Saints comeback falls short in loss to Lions as Carr leaves injured again

  • December 3, 2023
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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Jimmy Graham
(Photo: Parker Waters)

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Saints, who have played one of the softest schedules in the NFL, faced a harder test against an above average team Sunday at Caesars Superdome.

The Detroit Lions, who lost at home as a solid favorite to Green Bay on Thanksgiving, showed up angry in New Orleans. Early on, the Saints looked like they had stayed home.

Dennis Allen remains a sore spot with fans and whether or not he can be a successful NFL coach – which he has not been to this point – remains in question. Detroit has Dan Campbell leading a renaissance of a previously moribund franchise, similar to what Sean Payton did in New Orleans.

Payton is doing an decent job rejuvenating a Denver team that was miserable a year ago. Campbell is doing an outstanding job with the Lions. Payton, who hired Campbell in 2016 in New Orleans, thought enough of Campbell to make him his assistant head coach when he was with the Saints from 2016-2020.

Payton’s faith in Campbell is being rewarded in Detroit while it is not easy for observers of the Saints to muster true faith in the direction of this team and franchise at the juncture.

In defense of Derek Carr, the first two passes he threw were dropped. One turned into an interception. He then played well in helping New Orleans battle back from a three touchdown deficit.

Yet, the Saints made game-losing plays far too often, both early and late. When the offense needed to protect the football, it could not. When the defense needed a key stop late, it could not get one.

The result is a tough loss and a 5-7 record.

Here are my Quick Takes on the 33-28 loss to Detroit:

**Inactives for the Saints were Cameron Dantzler Jr., Jake Haener, Marcus Maye, Kendre Miller, Rashid Shaheed, Nick Saldiveri and

Pete Werner

**The Saints won the toss and deferred, giving Detroit the ball first.

**That did not work out.

**Detroit ran it down the throats of the porous Saints defense, driving 80 yards in seven plays with David Montgomery scoring easily, untouched on a run to the right side to give the Lions a 7-0 lead with 11:15 to play in the first quarter. It was easy.

**The Lions rushed six times for 59 yards on the drive and benefited from a 15-yard penalty on Carl Granderson for roughing the passer.

**On the first Saints play from scrimmage, Derek Carr hit Juwan Johnson in the hands, he missed it, knocking it right to Brian Branch for an easy interception as he returned it 15 yards to the New Orleans 17-yard line.

**That led to a 13-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Sam LaPorta to give the Lions a 14-0 lead with 10:24 to play in the opening quarter. Again, it was easy.

**The Saints went 3-and-out on their next series, losing a yard in the process. Alvin Kamara dropped a pass on second down in the right flat.

**Detroit got it back and took off again, needing just three plays to 54 yards as Goff hit Amon-Ra St. Brown on a 25-yard touchdown pass to give the Lions a commanding 21-0 lead with 8:15 to play in the first quarter.

**The Lions became the first team to score three touchdowns in the first seven minutes of a game since the Raiders did it against Denver on Oct. 24, 2010 in a 59-14 victory.

**Then, the Saints went backwards again on the next series, with Carr sacked by Bruce Irvin for a loss of 10 yards to force a punt.

**Zack Baun got a sack on the next series to finally force the first Detroit punt of the game.

**Oft-injured Andrus Peat left the game with a hand injury in the first quarter, replaced by Landon Young, not by last year’s first-round pick Trevor Penning.

**Detroit had 148 yards to 33 for the Saints in the first quarter.

**Carr made a nice throw to A.T. Perry for 30 yards and a first down. Carr kept his eyes focused down the field, stepped up and threw a dart.

**Erik McCoy hurt the drive with a pair of false start penalties.

**Carr then came through with another excellent throw to Chris Olave for 24 yards to the Detroit 9-yard line.

**That led to a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham to cut the deficit to 21-7 with 9:08 to play in the half. The drive covered 84 yards in 16 plays, taking 6:39 off the clock.

**Fans have been clamoring for Graham for over a month and the coaches have elected to keep him inactive. He was not inactive today.

