The New Orleans Saints gave themselves a chance until the final play fell incomplete in a 20-13 loss to the Cardinals.
It was good fight in an ugly game that featured 13 accepted penalties against the Saints, but a loss is a loss. The Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert fears this type of game might be a trend in the 2025 season.
"I think this is going to happen more than not," Hebert said in his postgame rant on WWL Radio, "so I think I’m going to get an ulcer. … At the end of the game was it’s going to be torment."
Hear the full postgame rant in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The Saints saw this game end in the same way we've seen several go the last few years: A last gasp drive that fell just short. The defense got the stop it needed and Rattler took the offense into the red zone, but a jump ball to Juwan Johnson was knocked out at the last moment by a Cardinals defender. Johnson led the Saints with 8 catches for 76 yards.
The Saints finished the day 1-for-4 in terms of scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Three times Blake Grupe was asked to kick field goals of less than 40 yards.
"When you get down there you've got to get touchdowns. You’re just not going to win," Hebert continued. "The NFL is just too tough, I mean, it ends up being so close, oh, we played hard, Bobby, we played hard. What is that gonna get you, a cup of coffee, you know, playing hard, it’s the pros. Either you won or you lost, but I like the effort, they’re playing hard for coach Kellen Moore, so close, but so far.”
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On the sloppy play
“You are not gonna win when all is said and done when you have these kind of penalties. You had 13 penalties, not nine, not 10, but 13, then 89 yards. … You cannot have that, you know why, because it puts you behind the sticks. … Then you’ve got third and double digits or second and 15 or 1st and 15. No, the NFL is too good, you’re not going to convert on third down, that means you’re not setting the tone, you’re not possessing the football. What ended up happening? The Cardinals ended up possessing the ball 7.5 minutes more than we did because on third down we weren’t good enough.”
On a struggling DB
“Kool-Aid, I want to drink the Kool-Aid on Kool-Aid, but he’s got a ways to go. Kool-Aid is competing, but he ain’t no Lattimore and he’s not even to me, he’s not even a Paulson Adebo. You know how, OK, like, Adebo was a little too handsy and Lattimore sometimes you didn’t like his attitude, and I think McKinstry is playing hard, but he’s gonna get picked on. We saw that with Davante Adams when we were going against the Rams, I said if we were playing the Rams they’ve have given him 15 targets. But no, Marvin Harrison, they end up going after him, they targeted him 6 times, 4 catches, that 45 yard gain and he also beat Kool-Aid on the touchdown.”
Some positives
“What I’m encouraged by is Kendre Miller and Devin Neal. Kendre Miller averaged 4.8, Devin Neal 4.5, that’s winning football.”