Grantland on Saints: "The Disappointments"

The Disappointments

New Orleans Saints
Playoff Odds: 0 percent

The competitive portion of New Orleans’s roller-coaster season finally came to an end Sunday, as the Saints were eliminated from playoff contention with a brutal 30-14 home loss to the archrival Falcons.

You can argue the game wasn’t quite as one-sided as that score indicates; wipe off the meaningless Osi Umenyiora fumble recovery touchdown on the game’s final play and call Jimmy Graham’s goal-line fumble in the fourth quarter a touchdown on the field with no possibility of finding irrefutable evidence of a reversal on replay and the game’s suddenly a two-point contest. Even with that in mind, the Saints somehow managed to take a game they led 7-0 within 20 seconds after a 99-yard kickoff return from Jalen Saunders and end up in a situation where they were underdogs for each of the final 33 minutes.

They blew the lead and blew up their season in spectacular fashion, owing in part to their heavy reliance on replacement-level talent. The Saints breathed life into their opponent’s biggest weakness and made it a strength, with a dormant Falcons pass rush that had just 16 sacks through 14 games somehow sacking Drew Brees five times on 52 dropbacks. That’s more sacks than the Falcons recorded during the entire month of September (when they recorded three) or October (four). It’s also five more sacks than the Saints recorded, as a limited Junior Galette and an anonymous Cameron Jordan were at the helm of a unit that failed to sack Matt Ryan even once in 41 dropbacks.

Three of those Atlanta sacks came in the first half, including one that forced a Brees fumble that knocked the Saints out of field goal range. Backup left tackle Bryce Harris, making his third career start because of an injury to Terron Armstead, committed a false start on a fourth-and-2 at the edge of field goal range that created a fourth-and-7 and ended with a Brees interception. Presented with a seven-point lead after one play from scrimmage, the Saints went scoreless for the next 53 minutes. They gained just 68 yards on their four subsequent first-half possessions, averaging 2.6 yards per play.