**The momentum did not last.

**New Orleans went 3-and-out on its next possession and the Lions drove 62 yards in 12 plays and Riley Patterson connected on a 26-yard field goal with eight seconds left in the half to give Detroit a 24-7 halftime lead.

**The Lions had 224 total yards to 123 for New Orleans in the half.

**The Saints took the second half kickoff and drove 75 yards in 10 plays with Alvin Kamara scoring on a 2-yard run to cut the deficit to 24-14 with 10:04 to play in the third quarter.

**The touchdown as set up by a 33-yard pass from Carr to Chris Olave to the 2-yard line.

**The momentum continued as Carr engineered a seven play, 64-yard drive in 3:27 with Taysom Hill scoring on a 1-yard run, his second of the game, to pull New Orleans to within 24-21 with 4:34 to play in the third quarter.

**The big play of the drive was a 28-yard pass from Carr to Olave.

**Detroit answered. Goff hit a wide open, uncovered LaPorta for 58 yards to the New Orleans 14-yard line. LaPorta was completely unaccounted for. The Saints did hold and Patterson kicked a 32-yard field goal to make it 27-21 on the final play of the third quarter, capping a seven play, 65-yard drive.

**Then came disaster. Carr could not handle a simple snap from McCoy, fumbled, and the Tracy Walker recovered at the New Orleans 26-yard line. It appeared that guard James Hurst may have contacted Carr on the play, possibly causing the brutal turnover.

**It took just two plays for the Lions to take advantage as Jameson Williams scored on a 19-yard run on a double reverse to give Detroit a 33-21 lead with 14:07 to play in the game. A 2-point conversion attempt failed.

**Carr then hit Kamara on an 8-yard completion but on the play, Irvin drove him into the ground with tremendous force, incurring a personal foul penalty, knocking Carr out of the game. Carr went to the locker room in concussion protocol and with shoulder and back injuries.

**Jameis Winston took over at quarterback and hit Olave for 30 yards on a tipped ball to the 2-yard line.

**Kamara scored on the next play and the Saints pulled within 33-28 with 7:30 to play in the game. It was a franchise-record 53rd rushing touchdown for Kamara, surpassing Mark Ingram. The drive covered 75 yards in 12 plays, taking 6:37 off the clock.

**Kamara also became the all-time leader in franchise history in total yards from scrimmage, surpassing Saints Hall of Fame inductee Marques Colston.

**The Saints reached the Detroit 40-yard line but Winston threw three straight incomplete passes, all off the mark, two with receivers open, and the Saints turned the ball over on downs with just under three minutes to play in the game.

**The Lions put the game away on a third-and-seven play as Goff hit LaPorta for 10 yards and a first down at the New Orleans 47-yard line.

**With the catch, LaPorta broke a 55-year-old record for receiving yards by a Lions rookie with 140, doing it on nine catches.

**Goff then hit Josh Reynolds for 12 yards and a first down to put the game away.

The Saints missed Maye, who could have certainly helped in dealing with LaPorta.

Give New Orleans credit for fighting back from a gigantic deficit but spotting a team 21 points in less than eight minutes and committing two turnovers was simply too much to overcome.

Early on, the Saints played like a team that was tight.

The Saints were passive.

The stands were full of fans clad in blue supporting a winning team, an indication of the direction of the two franchises.

Next week and for that matter, for the next two weeks, the Saints return to playing weaker teams in Carolina and the Giants. Maybe that will get the Saints a win or two.

Maybe not, depending on the health of Carr.

The day started with the offense being introduced and Carr drew many boos.

The day ended for Carr with fans applauding him as he was helped off the field injured.

Carr played very well, completing 17-of-22 passes for 226 yards and a touchdown with two drops.

The interception was completely on Johnson. Carr got his team into the red zone, finally, scoring touchdowns on all four red zone penetrations.

Detroit did not turn the ball over.

There is your game.

Now, we wait to see how serious the injury is to Carr. There is still some hope left in this season.

After all, the Saints are still in the lousy NFC South.

Lions fans remained in the stands well after the game was over, chanting “Let’s Go Lions.”

Things have changed in Caesars Superdome.

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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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