Lions upend sluggish Saints, 28-13

What a difference a week makes. And yet, Sunday he left the Superdome touchdown-less for the first time in seven years.

Brees got the Saints back in the game by marching them 75 yards in seven plays to set up fullback John Kuhn’s 1-yard touchdown leap, narrowing the deficit to 19-13 with 13:32 left.

When you make catches like this, you can be as cocky as you want. “It was our own fault”.

But unfortunately, once again the Saints didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. He rushed three times for 22 yards, including an 11-yard run for a first down, giving him 30 rushes for a career-high 178 yards, an average of 5.9 yards per carry. “It felt like less than that because the first half was so bad”.

“We’ve got a lot to improve upon, I can tell you that”. “I have to do a better job”. Said Payton: “We started the season with two for the early part of the year”. Second half we became one dimensional, because we’re down two possessions in the 4th quarter. Maybe they finally got healthy, or found an offensive line combination that worked, or swapped out their old offensive coordinator for a better one – whatever the spark, the important thing is they were in position to fully capitalize when they found it.

“We have to find a way to punch some of those drives in”. When Drew Brees throws three interceptions and doesn’t throw a touchdown in the Superdome for the first time in 60 games, a Saints loss is as sure as the sunrise and tourists making bad decisions on Bourbon St late at night.

The Saints haven’t been above.500 since 2013.

On the other hand, New Orleans now has Michael Hoomanawanui alongside Fleener on the depth chart. The reason? Brees can’t put his finger on it. He moved the chains with pinpoint accuracy underneath the Saints’ pass coverage and took his shots downfield when an opportunity presented itself.

Picking the Saints to beat the Lions wasn’t insane.

“It’s nice to have something that we’re still playing for, ” Saints right tackle Zach Strief said. “We don’t care about nobody else, man”, Ebron said. “We’re just anxious about ourselves”. The Saints also struggled to keep Stafford in the pocket, contributing to his 341-yard day.

On Sunday, Dec. 11 the Saints will take on one of the NFC South co-leaders-the (7-5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers- in a must-win game. Those 319 yards Brees threw for feel as worthless as my wager in Las Vegas on the Saints to win the NFC. Sunday was the sixth game that Armstead has missed this year. Detroit needed a game like this to show itself and the rest of the National Football League it can be a third contender for the NFC title. along with Dallas and Seattle. If there is room to be made up, then it’s the last stretch.

Although Fairley does have the second-most number of sacks on the team (4.5), he was, for this game, mostly invisible.

What happened was bigger than one busted play; but rather it was the timing and complete ineptitude of it, which was a microcosm of what Saints fans have been forced to endure for the past three years.

The College Football Playoff has finally been decided, so mercifully we don’t have to hear the phrase “eye test” for a while.