record.

Amazingly, they remain in the division hunt since the division is just as poor.

  • < PREV LSU rallies to defeat Wofford, 78-75
  • NEXT > LSU drops, Tulane bumps up in traditional rankings before title games

Ken Trahan

CEO/Owner

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

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…

Read more >

LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK FOLLOW ME ON X CONTACT ME