The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from the Saints 23-13 Loss to the Falcons

The Good

• Drew Brees threw a career high five interceptions and the Falcons still only won by ten points. Ha!
• I think you can credit the above point to the Saints defense, who played lights out. This was their best game of the season by far. Only 283 yards allowed, the fewest allowed all season. Holding the Falcons to a ridiculously paltry 1/11 (9%) on third down. Who are these guys?
• Lance Moore had 7 catches for 123 yards.
• Good to see the Saints get Pierre Thomas more involved after I complained about his mysterious absence in recent weeks. And I think he showed why he needs to be used more. In fact, I kinda wish they'd done that. Everyone's been talking about the great game Michael Turner had, but Thomas ran the ball almost equally well.
• Garrett Hartley came through in the clutch with a 52-yard field goal, the second longest of his career.
• The SB Nation tech team has adjusted the text coloring in our FanPost and FanShot section so it's much more readable now.

The Bad

• They may not be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but I think it's safe to say the Saints won't be playing in the postseason. Nor do they deserve to be.
• So many mental errors by the Saints in this game. Dropped passes, poor..............................
• Jimmy Graham's pass interference penalty on the Saints final drive of the first half negated a Darren Sproles touchdown and cost the team seven points.
• Lance Moore dropped an easy touchdown pass in the end zone that would have changed the game. Very uncharacteristic.
• Talk about an unbalanced offense. The Saints run-pass ratio was 31/69 .

The Ugly

• Five interceptions by Drew Brees. He now leads the league with 16 total.
• The poor clock management on the final drive of the first half cost the Saints at least three points, possibly seven. Brees admitted he thought there was more time on the clock. Otherwise, I'm sure he wouldn't have thrown a check down pass to Darren Sproles over the middle, instead of throwing the ball away. What were they thinking?

• Garrett Hartley had more fantasy points than Drew Brees.