Once Again, the Saints Have to Learn and Move On

It's a familiar lesson the Saints have had to learn almost every year since 2017 after catching a hot streak and playing strong football.

It's never ideal to lose a big game, especially with so much at stake, but that's what happened to the Saints on Sunday. When the clock hit 0:00 against the Eagles, New Orleans saw their nine-game winning streak and spot as the No. 1 seed in the NFC Playoff race end. Suddenly, anxiety begins to build with a red-hot Chiefs squad coming to town in Week 15. It was an ugly first half against the Eagles, and the Saints did their best to rally and overcome, but it fell short.

Sean Payton said that his team really didn't do much of anything well in the first 30 minutes of the game, and tipped his hat to rookie Jalen Hurts on his first start.

"He played well, exceptionally well, and he hurt us," Payton said during his postgame press conference.

"Clearly we didn't play one of our better games today, and that was obvious."

There's always those distinct moments you can pinpoint in the game that shift the momentum or were things you wanted to have back, but that's football in a nutshell. Much was made of the 4th-and-2 call in the final quarter when Taysom Hill took was strip-sacked by Josh Sweat that gave the Eagles back the ball. The play design was meant to go to the end zone.

"It was more of an aggressive call by me, a shot play. It's one of those I want back," Payton said. He mentioned that there was a bust in protection and they were wanting to take a shot to score.

Hill said on the play, "We were trying to take a shot." However, he added that they didn't get the look that they thought they were going to get. Hill's intent was to go to Tre'Quan Smith on the sideline, but mentioned that he should have threw it up for Emmanuel Sanders.

Saints had Emmanuel Sanders matched up one-on-one versus linebacker Shaun Bradley on fourth-and-2. Hill wasn’t able to find the matchup and/or get the throw off in time. pic.twitter.com/rsOky84Jz4

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) December 14, 2020

"You want to be playing your best ball in December," said Jared Cook after the game. Cook mentioned that you want to use this as an example and stepping stone to get better, and that's something the Saints will have to do. They've faced it many times before, but obviously everything about this season makes it a bit more challenging.

If the playoffs were to start tomorrow, the Saints would host the Cardinals as part of Wild Card Weekend. New Orleans has been in this position before, losing a very close game and then being able to rebound in a big way. This is a team who overcame such a porous start at 1-2 to rattle off nine straight wins. In 2017, it was the Falcons road loss. In 2018, it was the Cowboys road loss. Last season, it was the 49ers home loss. This season, the Eagles road loss may be that game for New Orleans, but only time will tell.