Saints see season end on stunning final play at Minnesota

It was an incredibly brutal ending to an incredibly refreshing season.

You live with rookies, you die with rookies.

The 2017 New Orleans Saints had an outstanding comeback season from three straight losing seasons, largely due to an amazing rookie class, led by Alvin Kamara, Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Trey Hendrickson and Marcus Williams. There is great hope for the future.

Williams had a superb rookie season, including with his fifth interception of the year earlier in this game. On the final play of the game, he made one of the truly worst plays you will ever see in a football game.

The Vikings had no timeouts remaining. Let Stefon Diggs catch the ball and tackle him. The game is over. Minnesota has no timeouts remaining.

Bless his heart, Williams’ instincts took over. He immediately broke on the ball, rather than playing it safe. Then, he looked like he was simply trying to avoid contact, perhaps frightened of a pass interference call, on an evening where the Saints’ secondary had a ton of those.

The end result was the most crushing defeat in franchise history, even worse than the 2011 season-ending loss at San Francisco when the Saints looked like the best team in the NFL.

The nightmare ending ruined a fairy tale story.

The Saints had rallied from 17 points down, on the road, against the best defense in the NFL. It was an amazing, gut-check effort.

Drew Brees had a zero passer rating in the first quarter. In the first half, he was 8-of-18 for 117 yards and two interceptions for a 26.6 passer rating and the Saints were shutout, down 17-0.

Then came the second half.

Brees turned it on, going 17-of-22 for 177 yards and three touchdowns against the top defense in the NFL. He played like one of the best quarterbacks in the game, one of the best ever, which he is.

It would have been the biggest comeback victory in franchise playoff history and would have been the biggest blown lead by the Vikings in franchise playoff history.

Instead, we are left with this, stunned, or as Led Zeppelin stated, dazed and confused.

Here are my quick takes from the Vikings’ 29-24 victory over the Saints:

**The Vikings won the toss and deferred, giving the Saints the ball first. It was a great move. Minnesota forced a three-and-out.

**The Vikings promptly drove 55 yards in eight plays with Jerick McKinnon scoring on a 14-yard run on a pitch. He was untouched, making it 7-0 with 9:45 to play in the opening quarter. The big play on the drive was a 22-yard completion from Case Keenum to Jarius Wright on a discreet pick-play.

**Wright popped wide open and it was an easy throw for Keenum, to get his confidence up early in the game. The Saints were in man-to-man coverage and Ken Crawley got picked off.

**The Vikings got another stop and then they targeted Ken Crawley, completing a first-down pass and then Crawley picked up consecutive pass interference penalties covering 54 yards.

**The second was a bad call, killing the Saints and setting up a 20-yard field goal by former Saint Kai Forbath to make it 10-0 at 4:42 to play in the opening quarter. The drive covered 79 yards in seven plays, taking 2:27 off the clock.

**The Saints finally got a stop but it amounted to nothing as Brees took a deep shot and was intercepted by Andrew Sendejo at the Minnesota 42-yard line. Ginn was the target and he was actually open but Brees underthrew him and Sendejo made an outstanding leaping interception at the Minnesota 42-yard line.

**The Vikings finished the first quarter with 106 yards of offense and 54 additional yards of penalties.

**Brees had a zero (0) passer rating in the first quarter. His three yards passing the quarter were the fewest in the first quarter this year. It was the first time Brees had had a 0.0 passer rating since Dec. 12, 2010 in the fourth quarter of a 10-3 win over the Rams.
**Latavius Murray had a 13-yard touchdown run negated by holding on Mike Remmers but it did not matter. Inexplicably, the Saints rushed three men, Keenum had about two hours to find an open receiver and he hit Diggs for a first down and goal.

**Then, Williams committed yet another pass interference penalty, setting up a one-yard touchdown by Murray to make it 17-0 with 9:58 to play in the half. The drive covered 58 yards in 12 plays, taking 6:08 off the clock.

**The Saints finally mounted a drive and Brees hit Ginn with a perfect throw of 29 yards for a touchdown but the play was nullified as Ginn was not set.

**It killed the Saints as Brees was again picked off by Anthony Barr. On the play, Everson Griffen tipped the pass straight into the air, setting up the easy interception.

**New Orleans got another drive going, starting from their own nine-yard line and getting to the Minnesota 30 but Brees was sacked and Sean Payton elected to try a 58-yard field goal by Wil Lutz which he missed left, giving the Vikings the ball at their own 48-yard line with 21 seconds left in the half.

**Minnesota drove to the New Orleans 32-yard line but former Saint Kai Forbath missed a 49-yard field goal wide left to end the half 17-0.

**The Saints were shut out in the first time for only the first time in 204 games. It snapped the longest streak in the league (61 games) of not being shutout in the first half.

