Hoss: If the Good and Bad Breaks Eventually Even Out, the Saints are Due Their Just Rewards

How many times this week did you ask, or get asked, “Why does the NFL hate the Saints?”

I got asked so often, I carried around a piece of paper with Rule 8, Section 1, Item 1, Subset (a) on the NFL’s interpretation of a forward pass.

It feels like the answer is in the rule itself: forward pass. But I’m not here to travel down the fumble-recovery-for-a-touchdown path again; it’s too agonizing.

The Saints were down 21-0 in a building where teams don’t come back from such a deficit, and they had not one, but two chances to win. I’ll take that. Still, last week hurt, and hurt so much that the 24-hour window to forget the previous game was extended closer to 96 hours.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, truly, but doesn’t it sometimes feel like factors beyond this team’s control concoct new ways for the Black & Gold to come out on the wrong end? A rule, a bounce, a tip, anything.

I believe you control your own fate. But even now, I’m starting to wonder. Was it always this way?

Remembering the last time the Saints played in Baltimore

Apologies in advance, but I’m a history guy. So, like last week, to dig deeper, I want to take a trip back to the last time the Saints played in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium. An October 21st afternoon, 8 years ago: Drew Brees vs. Joe Flacco.

The 4-1 Saints were coming off a bye week, ready to keep their 4-game winning streak rolling against a talented 4-2 Ravens team. But the Saints fell behind 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter until an Alvin Kamara TD brought it to 17-14 Ravens.

With 7:00 minutes left in the 4th, still trailing by three, the Saints faced a 4th-and-one. Drew Brees took the snap, jumped, and reached the ball across the plane for the first down, but it was close…razor-thin close. He made it, but you know those things can go either way; this time, it went rightfully in favor of the Saints.

Later, a Michael Thomas touchdown reception from Brees put the Saints up 21-17, which they increased to 24-17 with 2 minutes to play. But then Baltimore had the ball.

With 28 seconds remaining in the game, Joe Flacco hit John Brown for a TD to make it 24-23 Saints. Overtime was looming, seemingly inevitable.

Justin Tucker was the Ravens' kicker. Since entering the league in 2012, he had made every extra point he tried, 222 for 222… until that autumn afternoon, when, shockingly, his extra point sailed wide right.

I couldn’t believe our team's good fortune. A victory formation later, the now 5-1 Saints escaped Baltimore with a one-point win. That Sunday, 24 points was enough for victory; last Sunday in Detroit, it got you 10 extra minutes of football, and a one-point loss.

I won’t say everything, but pretty much everything that could have gone in favor of the Saints late in that Baltimore game did. The four-game win streak became 10 as the Saints finished the year 13-3. It was shaping up to be their year. Everything fell into place, and nothing was going to stop the Saints from getting their second Super Bowl Title.

This all went down in 2018. Yep, that year. The year the league had a clear rule against defensive pass interference, but chose not to use it in one of the most crucial moments of the season, costing the Saints, I’m sure, a win against the Rams, their second NFC Championship, and undoubtedly another Super Bowl.

How bad was the “no call?” So bad that the NFL experimented with an interference challenge rule in 2019 to try to make amends. But that was then. Now, it's 2026, and we're still questioning the Who Dat Nation's odd relationship with Lady Luck.

There are 16 more games to determine the Saints' fate for 2026, and we prefer our fate to be left up to what happens on the field, not up to someones selective interpretation of the rulebook. But that's not always how it shakes out.

You like to think that, in life, the good and the bad even out. And if that’s true, there’s a long way to go before we are even close to even. But a win over the heavily favored Baltimore Ravens in Maryland on Sunday is at least a step in the right direction. Geaux Saints.