Saints Must Learn From Bitter Loss and Move On Quickly

What do the Saints need to do after an ugly and upsetting loss to the Giants? It's simple. Quickly learn from it and move on.

NEW ORLEANS -- You'll always hear about the 24-hour rule in football as a point of emphasis whether a team wins or loses, but for this Saints team, it certainly is one game they'll want to put behind them quicker. Credit the Giants, as they were efficient on offense with 485 total yards and made huge plays when they counted most to battle back from a 21-10 deficit to force overtime and spoil the Superdome return. 

New Orleans has been in these situations before with close games, and sometimes they've gone their way. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of those games.

"Look, we can't get that game back. We're 2-2. It is what it is," Payton said in his post game press conference.

Payton said that his team can learn from the loss and get something out of it.

"I think the most important thing is, 11 points in the fourth quarter, I mean that’s two scores. We’re going to be in other close games and so we can’t play this game again. We can't get it back, but we can learn from this game and the tape we watch tomorrow and understanding situational football.”

Payton added that 11 points is never a big lead, and emphasized that 9 minutes on the clock is a long time. Jameis Winston was effective on the day, going 17-of-23 for 226 yards and a score. It could have been even more, as one touchdown play was called back due to a holding penalty. However, the offense was fairly efficient on the day, as they put up pretty strong 3rd Down numbers (8-of-13), had 170 rushing yards (120 from Alvin Kamara), and dominated the time of possession 37:31-27:35 (which was somewhat skewed due to the overtime drive by the Giants).

Saquon Barkley gets into the end zone twice, including the game-winner in OT / Oct 3, 2021; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) is tackled in the end zone for a touchdown by the New Orleans Saints in overtime at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Those things are supposed to win you football games, but they didn't on Sunday. The defense, who had a real chip on their shoulder entering the game, had a really hard day. Daniel Jones threw for 402 yards, finding some real holes in the Saints defense to convert some big plays. The Giants offense averaged 8.1 yards/play on the day, and two of those big connections came on two 50-yard-plus plays.

It wasn't just the defense's fault today, but it didn't help not getting a single sack on Jones. The decisions to attempt a 58-yard field goal early, roll in Taysom Hill to try a shot play to a 5-foot-6 Deonte Harris, and to challenge a spot at what didn't appear to be a good choice are some of the things that leave a lot to the imagination. There was also the delay of game penalty on one of the later drives that pushed the team back and forced a questionable play call.

The good news is that it's still early in the season, and there's time to fix and address some of the problematic areas. This team has the talent and will get even more back in the coming weeks, but has to execute. The bad news is that losses like Sunday sting bad and cause you to question just about everything that you've seen. We've seen the best, worst, and ugly from the Saints in just four weeks.

The next Saints home game won't be until Halloween, which is four weeks away. New Orleans will have next week's road game against Washington, have their bye week, and then have an important Monday Night Football meeting with the Seahawks before coming back to the Superdome to host the Bucs. 

It'll be interesting to see how New Orleans responds against the Washington Football Team in Week 5, and we'll leave it at that.

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