By: Jordan Fiegel
“Chin up, you have to hold your chin up,” Saints color analyst Deuce McAllister told Saints fans. “It was not pretty. It was not what you wanted, but at the end of the day, that’s what it is.”
It was a tough, tough loss for the New Orleans Saints, who fell 26-23 in overtime against the Los Angeles Rams. It was a hard-fought game, but New Orleans did have a chance to blow it wide open early on.
“The opportunity is there for this team to make plays early in the game and even late in the game,” McAllister said. One of the biggest problems was a failure to convert in the red zone. “You knew you could not continue to get down there [in the red zone] and come up with field goals, because you felt that at some point that Rams offense would wake up; and they really did in the second and third quarter.”
The Saints first two drives both stalled out in the red zone, and they settled for field goals. Instead of being up 14-0, New Orleans was up just 6-0.
“It comes down to making the plays that are there for you, whether you’re talking about overtime or closing out the game,” McAllister said. “At the end of the day, you didn’t do it.”
Despite some of the issues on offense, including a ground game that averaged less than 3 yards per carry and Drew Brees getting hit 7 times, McAllister was largely impressed with the Saints defense. “You felt your defense played well enough to be able to win. They gave up 6 points in the fourth quarter,” McAllister said. “You felt that the Saints would hit a big play or two, and those big plays just never came.”
While McAllister pointed out the missed opportunities, he also acknowledged just how huge the missed penalty near the end of the game was, a call which could have been defensive pass interference or helmet-to-helmet. “Obviously, I know there was…a pass interference no-call…that’s on the refs,” McAllister said. “The NFL did at least admit to Coach Payton that they missed two calls on that play.”
Without those big plays and with that crucial missed call from the officials, the game went to overtime. Particularly after the missed pass interference, there was a change in the atmosphere in the Superdome.
“You could kind of feel it,” McAllister admitted. “You’re deflated. You’re deflated because it’s so close, and now you have to go and get yourselves back up to go and fight again to try to win that game. You never felt like those guys got back on track and focused. You could feel some of the air being taken out of the Superdome.”