Saints at Patriots

When you don't finish off teams in the NFL it will bite you in the arse.

 

Lack of running game and poor play calling (never should have thrown to Colston on 3rd down before FG, among others) cost us.

Still want to know why the clock stopped after the first down run on the Saints last possession. It stopped at 2:10 when it should have gone to 2m warning. NE was out of time outs.

Its just one game in a long season, but the roller coaster of emotions is what makes it tough. I'd rather get blown out.

 

All I can say after that one is ugh.

 

I agree with everything except that last part. He did choose a pass play to Colston in the end zone on 3rd down. This ultimately cost us the game because he could have run another 45 secs off the clock before Hartley's FG. I'm not blaming the D because they played well enough to win, but I just don't understand why they laid back in coverage on the last drive. They had been bringing pressure all day and it worked, so why change now?

I hope someone that recorded the game can tell me why the clock stopped at the 2:10 mark. I know I keep harping on this, but the Pats were out of timeouts at that point, we just ran the ball on 1st down, then the clock inexplicably stopped. 2nd down was the 2 minute warning, then that gawd awful bootleg on 3rd down left that Pats with 1:40 when they got the ball. If the clock keeps running to 2m warning on 1st down, I don't think NE has enough time to score.

The team picked a helluva time to bust out the Aints and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

I'll throw a couple of my sour grapes into this too. Brees was not sharp at all and didn't play particularly well for him, but he wasn't horrible (remember him throwing all those pick 6's last season?). However, the end of game clock management was much more reminiscent of Les Miles than Sean Payton. Not running time off of the clock or forcing the Patriots to use their timeouts is what cost the game. Throwing a long passes on 3rd down on the last drive? WTF Payton? Even if a run got nothing, or even negative yardage, it forces the Pats to call a TO or it runs another :40 off the clock. A sack was better than an incompletion in that scenario. Had either happened, the Saints win the game.

And don't get me started on the most egregious holding non call I have ever seen in my entire life on the last TD pass. I understand that borderline holding occurs on almost every lay of the game. But in a game deciding situation when a defensive end is running to sack a QB in the pocket and that tackle literally wraps the left arm around the front of his neck in a choke hold and pulls him backward to the ground by the jersey with the right hand right beside the QB, how does it not get seen and called? Poor Galette almost got ass raped right there on the field and the refs saw nothing I guess. I hate when people blame the refs, but that was horrible and made the difference between winning and losing on that one play.