Saints pick off Panthers to secure No. 2 seed in NFC playoffs

  • January 3, 2021
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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Saints at Panthers 2021

 
The New Orleans Saints did the job they had to do Sunday. Yet, despite getting the needed win by the Seattle Seahawks, they got no help from the Chicago Bears.

Why in the world did I think the Bears had a chance to beat Green Bay? Call me a fool.

Green Bay earned the the well-deserved top seed in the NFC. The Packers are playing great football right now.

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints ignored distractions, ignored missing key, important players all season long, including their Hall of Fame quarterback for a period of four games, and had an outstanding season.

It concluded with a very impressive win at Carolina Sunday.

The Saints won the turnover battle 5-0.

All five turnovers created were interceptions and they came from five different players.

That is impressive enough but when you consider that the Saints were missing three key members of the secondary, it is even more impressive.

The five interceptions matched the output of Dec. 22, 1991 when the Saints, at Tempe, Arizona, whipped the Cardinals 27-3 in a game I covered which clinched the NFC West championship, the first division title in franchise history.

On this day, there were no running backs available who had played all season long.

The next-man-up premise worked to perfection again as Ty Montgomery, who came into the game with one carry for minus four yards, picked up the slack. Montgomery finished with 18 carries for 105 yards.

Without Michael Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith, Emmanuel Sanders was the next man up. The veteran caught nine passes for 63 yards and a score and reached his contract bonus.

Sanders needed eight catches to reach 60 for the season and caught nine. Sean Payton made sure of it, and the two exchanged pleasantries on the sideline.

What was also encouraging was the fact that Drew Brees, playing in his third game back from 11 broken ribs and a collapsed lung, continued his progress.

Brees was shaky in the loss to the Chiefs. He was better in the win over Minnesota last week. He was good in the win at Carolina Sunday.

Brees is trending up heading into the playoffs and that is huge.

Lacking a bye, the beat-up Saints must catch a break now. They will be at home in the playoffs until the NFC championship game, if the seeds hold. Of course, that is a long way away.

Here are my Quick Takes on the 33-7 win at Charlotte:

**The Saints elevated cornerback Grant Haley and linebacker Chase Hansen from the practice squad in standard fashion. They also elevated Tommylee Lewis, running back Tony Jones Jr., tight end Garrett Griffin, linebacker Andrew Dowell and wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey from the COVID-19 list to the active roster.

**Placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list were safety D.J. Swearinger, along with running backs Latavius Murray, Dwayne Washinton and Michael Burton. In addition, running backs coach Joel Thomas did not travel to Charlotte and did not coach the game.

**Previously, Alvin Kamara and C.J. Gardner-Johnson were declared out with COVID-19 issues.

**Inactives for the Saints were Will Clapp, Josh Hill, Derrick Kelly, Jake Kumerow, Malcolm Roach and Marcus Williams.

**Inactives for the Panthers were defensive end Brian Burns, running back Mike Davis, quarterback Will Grier, defensive tackle Woodrow Hamilton, defensive back Natrell Jamerson, running back Christian McCaffrey and tackle Russell Okung.

**The Saints wore their gold pants, a rarity.

**New Orleans won the toss and deferred, giving Carolina the ball first.

**Haley was on the field on the first series. He had played in just one previous NFL game but played virtually the whole way in this one.

**The Saints got a 3-and-out, with Hendrickson sacking Teddy Bridgewater on third down for a loss of 10 to force a punt. That gave Hendrickson 13.5 sacks on the season.

**Tommylee Lewis had a nice punt return to the Carolina 42-yard line, setting the Saints up with a short field.

**Andrus Peat and Nick Easton returned to start at guard.

**The field position paid off as New Orleans went 42 yards in eight plays, taking 4:24 off the clock with Drew Brees hitting Jared Cook on an 18-yard touchdown pass to give the Saints a 7-0 lead with 9:04 to play in the opening quarter.

**On the drive, the Saints ran it four times and passed it four times with Brees going 4-for-4 for 36 yards and the score.

**Carolina got even, driving 64 yards in seven plays, taking 4:10 off the clock with Rodney Smith scoring his first NFL touchdown on a 1-yard run to make it 7-7 with 1:40 to play in the opening quarter.

**The big plays of the drive were an obvious pass interference penalty on Haley for a first down and a 25-yard completion from Bridgewater to Curtis Samuel to set up the score. On that play, Malcolm Jenkins was right in position to make a play on the ball and did not.

**After getting a stop, Janoris Jenkins made a great break on the ball on a short out route and would have an easy pick-six but he dropped the ball.

**Carolina then drove to the New Orleans 18-yard-line but Bridgewater made an ill-advised throw into the end zone and Malcolm Jenkins picked it off and returned it to the New Orleans 46-yard line. It was the third interception of the season by Jenkins.

**That led to New Orleans taking the lead as the Saints drove 54 yards in five plays with Brees hitting Emmanuel Sanders on an 8-yard touchdown pass to make it 13-7 with 8:56 to play in the first half.

