Stats Don't Support Saints Late-Game Decisions Against Falcons

Now I’m even more upset about this loss.

However OT played out, the Saints were just outplayed for most of the game. I agree with you, Dave, that Payton should never have tried the kick on a 1st down, but that’s not why they lost.

causing the lineman to ease up, allowing the blocked kick. Had there not been a whistle, probably not a block either.

especially after fumbling the first crucial fourth and one. Don’t put an injured undrafted FA in that spot! give it to someone who knows how to hold on to the ball and get a tough yard. Then they give it to him 2 consecutive times on the final drive with the game on the line. He’s carrying the ball away from his body, I thought he was going to fumble every carry.

Yeah. I saw the end of that game after Fox cut to it following my Vikes’ bumblin’ stumblin’ win over Detroit, and couldn’t believe what I say on that FG try on 1st & 10. I came here earlier & was surprised there wasn’t much discussion of it here, so I decided not to stir the hornet’s nest on my own. But now that you have … how does it feel to have a coaching staff execute as poorly as ours did at the end of the NFCCG? Maybe Peyton was remembering what happened to us, that we were in position to win, then screwed it up by trying ot eek out a few more yeards before kicking. Dunno.

The TO called before the kick was less curious, but I imagine hard to stomach after watching the train wreck at end of regulation. My sympathies

…. well, OK, maybe not :) I still have faith my Vikes will get it together, and I really don’t want to have our playoff road go through the Superdome again if they actually do :)

I’m still sick – I’ll let all the (bleeps) take turns being “head coach” and talking about what we did and didn’t do well. I’ll be throwing up.

BTW, Brees looked like Brett Favre on that underhanded INT – trying too hard to make something happen and made a piss poor choice. Oh well, even our “heroes” are entitled to be couyons sometimes.

You pretty well said it all with a lot more tac than I could.

Cut it any way you want, but the offense did have it going on when they had to in the last minutes. After a hard fought game, that was with in their grasp, and Falcons on their heels finally. Only to have SP take them off the field with four downs to go 11 yards and hand it over to an unproven kicker. Say what !! ? I am not nearly as worried about losing one game as losing the offensive locker room. I saw a piece where Hartley missed a field goal and Payton met him coming off the field and said " grow some nuts" He did, made what 4 over 40 yds. to win SB. I say Sean needs to grow a pair. That decision was not one of a pitt bull but a lab. What happened to that attack mentality of 09? Onsides kick against the Colts!

But I’m sorry you kicker HAS to make a 29 Yard field goal…..end of story…..

you can’t take the chance of success of a FG kick without looking at the distance. I wish I had the odds of making that kick, because I’m sure that it’s greater than the odds of losing the ball.

That icing the kicker call sucked sucked sucked. It’s like someone else said, you’re giving them a free look at your D.

But it was not more careless than the onside kick that was recovered.
Is he reckless yes. Is he arrogant yes. Was it the wrong call yes.

What head coach in the league would not think that their FG kicker would miss a game winning field goal at home? Especially less than a 30 yarder.
Maybe brees should have taken a sack for about 10 yards. Maybe that would have made “Fat A$$” more comfortable.

My issue is GW not SP. I mean seriously, how are you going to cover a TE? Do you even have a plan? You sure as hell have not had a plan the last 3 weeks. Now every NFL team will be drooling watching game tape from the saints. All you effing have to do is throw the damn ball to the tight end, and you will beat the saints!

Seriously, does anyone see a problem with this.
I am sad to say, that it was not so much the players loosing this game, but rather our coaches lost.

Yes I said out, Sean Payton, and GW were out coached. Drew had the best night of this year regardless of his INTs. Lance Moore, well what more can you ask for from a reciever?

What the hell was Payton thinking kicking a FG on first down. Why not run 3 plays with play action mix of run and pass and Go for the TD. There are 3 things that irk me here. Number 1. Yes Hartley is payed millions to make a chip shot clutch field goal. 2. Payton not having confidence for running 3 more downs before the FG. And 3. Our Defense is just horrendous! We can’t stop the run. We can’t defend third down. We’re giving up big plays!

   Hopefully they will look at this loss as a wakeup call and realize you can’t keep riding these nail biters. It bit them today. And they should be pissed and focused for next week and kick butt!!

  Brees played his heart out and put up good numbers. This is the week they need to have a gameplan and clean up these sloppy mistakes.

ive been seeing alot of yall talking about the black pants. is there some kinda curse surrounding these pants?