**Minnesota had 169 yards of offense to 149 for the Saints but the two Brees interceptions, and six penalties for 92 yards, including three pass interference flags and one that negated a touchdown provided the explanation for 17-0.

**Minnesota had a nice drive to start the second half, reaching the New Orleans 30-yard line but Sheldon Rankins sacked Keenum to force a punt. Still, Minnesota took 7:02 off the clock on the drive.

**The Saints responded with an excellent drive, going 80 yards in 12 plays with Brees connecting with Thomas on a 14-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-7 with 1:18 to play in the third quarter. Brees and Thomas were a combined 3-for-3 for 47 yards and the score on the drive. Brees was 5-for-6 for 60 yards on the drive.

**It was the first touchdown pass allowed by the Vikings since week 14 against Carolina.

**Sendejo went down on the drive, hit very hard by Thomas on a legal hit, which drew the ire of Vikings defensive back Xavier Rhodes, who was jawing with Thomas and Mark Ingram after the play. It was Rhodes whom Thomas beat for the touchdown. Sendejo went into concussion protocol.

**On the next series, Cam Jordan got pressure on Keenum, he threw off balance and up for grabs and Williams intercepted at the Minnesota 30-yard line. It was the fifth interception of an outstanding rookie season for Williams.

**Minnesota then drove to the New Orleans 31-line on the strength of a 27-yard completion from Keenum to Jarius Wright against P.J. Williams. On the play, Payton challenged the call and it was costly as the pass was complete and the Saints lost a timeout.

**On third down, Jordan got big pressure, hit Keenum and the pass was incomplete. Payton decided to challenge the call, thinking Jordan had a sack but it was a poor decision, and the call was upheld, leaving the Saints with one timeout and no challenges left with 10:17 to play in the game.

**Forbath then drilled a 49-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 20-14 lead with 10:12 to play in the game. The drive covered 44 yards in seven plays, taking 2:57 off the clock.

**On the next series, Ginn ran an out route too shallow, caught a six-yard pass but left the Saints with a third-and-one at the 36-yard line. Payton went for the trick play and it should have worked. Brees threw backwards to Willie Snead and he then threw for a wide open Kamara in space but overthrew him, a huge miss, forcing a Saints punt.

**Prior to his big miss, Snead had attempted one pass in the NFL. You may recall that it went for a 50-yard touchdown to Tim Hightower against the Rams in 2016.

**George Johnson then came up with a huge play on special teams, blocking a punt by Ryan Quigley, giving the Saints the ball at the Minnesota 40-yard line.

**The Saints took total advantage, with Brees hitting Kamara on a 14-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-20 with 3:01 to play, going 40 yards in four plays.

**The Vikings showed toughness, driving 40 yards in nine plays and Forbath burned his former team with a 53-yard field goal to make it 23-21 Minnesota with 1:29 to play in the game. The big play was a 24-yard completion from Keenum to AdamThielen. On the play, Marshon Lattimore was flagged for defensive holding and pass interference but Thielen caught what was a great throw.

**Undaunted, Brees led the Saints back, driving 50 yards in 11 plays. He converted a huge fourth-down on a pass to Snead of 13 yards to the 33-yard line. That set up a 43-yard field goal by Lutz, who drilled it straight down the middle to give the Saints a 24-23 lead with 25 seconds left in the game.

**Lutz then kicked the ball in the end zone and you know the rest of the story.
Since 2015, Minnesota is 29-0 when leading by 10 points. It should have been 28-1.

An opportunity is gone, with the Eagles and Vikings playing for the NFC championship with reserve quarterbacks.

It is another year gone by for Brees, who turns 39 tomorrow. We can only hope that the window remains open for a couple of more seasons and that he is back here.

Give Keenum credit. He was 25-of-40 for 318 yards and one touchdown and an interception. He took a lot of hits.

If the Vikings and Minnesota fans were still desperate for revenge from the NFC championship game of 2010, they could not have drawn up a better script. They snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The Saints gave it away after taking it away.

Now, the Saints head into the offseason in need of getting key players back.

Will Delvin Breaux return and play in the league? Will Nick Fairley ever play again? Will Alex Anzalone remain healthy and play in the league? Where will Kenny Vaccaro be playing next season? What of Alex Okafor and Hau’oli Kikaha? Don’t forget signal caller A.J. Klein. Can Coby Fleener return to being an effective receiving tight end? Will Snead rediscover himself? Can Terron Armstead remain healthy? Will Zach Strief be a Saint next season?

Will Williams be able to recover from this?

The Saints need another good offseason. The defense improved but it is not a championship defense quite yet.

That said, the Saints are now a contender once again, thanks to a great draft and intelligent, sound decisions with free agent signings. Payton got his mojo back. It was a good season. It could have been a better season. That will sting for quite some time.