Saints bury themselves in mistakes in loss at Atlanta

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Alvin Kamara vs Falcons
(Photo: William E. Anthony)

It is a competitive, heated rivalry.

Any rivalry is defined by the competitive nature of the games played.

When it comes to the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, it could not be more competitive, more of a rivalry.

The two teams entered Sunday’s game at Atlanta having played 108 times with each team winning 54 times.

The Falcons now lead the series.

When your offense consists of nothing but field goals, well, you know the likely result.

You had to have flashbacks to the Jim Mora-era Saints and Morten Andersen.

The Saints won many games that way back then. Of course, New Orleans had an elite defense that could hold, even stop opponents then and constantly harassed opposing quarterbacks.

The current Saints do not possess those abilities. Opposing quarterbacks barely have a hand placed on them.

The good news is that Blake Grupe became the first rookie in team history to make five field goals in a game while tying a franchise-record for the most field goals made in a game. Of course, he missed a sixth attempt with 26 seconds left to give New Orleans any chance at an improbable win.

Then, there is the rest of the story.

It is a lousy one to tell for local fans.

It was a lousy one to watch.

The 2023 New Orleans Saints did everything a losing team does, committing brutal turnovers, dropping passes, committing costly penalties and failing to tackle well enough in space.

The result was a 24-15 loss at Atlanta.

Here are my Quick Takes on the defeat:

**Inactives for the Saints were Isaiah Foskey, Jimmy Graham, Jake Haener, Kendre Miller, Kyle Phillips and Nick Saldiveri.

**Former Saint Kaden Elliss tackled Alvin Kamara for a 2-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage.

**The Saints proceeded to go 3-and-out, but the Falcons obliged, doing the same on their first possession.

**On the second possession, Jamaal Williams stoned a linebacker on a blitz and Derek Carr hit Chris Olave with a perfect throw and an excellent catch and Olave ran to the Atlanta 34-yard line on a 50-yard gain.

**Elliss hit Kamara for a 1-yard loss on the second New Orleans series as well.

**The drive stalled when Rashid Shaheed dropped a pass that would have put the ball at the 1-yard line.

**Grupe came on to kick a 25-yard field goal to give the Saints a 3-0 lead with 8:10 to play in the first quarter. The drive covered 77 yards in 10 plays, taking 3:58 off the clock.

**Marcus Maye made a huge stop on fourth-and-two at the New Orleans 31-yard line as Desmond Ridder faked a handoff, kept it and was drilled for a 1-yard loss on a read-option play.

**New Orleans drove to the Atlanta 12-yard line and on third-and-three, Carr made a terrible mistake, throwing in the flat for Rashid Shaheed and Jessie Bates III read it, undercut the route, intercepted it and returned it 92 yards for a touchdown to give the Falcons a 7-3 lead with 1:46 to play in the opening quarter.

**It was a terrible decision by Carr. Shaheed was blanketed and Bates was waiting underneath as a second defender. Carr made up his mind to throw to Shaheed way in advance, obviously, and he and the Saints paid a huge price.

**The Saints pulled within 7-6 with 14:16 to play in the first half on a 52-yard field goal by Grupe which completed a seven play, 41-yard drive.

**Atlanta took a 14-6 lead with 8:56 to play in the half on a 10-yard touchdown run by Bijan Robinson. The Falcons offensive line simply drove the Saints’ defensive front straight back and got seals and it was an easy score. The drive covered 78 yards in 10 plays, taking 5:20 off the clock.

**Desmond Ridder twice dropped back to pass and took off for big gains 15 yards and 12 yards as there was no pass rush and no contain.

**Shaheed went down injured with just under six minutes to play in the half.

**Foster Moreau and Ryan Ramczyk each had holding penalties in the first half.

**The Ramczyk hold killed another drive and Grupe made a 41-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 14-9 with 3:54 to play in the half, capping a 12 play, 52-yard drive.

**Carr hit Chris Olave with four completions for 56 yards on the drive.

**The Falcons drove to the New Orleans 10-yard line in the final minute of the half but Ridder made a big mistake and threw a pass intended for Robinson, who stopped and Tyrann Mathieu intercepted it at the New Orleans 3-yard line to keep the game at 14-9 at halftime.

**The Saints had 229 yards of offense and scored just nine points in the half.

**Carr was 13-of-22 for 189 yards with the huge interception. Olave had seven catches for 114 yards.

**Atlanta had 20 rushes for 109 yards in the half.

**Olave went down injured in the third quarter on a deep pass attempt from Carr, who underthrew him. Olave had to wait on it, went airborne and came down hard and did not get up and left the game and did not return, due to a concussion.

**Erik McCoy was injured in the third quarter and Max Garcia replaced him with 5:50 to play in the third quarter. Of course, on the first snap with Garcia, Cesar Ruiz committed a false start to help kill another drive. McCoy was able to return.

**Then, Juwan Johnson negated a big pass completion to Lynn Bowden which would have given New Orleans a first-and-goal at the 6-yard line with an offensive pass interference penalty.

**Then, Ramczyk went down and Landon Young replaced him and promptly whiffed and gave up a sack to end the possession. Ramczyk was able to return.

**Johnson also went out injured but was able to return.

**Grupe nailed a 45-yard field goal to make it 14-12 with 3:27 to play in the third quarter.

**Mathieu came up with his second big play, reading Ridder, covering Van Jefferson, who was in motion, like a blanket, picking off the pass and returning it to the New Orleans 46-yard line with 1:16 to play in the third quarter.

**The Saints then drove to the Atlanta 5-yard line but Taysom Hill had the ball punched out by Bates, fumbled, and the Falcons recovered by Albert Huggins to kill yet another red zone possession on the final play of the third quarter. It was the first fumble in three years for Hill.

**The Saints, who cannot rush the passer, chose to blitz on the next series and got burned twice, the second time on a 26-yard touchdown pass to Robinson who was well behind Demario Davis, for an easy score, to give Atlanta a 21-12 lead with 9:57 to play in the game. The drive covered 95 yards in nine plays.

**The Saints had another good drive killed by yet another holding call on Ramczyk.

**Then, Williams was hurt on a third-down pass which he caught for one yard.

**Grupe came on to make a 39-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 21-15 with 6:24 to play in the game.

**With the outcome still in doubt, the New Orleans defense crumbled.

**The Falcons ran it down the throats to put the game away, gaining 54 yards on nine straight runs and taking 4:37 off the clock.

**Younghoe Koo putt the game away with a 39-yard field goal with 1:47 to play in the game to make it 24-15.

You force two turnovers but that does not matter because you cost yourself at least six points, losing a fumble in the red zone and gave the Falcons seven points with a pick-6.

You commit awful penalties continuously to destroy scoring drives.

Carr, who made some good throws, made a horrendous throw and the Saints could not overcome the mistake. Carr finished 24-of-38 for 304 yards with an interception.

Hill, who is such a good and valuable player, made a huge mistake and the Saints could not overcome it.

New Orleans had 444 yards of offense, did not score a touchdown and scored just 15 points.

With injuries and the continuous inconsistency of this team, it is hard to envision the Saints overcoming themselves, despite being in such a poor division.

With a chance to take control of the bad NFC South, the Saints were simply bad.

I have defended them as an average team, to this point.

That is a hard point to defend now.

The Saints have played a lightweight schedule. They are 5-6. They are still tied for first in the NFC South.

The bad and the good continue in this mediocre season. Are these Saints any better than the 7-10 version of last season?

We witnessed below average football today. The Saints, as a slight favorite, continue to get too much respect from oddsmakers.

That tells us all we need to know.

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Ken Trahan

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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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