Saints Refused To Go Down Without a Fight But Fall Just Short Against the Commanders

The Saints continue to show they won't go down without a fight, but come up just short again.

Dec 15, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints tight end Foster Moreau (87) catches a touchdown pass to get within 1 point of he Washington Commanders during the second half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

NEW ORLEANS -- It came down to one play for the Saints and they just weren't able to finish. Interim head coach Darren Rizzi had no regrets and wouldn't have changed a thing. Neither did the players. New Orleans falls to 5-9 on the year and are almost assuredly out of the NFC South race following the 20-19 loss to the Commanders.

"I'm unbelievably proud of the football team," Rizzi said. He mentioned that he's never felt like that in 32 years of coaching and that he had never saw a group of players fight harder. Defensively, they did a pretty stellar job against Jayden Daniels. Even if you take away the two negligible sacks, they still got six more. The defense did a good job hanging in there with the Commanders. Unfortunately, it led to the same result.

It was another familiar storyline for New Orleans, being a tale of two halves. The first half was atrocious, to say the least. The Saints ran just 14 plays with Jake Haener at the helm and didn't net over 30 yards of offense. There was a big drop by Marquez Valdes-Scantling and a big hookup to Cedrick Wilson Jr. called back due to a holding call, but they just weren't in sync. Naturally, Haener was disappointed that he didn't get a shot in the second half.

With 30 seconds left in the first half, Spencer Rattler was told that he was going in by quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. Rattler provided a major spark for the Saints offense, and they seemingly got everything going. They went from having just one first down to having 16 in the second half. Rattler finished 10/21 for 135 yards and a touchdown. He didn't get sacked and it was just a complete turnaround for the offense.

Hindsight obviously makes you wonder what would have happened if Rattler started the game, but that's this season in a microcosm. It's always the 'what if' for New Orleans.

The decision to go for two at the end was the right call and something we were expecting. It's what they were going to do against the Rams too. The Saints handled the clock how they wanted to for their final possession. A major error from the officials gave New Orleans extra time at the end of the game, and there was no way of fixing it. Still, Rattler made an outstanding throw to Foster Moreau to make it come down to one play.

Rattler thought Juwan Johnson might have been held on the play. Kevin Austin Jr. might have been open at the very end. Nothing can be changed and the Saints are what they are. What we did learn about New Orleans is that Rattler learned a great bit from the last time he was the starter and that's the key takeaway here. There's not going to be a decision on who the quarterback is when the Saints play in Green Bay just yet, mainly because the team has an extra day and need to see where Derek Carr is at. However, what we saw from Rattler was very encouraging.

The loss will help the Saints in the long run with their draft position, as New Orleans looks to stay in the Top-10 right now. This will end up being the fourth straight year the Saints don't get into the postseason when it's all said and done. It's officially another losing season for the black and gold, who should be looking to the future unless something wild happens. There's some real good building blocks and positives to take away from how they played in Week 15, and with just three games left on the schedule, we'll just see where it ends up.