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Saints Suck at Leading Late Game-Winning Drives Under Pressure

You might think the Saints have led many exciting game-winning touchdown drives with time running out. You'd be wrong.

John David Mercer-US PRESSWIRE

Marshall Faulk has a very specific question for us this week. So I thought it would be best to give a very specific answer. In case you're too lazy to watch the 15 second video above to hear Faulk's question, here's what he wants to know:

To be Professional Grade, you must be prepared for every situation. Imagine your team facing its next opponent. You're down by six, with 2 minutes left, on your own 30. I wanna know right now, what does your team do. Do they win, or do they lose?

Thanks to the incredible, searchable database at Pro-Football-Reference we can actually find out exactly how many times the Saints have been in that type of situation and how it's worked out.

And the answer might actually surprise you. It certainly surprised me. I thought for sure the Saints had led more than a few late-game touchdown drives for the win during the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. Turns out... not so much.

From 2006 to now the Saints have had a total of 9 drives starting from their own 30-yard line or beyond, when trailing by 7 points or less, with under two minutes to play. They've only won one of those games (Washington, 12/6/2009). Surprised? So was I.

Four of those drives ended with time expiring, three ended with Brees throwing an interception, and one of them ended with the Saints turning the ball over on downs.

In case you don't believe me, here are each of those nine drives in detail:

Drive Start Drive End
Tm Year Date Opp Result Plays Length Yds Qtr Time LOS Tm Opp Qtr Time Last LOS Tm Opp Result
NOR 2009 2009-12-06 @ WAS W 33-30 5 (5 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:33 80 4 1:52 Own 20 23 30 1:19 Own 47 29 30 Touchdown View Drive "
NOR 2013 2013-12-22 @ CAR L 17-13 4 (4 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:23 34 4 0:23 Own 20 13 17 0:00 Opp 46 13 17 End of Game View Drive "
NOR 2013 2013-11-03 @ NYJ L 26-20 4 (5 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:37 -9 4 1:58 Own 19 20 26 1:21 Own 10 20 26 Downs View Drive "
NOR 2007 2007-12-02 TAM L 27-23 2 (2 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:14 9 4 0:14 Own 29 23 27 4 0:00 Own 42 23 27 End of Game View Drive "
NOR 2008 2008-11-30 @ TAM L 23-20 2 (2 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:19 0 4 1:55 Own 27 20 23 1:36 Own 27 20 23 Interception View Drive "
NOR 2008 2008-09-21 @ DEN L 34-32 2 (3 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:08 2 4 0:08 Own 20 32 34 0:00 Own 20 32 34 End of Game View Drive "
NOR 2010 2010-10-10 @ ARI L 30-20 1 (1 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:14 0 4 0:24 Own 9 20 23 0:10 Own 9 20 29 Interception View Drive "
NOR 2008 2008-10-06 MIN L 30-27 1 (1 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:11 0 4 0:13 Own 25 27 30 0:02 Own 25 27 30 Interception View Drive "
NOR 2011 2012-01-14 @ SFO L 36-32 1 (2 P, 0 R, 0 Y) 0:09 4 4 0:09 Own 14 32 36 0:00 Own 14 32 36 End of Game View Drive "

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