NEW ORLEANS — The Darren Rizzi magical run is over for now, as the Saints got knocked back down to reality on Sunday. The Rams came in and bulldozed New Orleans in the second half and were able to close out the game late to earn a 21-14 win. The Saints are now 4-8 and 1-4 in one-score games.
The sad part is that the Saints didn’t even have a real chance to make it interesting at the end of the game, which is unfortunate. And they were going to go for a 2-point conversion if they got into the end zone. On the 4th-and-3 play, Derek Carr didn’t get a throw off.
He told Rizzi after the play that he had a guy open, which was Juwan Johnson, but needed just a half-second more. It never came. Carr owned it in his post-game presser, saying he just wished he could have got the ball off.
It’s bigger than that, however. Rizzi said that the Saints didn’t do what they had done in the past two games, mainly stressing the importance of finishing. He said, “We didn’t execute in crunch time. We didn’t finish drives very well.”
There were also some substitution miscues that forced New Orleans to use some timeouts on both sides of the ball, one play in which they had 10 players on the field. Rizzi owned that and obviously said that they have to be better there.
New Orleans gave up over 5 yards/carry to Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. Williams averaged 6.9 yards/carry and put up 104 yards on just 15 carries. Cam Jordan said afterwards that the defense could have held them to 3 yards/carry and that players were still talking in the locker room after the loss about assignments and such.
“Pissed,” Cam Jordan said on the locker room mood. “We let one get away. We don’t have enough time to let one get away.”
With the Bucs winning and pulling even with the Falcons, the Saints are still mathematically alive, but their only realistic monumental quest to the postseason can go through the NFC South. Jordan was asked on whether or not he’s a big picture guy, to which he responded that that the goal was to go 1-0 this week. “I can’t macro when we can’t take care of micro.”
The Rams exposed plenty for the Saints on Sunday. The run defense is struggling, and this might have been the first game where the offensive line showed some concerning flaws. Sure, Derek Carr didn’t get sacked at all, but there was just too much inconsistency. It was evident in the second half especially.
New Orleans will now travel up to East Rutherford to take on the Giants in Week 14 and hopefully can get back in the win column. However, they’re going to have to do it without some key players.
SAINTS INJURY UPDATES
Taysom Hill (knee) and Nick Saldiveri (knee) are going to have further imaging done, but the initial prognosis doesn’t sound good for either. The Hill play didn’t look good either, and I’d be surprised if we see him again this season. Tyrann Mathieu (shoulder) is something to monitor throughout the week, as he left the game following a tackle and did not return. He was on the sideline, however.