The positive thing I can say for the game is that it didn't manage to get to overtime.
The Panthers won 10-7 in a game that neither team seemed to want to win. In the end the Saints lost, and they did it in some of the uglier fashion you'll see. At the end of the day it was a meaningless game as far as the playoffs are concerned, but this was an image that'll stick with you into an offseason that will feature A LOT of tough questions.
With all that in mind, here are my three quick takeaways from a game to mercifully end the 2022 season.
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1. IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE OFFENSE
Dennis Allen has earned a fair amount of criticism this season, I'll never deny that. But there are many who would say it's time to run the first-year head coach out of town over every possible issue.
That said, there is one area of the coaching staff that needs to be seriously re-evaluated. It starts with the man calling the offensive plays. There are just too many instances of boring, unimaginative, confusing, ineffective ... pick an adjective, there's a good chance it's right ... play-calling. The decision was made to keep Pete Carmichael in the offensive coordinator role at the start of the season, and I just can't see how you run that back for one more year.
In defense of Carmichael, things never really did go to plan. Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry only had two games before injuries effectively ended their seasons. Your first-round LT missed a majority of the season. You shifted to an Andy Dalton-led offense after three games. There were a lot of moving parts, sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't.
Still, it's impossible to deny that this team got in its way on the offensive side of the ball far more often than it dominated. That was the case again in Week 18. The Saints went on an 8-play drive for a touchdown to start the game. They dominated on the offensive side of the ball the rest of the half, but they were unable to put points on the board. There was a missed FG from 44 yards (that's a whole issue of its own). There was a TOD on short yardage (another area that never quite found its way). There was a fumble late in the first half (stop me if you've heard this one before). Oh, and a brutally bad 55-yard attempt that'd have put the Saints ahead late in the game.
Seven points on the opening possession. Zero the rest of the way. If you told me the Saints were trying to lose this game, I'd say ... man, I hope so.
You need discipline. You need creativity. You need an identity. That's the lever I really need to see the Saints pull this offseason.
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2. THE OLAVE ISSUE
The Saints took a big swing in trading up for Chris Olave in last year's draft, and it sure has looked like they struck gold.
The smooth-as-silk receiver became the first Saints rookie since Michael Thomas to go over the century mark. He has an innate ability to find space. He can create it with the best of them, and he has the speed to get over the top, even if that hasn't been used nearly as much since Dalton took over the reins.
But ball security was an issue early in the season, and it continues to be that way all the way up to the end. You can look at the odd fumble all the way back in Week 2 as he went to the ground with a big gain, only to have the ball jarred from his hands for a turnover. We saw a similar situation during a Week 10 loss to the 49ers, when a big gain into 49ers territory was overturned to an incomplete pass as he lost possession when he hit the turf. Fast-forward to Week 18, and a big catch into field goal range became a turnover as he lost the ball going to the turf.
Rookie WRs are never finished products, and that's true of Olave. That said, there are issues that you can fix, and this is one of them. In his first full NFL offseason, I expect ball security to be a major focus. I also expect him to work on his structure, because bulking up a bit will also likely help in that regard.
The Saints have a star, and potentially a superstar in the making. His rookie season ends with 72 catches for 1,042 yards. How he builds into Year 2 will tell a lot.
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3. THE TYRANN MATHIEU DEFENSE WOKE UP
Call it too little too late, but the critics of Tyrann Mathieu have gotten awfully quiet ... or at least they should be. The defense that was supposed to be the star of this group turned out to be exactly that over the final two months of the season.
From Week 10 on, the Saints did not allow a single team to score in the 20s. They started turning the ball over at a faster clip, and they started locking down on the edges of the field. If not for a monumental collapse at the hands of Tom Brady and the Bucs, it likely would've been enough to carry the 2022 campaign into the postseason.
One of the major pieces of that surging group has been Tyrann Mathieu, a player who received seemingly unending criticism early in the season as he worked into a new defensive scheme and a new safety tandem. He'll finish this season with 91 tackles, a career high. His interception near the goal line was his third on the year, a pretty impressive number for a team that only had 7 total.
He's one of the few players to appear in all 17 games. He's been a consistent, calming, veteran presence on a team that needed it. He'll be back next season, and hopefully this defense can start fast -- because the hot finished are somehow even more miserable when they end up meaning nothing but momentum heading into a long offseason.
Oh, and Sam Darnold's line from this game was pretty epic.
5-15 for 43 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs. Half of that came on a pass to Terrace Marshall that set up a game-winning field goal attempt.
LAGNIAPPE...
With his 25-yard touchdown catch on the Saints' opening possession, Chris Olave became the third rookie WR in franchise history to surpass 1,000 yards (Michael Thomas & Marques Colston). ... The run blocking was creating big holes early on. A good sign with Trevor Penning making his first career start and James Hurst shifting inside to guard. ... The Saints have received the ball and driven for a touchdown of 8 or more plays in three of their past four games. ... The Saints had the ball in Panthers territory four times in the first half, but only managed 7 points. Wil Lutz missed a 44-yard field goal. Alvin Kamara was stopped on 4th and short and Chris Olave fumbled late in the first half. ... Alvin Kamara went past 1,300 yards from scrimmage in this game, a feat he's achieved in each of the past six seasons. He's the first player to do that since 2019 (Julio Jones). ... Saints DT Shy Tuttle set a new career high in tackles (49).