No one would accuse the Saints of playing beautiful football in back-to-back upsets of NFC South foes, but there are no style points in the NFL.
What gets remembered is 2-0 and the team that finds the winning plays, and that was the Saints in a 20-17 win over the Panthers that featured another impressive 4th quarter rally from Tyler Shough and the first game-winning moment for Irish kicker Charlie Smyth. The Saints are now 4-10, but the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert sees all-important confidence being built late in a lost season.
"I thought an outstanding win, 20-17, I think it’s good, too, from a confidence standpoint to have these type of comeback wins," Hebert said in his postgame rant.
Hear the full postgame comments from Bobby Hebert in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The Saints are now 3-3 since switching to Shough, with the QB now owning the team's franchise records for rookie passing yards, touchdowns and wins. More importantly was his engineering of a 7-play, 83-yard touchdown drive to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, all while reeling from some big hits on runs that sent him twice to the blue medical tent.
“I thought Tyler Shough accepted the challenge. … You can see Shough making plays with his feet," Hebert continued. "Now, obviously you want him to avoid those hits and stuff, because even though they have rules not to really cream the quarterback, they will try and cream him now and then. ... They will hit if you if they have an opportunity."
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What's most interesting for the Saints is what comes next. Despite being eliminated from the postseason the schedule sets up for a potential winning streak to close things out, with the 3-11 Jets coming to town next, followed by a meeting with the 2-12 Titans before a rematch with the Falcons.
A stretch of wins won't exactly work wonders for the Saints' draft pick status, but the Cajun Cannon has no interest in that conversation, and neither do the Saints. Installing a winning culture is paramount, and that's what seems to have started to happen over the past two weeks.
“The players playing right now, they’re playing for their livelihood, so I don’t want people calling us oh … what are we playing for," Hebert said. "No, we’re playing to establish something and see who is going to be the future of the team and you’re constantly being evaluated, so enough with that [draft pick talk].“