“You had the Bengals on the ropes,” Mike Detillier, co-host of Sports Talk, told WWL's Tommy Tucker. “You just couldn't put them away.”
The New Orleans Saints moved the ball pretty well against Cincinnati for much of the game, but too many drives stalled out in the red zone and ended in field goals. That cost the Saints in the 30-26 loss, which dropped them to 2-4 on the year.
New Orleans racked up 399 yards, including 228 rushing yards, and avoided turning the ball over. But the Saints made five trips to the red zone and only came away with a touchdown once, settling for a Wil Lutz field goal the other four times.
Related
The Superdome was rocking. The opportunities were there. The Saints just couldn't convert and open up a wide lead.
“The fans brought; they were into the game,” Detillier said. “The excitement was there because you were going up against [Joe] Burrow and Jamar [Chase] and that Cincinnati team that had played on Super Bowl Sunday in February. Yet you came close, but you couldn't put it away.”
Despite the stumbles on offense, Detillier placed more blame for the loss on the other side of the ball.
“Yesterday was a defensive loss. You can talk about the offense all you want – and yeah, they had to settle for field goals – but there were some key times there where you could not get off the field. Eventually, [when] you go up against a top quarterback and top receiver and you leave them one bullet in the chamber, they catch you. That's what happened yesterday.”
Burrow completed 75.7% of his passes for 300 yards, 3 touchdowns, and an excellent 126.0 passer rating. Jamar Chase, his favorite target, hauled in 7 catches for 132 yards and 2 of those touchdowns. The second of those touchdowns was a back-breaking, game-winning 60 yard catch and run in the final minutes of the fourth quarter in which he avoided tackles from Bradley Roby and Tyrann Mathieu.
The Saints don't have a lot of time to bounce back either; they take on the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football.