The 2022 NFL season has been week after week of insanity across the board, it’s not JUST a New Orleans thing. But still, the week off allowed us to sit back and try to digest it all.
The result was serious reflux, at least in my case. But a closer look at this ongoing Saints campaign highlights just how out of the norm it has truly been. Well, unless this is the new-norm, and I’m not even thinking about that. It’s the holidays for gosh sakes.
Any digestion of this season begins and ends with the current bookend games: Week 1 and Week 13. The Saints are 4-9 and there is nothing extraordinary in that, but their first game and their last game are in the history books for polar opposite reasons, and that is extraordinary.
THE GAME | Falcons (5-8) at Saints (4-9)
- When: Noon, Sunday, Dec. 18
- Where: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Betting: Saints -4
- TV: Fox
- Listen: WWL AM-870; FM-105.3 & the Audacy app
- Pregame: Fans First Take with Jeff Nowak & Steve Geller, 8-10 a.m.; Countdown to Kickoff with Bobby Hebert & Kristian Garic, 10-noon
The Saints have blown 13-point 4th quarter leads before, but never with just 5:21 to play and their opponent taking over deep in their own territory. There are blown leads and there are gifts, and I guess this was a little of both.
The Week 13 collapse has the potential to haunt this team (and me) for a while. It was one of those games that, even 2 years down the road, will pop into your head in the middle of a random Wednesday and will leave you in a bad mood for the rest of it. I hope I’m wrong, and don’t worry, I usually am. I was just getting over the loss in Tampa when I tuned in to see the helpless Buccaneers get mauled by San Francisco. Then I got mad all over again, but worse, knowing what could have and should have been in South Florida. See, here I am, mad again.
The first bookend in Week 1 was exactly the opposite, with the Saints setting a new franchise record by overcoming a 16-point 4th quarter deficit to beat Atlanta, 27-26. Even more amazing is that the Saints comeback in the fourth quarter took place with Atlanta holding the ball for 9:35 of the 4th quarter. Yet the Black and Gold scored 17 unanswered to win. At the time Falcons fans were like, well, here we go again, and Saints fans were feeling, ‘hey maybe the ball will bounce our way this year.’ I’m not sure how Falcons fans feel about 5-8, but I do know, unequivocally, the ball did everything but bounce the way of the Saints since that point.
The bookends of Week 1 and Week 13 define this season, a model of inconsistency. Two paths into the record books, the best of times and worst.
And if you look inside the bookends, it’s just as inconsistent. If you look just from Week 2 to Week 12, excluding the standout bookend games, the Saints had 25 touchdowns and 20 turnovers.
Related
Every week felt different, yet the same. The numbers that used to always spell victory for this team no longer did so. Like in Week 5, when the Saints, in Caesars Superdome, ran for 235 yards, scored 5 touchdowns, lost the turnover battle, but beat Seattle 39-32. The very next week, also at home, the Saints rushed for 228 yards, scored 2 touchdowns, made 4 field goals, WON the turnover battle, and lost to Cincinnati 30-26. What? It defies explanation.
Also in the middle of this season are two shutouts. The Saints got one of them against the Raiders in Week 8, 24-0. The Raiders did not cross midfield until late in the 4th quarter. It was total domination.
Three weeks later the Saints were in San Francisco and landed on the other end of a shutout, 13-0. But the Saints could hardly be compared to the Raiders. New Orleans spent what felt like the whole game in 49ers territory, driving past midfield five times. They got inside the 30-yard line three times, and inside the 6-yard line twice. But, wait … they got shut out? How is that even possible?
Well, anything is possible this season when you are consistently inconsistent. There are four games left for more unbelievable things to happen. Strap in.
Related
