Saints squander lead, game in OT loss to Giants

  • October 3, 2021
  • By Ken Trahan
  • Category: Saints
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It was a return to New Orleans and the Caesars Superdome, and it was the first game with a capacity crowd since 2019. The New Orleans Saints were favored by a touchdown.

The table was set.

Lunch would be courtesy of the New York Giants, who were without two key receivers and lacked offensive punch overall, anyway.

Apparently, the Giants did not get the memo.

Apparently, the Saints did not get it, either.

The result was the Giants getting an unexpected first win and the Saints getting an unexpected home loss.

You kind of knew it was going to be a bad day when arriving and looking at the top of the facility and seeing the brand new Saints Ring of Honor inductees with new, beautiful, backlit signs.

The concept was great.

The execution was awful.

The sign honoring The Great Dane, Morten Andersen, was embarrassing.

The sign misspelled Morten, going with Morton, instead.

The sign also did not give correct historical perspective to Andersen’s brilliant career in New Orleans, listing him as playing from 1982-1993.

In fact, Andersen kicked for the Saints from 1982-1994.

They were close, anyway.

It was a portend for what would follow.

The concept of finally playing at home before a full house was great.

The execution by the home team was awful.

The result followed.

Here are my Quick Takes from the 27-21 overtime win for the Giants over the Saints:

**The Saints won the toss and deferred, electing to give the Giants the ball first.

**Cesar Ruiz remained the starting center with Calvin Throckmorton remaining at right guard.

**On the second series of the game for the Saints, New Orleans elected to go for it on fourth-and-3 from the New York 29-yard line, passing on a potential 47-yard field goal attempt by Aldrick Rosas.

**First, the Saints tried to draw the Giants offside and could not and blew a timeout.

**Then, New Orleans elected to go for it, anyway, and it failed as Alvin Kamara was stopped a half-yard short of the first down.

**New York put together a drive from its own 27 to the New Orleans 16-yard line but on fourth-and-one, the Giants opted for the field goal attempt and Graham Gano missed it, leaving the game scoreless.

**Tony Jones Jr. was injured early in the second quarter and, unfortunately, was carted off, not a good sign at all. At first, he tried to rise but then went back down.

**New Orleans moved to the New York 40-yard line but the drive stalled and Sean Payton elected to allow Aldrick Rosas to try a 58-yard field goal, which was wide right, giving the Giants the ball at their own 48-yard line.

**New York capitalized, needing just one play to take the lead on a 51-yard touchdown pass from Daniel Jones to John Ross III to give the Giants a 7-0 lead with 8:51 to play in the first half. Ross beat Paulson Adebo on the play without MArcus Williams providing any deep-middle support.

**On the play, Marcus Williams stripped Ross as he was going down but upon replay, the score was upheld, ruled that Ross, indeed, fumbled but he recovered in the end zone for the score.

**The Saints finally got even, driving 75 yards in 11 plays, taking 8:28 off the clock with Winston hitting Juwan Johnson on a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-7 with 23 seconds remaining in the half. On the drive, the Saints overcame a holding penalty and a questionable illegal formation penalty.

**New Orleans dominated the football, possessing it for 20:28 in the half to just 9:32 for the Giants, who made the one big play.

**Kamara had 14 carries for 62 yards in the half.

**On the first play of the second half, Payton turned Winston loose. Winston executed a good play-fake to Kamara, was given plenty of time to throw and threw a deep strike to Marquez Callaway for 58 yards to the New York 17-yard line.

**Two plays later, Taysom Hill ran through five would-be tacklers, bulling his way into the end zone on an 8-yard run to give the Saints a 14-7 lead just 1:36 into the third quarter, capping a three play, 75-yard drive.

**New York pulled within 14-10 with 8:36 to play in the third quarter, driving 70 yards in 10 plays, taking 4:44 off the clock. The Giants reached the New Orleans 2-yard line but Pete Werner had a big tackle for a loss and Marshon Lattimore broke up a pass in the end zone and Gano kicked a 23-yard field goal.

**Winston then hit Kenny Stills with a beautiful 54-yard touchdown pass but Adam Trautman, who has had a dreadful season to date, was flagged for holding, negating the score.

**Then, Hill was inserted at quarterback and he tried to throw deep to Deonte Harris. The pass was underthrown and James Bradberry picked it off at the New York 12-yard line.

**The Saints finally built a two-score lead, driving 63 yards in 11 plays, taking 6:14 off the clock with Hill scoring on an 8-yard run to make it 21-10 with 12:09 to play in the game.

**Kamara went over 100 yards rushing midway through the fourth quarter, his first time this season and for the fourth time in his career. He finished with a career high in carries with 26 rushes for 120 yards.

**The Giants then hit the big play again as Jones hit Saquan Barkley on a 54-yard touchdown pass and Jones ran in the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to 21-18 with 6:52 to play.

**On the play, Barkley was wide open, with Marshon Lattimore in the chase position.

**The Giants forced overtime, driving 59 yards in 11 plays, taking 2:10 off the clock and Gano drilled a 48-yard field goal to even the game 21-21 with :31 seconds remaining.

**New York won the coin toss for overtime and that would prove decisive.

**The Giants promptly drove 75 yards in nine plays with Barkley capping off the drive with a 6-yard touchdown to give the Giants the win.

**On the drive, Jones was 6-of-6 for 63 yards.

**The Saints had no pass rush. The Saints had no coverage.

Through four weeks of the 2021 season, the Saints have been the consummate definition of a Jekyll and Hyde outfit.

New Orleans was lights out against Green Bay and very good at New England in odd weeks. The Saints were terrible at Carolina, under adverse circumstances, and awful against a poor team Sunday at home, as a solid favorite.

The lack of consistency across the board is an issue.

Winston threw the ball well while Kamara ran it well and Hill made some plays.
It is hard to find anything good to say about the defense.

Winston finished 17-of-23 for 226 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. You still get the feeling that he is still not quite trusted enough to turn him loose and he made big plays, one of which was negated by a penalty.

Jones picked the Saints apart, completing 28-of-40 passes for 402 yards and two touchdowns with an interception but that came on a desperation heave into the end zone to end the first half.

In picking the Saints to go 8-9, the vision was missing David Onyemata on defense and that has hurt but Cam Jordan has slowed down and Marcus Davenport is hurt again. So is Kwon Alexander.

On offense, the vision was what to make of Winston and who could make plays on the outside? Not having Erik McCoy and Terron Armstead has certainly hurt.

Good teams do not blow a double-digit, fourth-quarter lead at home to an inferior team.

The 2021 New Orleans Saints are not a good team, at least not yet. The New Orleans Saints are not a bad team, at least not yet.

Frankly, I am not sure just who they are.

It will be nice getting Michael Thomas back, whenever that happens.

It will be nice getting Wil Lutz back, whenever that happens.

The same is true of Armstead, McCoy, Davenport and Alexander and, for that matter, Tre’Quan Smith.

Next week, the Saints travel to take on the Washington Football Team.

Perhaps it will be good.

It is, after all, the odd week.

It was an odd performance Sunday to even the record, a vastly disappointing outcome.

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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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