**Troubling was the missed extra point by Wil Lutz, his first of the year. He missed it badly, pulling it way left.

**The big play of the drive was a quick toss sweep to the short side (left side) to Montgomery, who broke in the clear and raced 37 yards to the Carolina 10-yard line. On the play the big blocks were by Terron Armstead and Marquez Callaway.

**The Panthers drove to the New Orleans 21-yard line and on fourth-and-one, they went for it and Marshon Lattimore and Malcom Brown combined to stuff Samuel for a loss of a yard a big stop.

**Per usual, Brees engineered a scoring drive in the final two minutes as the Saints drove 62 yards 10 plays, taking the final 2:42 off the clock and Lutz, this time, converted on a 33-yard field goal to give the Saints a 16-7 lead at halftime.

**The 33 yards was the same distance of the extra point Lutz missed earlier.

**On the drive, Brees hit on 7-of-9 passes for 62 yards.

**The Saints have now scored in 14-of-16 games in the final two minutes of the first half this season, a remarkable number. The only two games in which the Saints did not score in such situations were at Las Vegas and at Philadelphia.

**Brees was 13-of-16 for 114 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.

**The Panthers had the ball for 17:02 to just 12:58 for the Saints in the half.

**The Saints took the second half kickoff and drove 46 yards in eight plays with Lutz knocking through a 48-yard field goal to make it 19-7 with 11:49 to play I the third quarter. The big play of the drive was a 27-yard strike from Brees to Callaway.

**Carolina then hit a big play from Bridgewater to D.J. Moore against double coverage by the Saints. It covered 44 yards to the New Orleans 19-yard line.

**On the next play, Bridgewater tried to throw to the right corner of the end zone but it was a bad decision and bad throw and Haley picked it off, the second interception in the end zone of Bridgewater in the game.

*Brees then hit Callaway with an 18-yard strike for a first down midway through the third quarter but Callaway was hurt on the play, though he walked off the field and he was able to return.

**P.J. Walker entered the game at quarterback in place of Bridgewater midway through the third quarter. Bridgewater had his right ankle taped heavily with ice applied on the sideline.

**Walker then threw a pass well behind Samuel, who was open. It hit Samuel and caromed into the hands of Marshon Lattimore for an interception, the third of the game for New Orleans, at the Carolina 24-yard line.

**It was the 10th interception of Lattimore’s career.

**New Orleans capitalized, driving 24 yards in just three plays with Taysom Hill scoring on a 3-yard run behind excellent blocks by Garrett Griffin, playing fullback, and Andrus Peat, and it was 26-7 with 4:56 to play in the third quarter.

**Hill set up the touchdown with a 16-yard run on the prior play.

**New Orleans got a stop and then put the game away, driving 57 yards in eight plays, taking 4:27 off the clock with Brees hitting Austin Carr on an 11-yard touchdown pass to make it 33-7 with 14:55 to play in the game.

**Hill and Terron Armstead were both injured on the dame play in the fourth quarter and left the field under their own power. Hill left and went to the locker room, though.

**Jameis Winston entered the game with 4:09 to play for the final offensive series of the game for the Saints. He managed to get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a bump of a defender that seemed to be in jest. The officials did not see it that way.

This was a solid, outstanding, special win for the Saints, who were without a ton of key players, including C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Marcus Williams, Josh Hill, D.J. Swearinger, Deonte Harris, Kwon Alexander, Alvin Kamara, Latavius Murray, Michael Burton, Michael Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith. All are starters, in some capacity, except for Swearinger.

How many NFL teams could survive and win without so many important players?

The Saints not only won but won by 26 points.

The Saints became the first team to sweep the NFC South, going 6-0 in division games.

New Orleans is just the fourth NFC franchise with 12 or more victories in three straight seasons.

Of course, while that signifies excellence, it is all about excellence in the postseason.

Will the Saints find a way to breakthrough?

This did not figure to be easy.

The Panthers were competitive all season long. While they were 5-10, were 3-8 in one-score games.

This one would not be close.

So the Bears could not beat the Packers.

They did not beat the Saints earlier this season as New Orleans won 26-23 at Soldier Field on Nov. 1.

Now, the Bears will get another shot, in New Orleans, with Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback as opposed to Nick Foles.

The Saints will be at home to open the playoffs again, as a solid favorite.

That was the scenario a year ago.

Will it be different this time?

It figures to be different if the Saints can get their key players on the field.

With the NFL assigning the Saints to host the Bears next Sunday at 3:40 p.m., that should enable the Saints to get all of the players affected by COVID-19 back.

Meanwhile, New Orleans Saints fans should appreciate a team that is deep, tough-minded and well coached.

It will take three wins to get to the Super Bowl.

This season, everything is day-to-day.

Who knows what happens during the week this week?

Who knows who will play next weekend?

What we do know is that the Saints are good and while Green Bay is certainly the favorite and the media will fawn over Tampa Bay, do not overlook the black and gold.

The defense is better.

The quarterback is playing closer to form.

If all of the key guys are back, outside of Alexander, this team has a shot.

Sunday’s win did nothing to dispel that notion.

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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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