The Saints were reminded this season, as they were last season, that one cannot rely on other teams to provide even a sliver of help down the stretch to make the NFL playoffs.
This season, the Saints only needed that help after allowing Tom Brady an opening to do what he does better than anyone else. It took a month to fully sink in, but the Bucs’ rally from a 13-point deficit in the final 5 minutes on Monday Night Football in early December is what ended the Saints’ 2022 season in early January.
Say it with me: Never allow Tom Brady an opening, any opening, any sliver of light that he can still win. Unless, of course, you want to lose.
THE GAME | Panthers (6-10) at Saints (7-9)
- When: Noon, Sunday, Jan. 8
- Where: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Betting: Saints -3
- TV: Fox
- Listen: WWL AM-870; FM-105.3 & the Audacy app
- Pregame: Fans First Take with Jeff Nowak & Steve Geller, 8-10 a.m.; Countdown to kickoff with Mike Detillier & Bobby Hebert, 10-noon
That devastating, 17-16 loss cost the Saints control of their playoff destiny. Even more painful, in retrospect, is the fact that the Bucs dropped their next two games while the Saints have won three straight. The Bucs have also managed to overcome double-digit deficits in the 4th quarter of their last two games.
For the Saints, a win over Carolina in Week 18 would mark a 4-game winning streak that means nothing in the playoff picture. Sound familiar? Last season the Saints won 4 of their final 5 games and needed help from the Los Angeles Rams to make the playoffs. The eventual Super Bowl champion Rams had a 17-0 lead early in the game, and led by a touchdown with 2:29 to play. They could not hold on and lost in overtime, with the Saints watching their season end in the process shortly after taking down the Falcons to ensure they gave themselves a chance.
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But the problem is not how things finished. The Saints have that down to a painful science. The problem is how things started and, more frustratingly, how they didn’t improve throughout the middle portion of the season. If you just play average football in either of those periods, you wouldn’t need to hope for help along the way.
The real culprit is the month of November. It's a crucial month in every NFL season as it sets up and determines what kind of finish you need. The Saints used to own November. In the last two seasons not so much. The Saints are 1-7 in the month of November dating back to 2021. That's 1-3 this season and 0-4 in 2021. In the 4 years prior? The Saints were 15-3 in November. It's only fair to point out that in the last two seasons of November play, the Saints weren’t starting the same QB they trotted out in the opener. In both cases that was Jameis Winston. But having to rely on backups due to injury – at all positions, really – is the name of the game in the NFL these days, even if the Saints ultimately turned Jameis into Andy Dalton’s backup as the 2022 season wore on.
The Saints didn't have to play great in either November. They just couldn’t go 1-7.
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But that’s what they did. And that’s what made December and January must-win situations. Both times the Saints delivered with big finishes (so far) only to fall short of the first true goal of any season.
Getting close is not satisfying for a fanbase used to, even spoiled with, postseason play. It’s certainly not satisfying for the players, coaches or the organization at large.
So it feels like we are back to a phrase we haven't used much in the past two decades: Maybe next year.
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