Despite Good Defensive Effort, Saints Fall 16 to 13 to Giants

In what turned out to be a defensive battle, the Saints offense lead by QB Drew Brees was very disappointing. Stalled drives, dropped passes, and a blocked fieldgoal returned for 6, started off the 1st half for the New Orleans Saints. They did manage to but together a last drive before the half to score 3 and prevent going to halftime down 7-0.

The Giants managed to score another fieldgoal in the 3rd quarter making it a 10-3 game going into the 4th quarter. The Giants did if fact appear to be able to move the ball at will at times, but 3 costly turnovers, fumbles, negated much of the total 417 net yards. The first 2 fumbles led to no points for the Saints and the last fumble resulted in 3.

The Saints young secondary really stepped up, particularly after CB P.J. Williams was carted off and ultimately taken to the hospital for a spinal CT scan. They did give up 353 passing yards and 22 1st downs to the Giant, 15 passing and 5 rushing, yet kept it a close game. Coach Payton did say in his post game interview that Williams should be okay. I saw quite a few questionable calls during the game, but the real back breaker was a pass interference call on a pass to Odell Beckham, which led to the Giants 3rd fieldgoal. To anyone watching it was obvious our DB was responding to an offensive arm-bar. Officials didn't see it the same as I did, and in all fairness I have the advantage of seeing it at  a different angle and in replay.

I won't get into other missed calls, which should have gone in the Saints favor, because the offense had a dismal performance all on their own. Drew Brees complete 29 of 44 passes for only 263 yards and one TD to Willie Snead in the 4th quarter. Tying the game up for the 1st time at 10. Another drive in the 4th quarter led to a fieldgoal that tied the game up again at 13.

On the final drive of the game, Eli Manning completed a pass to Victor Cruz, despite great coverage by rookie CB Ken Crawley. This led to the final game winning fieldgoal in which the Giants were able to run out the clock. The Saints had no timeouts left as coach Payton was forced to use them to try to save time on the clock. By no means a reflection on Sean's time management.The timeouts were necessary to allow any chance of getting the ball back and failed because of the catch by Cruz on the Giants final series.

To sum things up, the Saints defense played above themselves while the offense struggled early and throughout most of the game. Of special concern was the O-line play which let to a lot of pressure on Brees and only 41 rushing yards. Feel free to vent in the comments. This 2nd loss of the season makes the Atlanta Falcons game at home next Monday night very important to the remainder of our season. A loss then would be devastating.