You guys should be proud of your team. You played a hell of a game, and we’re going to be duking it out for the NFC the rest of the year. No shame in losing to a Falcons team that may be as good as I’ve ever seen.

It feels like the natural state of things, having our two teams playing well and fiercely competing. You guys are a great fanbase, and you’ll bounce back. I wish you luck until we meet again.

Take it easy, CSCers.

poor coaching was’nt why. Dave you are dead on in your evaluation of the game. I hope that they learned something from this. We’re not done yet. Who Dat !

See stats here

Meanwhile, Garrett Hartley was 4/17 on all field goal attempts over the past two years at the time of the kick and has shown inconsistency thus far this season.

He is 13 for 18 in 2009 and 2010 to date, excluding postseason. He went 13 for 13 in 2008. I distinctly remember both misses in 2009: His plant foot slipped in the slop at Washington, and ….. he missed the Tampa Bay kick which earned him the Fat Punk Kicker tag.

Bringing in other kickers (Matt Stover? Child please) is not the solution. We all know the solution:
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I was really surprised at which receivers were NOT in the game. If I remember, I saw Shockey, Moore and Colston come out and I think Graham, Meachem and D Thomas were in. Not sure, but it was an important down and not the time for Graham to be in the game. Not when we have so many good receivers.

Also, Betts should have been on the roster from the pre-season and Ivory on practice squad. That would have given us the appropriate depth at RB. Poor planning. Ivory wasn’t ready for this game and Betts would have been very easily prepared with a minimum of planning. Need to replace Torrence and Prioleau. What’s the deal there, is he (PP) engaged to GW’s daughter or something?

He would’ve been at practice and ready to go this week. But instead of putting Ivory on the practice squad, they should have sent Arrington back there, or tried to trade him. Why do you keep a 6th WR that doesn’t play special teams on the roster??

…but he’s not the only one.

Football is a team sport. Lots of guys contributed to the Saints scoring 24 points and the Falcons scoring 27 points.

I swear to Breesus, it looked for a while there like giving our D-Line and LBs a gallon of Pepto Bismol wouldn’t have helped them stop the runs.

1) First and foremost, something I never thought I’d say – BAD COACHING DECISIONS, particularly in OT. Icing the kicker timeouts are STUPID, and for that alone, they deserved to lose.

2) Defense needs to be more consistent against the run. They’d have 3-4 good plays, hold the RB to -3 yards, then give up a 7+ rush.

3) Henderson. TWO dropped balls that ended drives. TWO. Unacceptable.

4) Drew. He doesn’t seem “on” right now. He’s missing open receivers, making bad decisions, and not just yesterday. But, speaking of yesterday: on the first INT, he under threw a receiver that was BEHIND his defender – if he leads his receiver down the field, it’s at least a long reception, and without game film I can’t be sure, but I’m thinking the guy scores on that play, as I saw no deep help from the ATL secondary; the second INT was just piss-poor decision making, I am all for never quitting, but making a throw as your falling down to a receiver that is covered is just…well…too FAR-VUH like for me – go back to being DREW, stop pressing.

if the 2 missed FGs against Minnesota had come back to bite us in the a$$ that Thursday night to open the season and we were sitting at 1-2?

 I think the frustration on Hartley is definitely a result of both Vikings game and this game (and maybe residual from Tampa game last year), not just Sunday.

 I like the kid and he showed amazing guts (no, not gut) in the postseason last year. Maybe we should have kept Carney as kicking coach.

Take away 3 downs from one of the best offenses in football to march out a kicker that already missed 2 FGs this season then give Bryant 2 attempts at a game winner. I don’t like those odds. It’s one regular season loss, but it stings like hell, and I’m pretty annoyed with Payton’s play calling at the end. Not sure what the reasoning was. That’s assuming reason even came into play.

play calling, Brees’ int, and that god awful thing we call a run game was an aberration and that next week our offence will come out firing on all cylinders, and our defence will be stopping the run and the effing TEs, and that fpk will hopefully earn the right to be called money again.

if we wouldve run the ball and fumbled it would’ve been “Why didn’t we kick the FG?”. If you don’t trust your kicker to make that kick then you go for it on 4th down. Also, the Saints had turned the ball over 3 previous times in that game. That seems like a cause for concern as far as running the ball