Putting aside the missed call for a second, Payton butchered the clock (1 Viewer)

[VPCajun]

It's already been said Payton called a run but Brees audibled out of it.

I have yet to see anyone link a source to that!

Who said it?

Where was it reported?

Etc, etc...

 

[VPCajun]

I also had an issue with wasting a timeout to ice the kicker. There were around 20 secs left. We had 2 timeouts. Kamara took it out of the end zone which wasted 5 secs. So instead of having 20 secs and 2 timeouts to get into field goal range we had 1 timeout and 13 secs.

Not to mention that the clock was stopped because the last play was an incompletion...

 

[TheGrayMan]

I think the 1st down slant to MT is the one caused the whole series to bad.

Is that the one where MT was interfered with and got a no-call? I think it was. I’ve seen a couple of talking heads saying that the refs missed that one as well.

 

[VPCajun]

Payton’s 1st down play calling was as bad in this game as it’s ever been. On that drive the run on first or 2nd down that lost yardage and killed the drive, was just an absolute awful call. It was so obvious we were trying to control the clock, but you can’t run a dive into Suh when there’s 9, yes 9, in the box.

Of course we should have executed better in the redzone as well, but with all that said it came down to one play and the refs butchered that.

Remember when Montana and the 9ers would absolutely kill teams at the end of games who were Playing to Stop the Run .

He'd go Play Action!

That 2nd down play should also have been Play Action!

 

[VPCajun]

While true, I like being up 7 over either of those 2 situations.

Well, I rather be up 21 if that's the game we are playing.

 

[rail]

Just like last week; we almost lost to the Eagles cause he decided to run Kamara up the middle and play for a long field goal out of Lutz's range. Our defense held Philly below 100 yards in the second half, and yet they still had a chance to win in the end cause our offense piddled around all day with offensive line penalties and unable to score. Something has been wrong with this offense for over a month and all we did was cover our eyes and ears, refusing to see the evidence or listen to legit concerns.

Payton made some questionable play calls in both playoff games and I feel no one wants to talk about it cause it's easier to blame the refs. This offense just hasn't been the same since week 11 when Dallas strangled them.

We just blew a 13-0 lead at home in the playoffs. Let me repeat that; the Saints blew a 13 point lead AT HOME. This game should've never came down to this point. They had the whole second quarter to put the pedal to the medal and kill that team by getting another TD, but instead they piddled around and kept going 3 and out. After going up 20-10, the miracle bomb to Ginn was their last good offensive play that put them in scoring range. It was constant 3 and outs before that and would've been another punt if Ginn don't make that catch.

Even after the PI non-call, we had a chance to win in OT, even getting a pass interference penalty gifted to us after screwing around on that drive, only to throw the game losing INT.

I'm sorry, but I cannot blame the refs for this. If that makes me a terrible fan and a shill for Roger Goodell or whatever, then so be it. I love this team, but I'm not going to overlook that something has went really wrong for them since that Dallas game. The refs didn't make us completely collapse at the end of the year after that season. The offense only scored 30 points ONCE in the last 7 games. Brees was throwing for less than 200 yards in every game after the Cowboys loss except for the win against Pittsburgh. He went from being right there with Mahomes in the MVP race to completely dropping in his numbers. There were reasons to be concerned last week when they apparently "dominated" the Eagles in the second half, but only scored 20 points and let that team have a shot at the end of the game.

When it's all said and done and we stop looking at the refs, this was the worst WR corps of the Sean Payton era. Outside of Michael Thomas, would you want any of these no name guys on your fantasy football team? FootballOutsiders and FiveThirtyEight joked for months that the Saints offense had no other weapons besides Kamara and MT. No one wanted to listen cause they're just haters, but come to find out, they were right. Dallas showed the league how to beat us; lock down Kamara and MT, and then we have no other weapons to scare you.

The offense's production fell so drastically after the Cowboys loss that we ranked OUTSIDE the top 5 on offense for the first time in the Sean Payton era. That's not the refs fault. This Saints team had obvious weaknesses that were glaring and exploitable. The defense really stepped up, but we should've never had to rely on them so much. Blowing a 13 point lead yesterday is not on them, they did everything they could. The offense should've scored at least one more touchdown on that mediocre Rams defense.

First, the no-call changed the game. Period. It completely shattered the chances of the Saints putting the game away. It was an absolutely horrendous no-call that everyone agrees on - hell, even the Rams cheater said so. Again, it changed the outcome of the game.

At the same, time, I actually feel you on the premise about the offensive woes this team has shown for the past 6-7 weeks. Not an X's and O's guy, but the offense was just not the same after Week 11. No question. The points and probably the offensive stats bear that out.

Was it lack of offensive firepower beyond MT and AK? I don't think I would rely on Smith, Kirkwood, TLL, Watson, Hill, or Arnold for heavy, consistent usage. A lack of use of MI? He just felt sparsely used, given he's a grinder that could wear a defense down and eventually set up some nice play-action. Defenses figuring out to key in on MT and AK or how to gameplan against this offense in general? Who knows. Maybe a combination of all of those things. Something had been off, maybe even "wrong" with the offensive unit towards the end of the season and it felt like there wasn't much of an adjustment on this teams part to try and change things up. To me it feels like, if the offense from the first part of this season had been showing up for the past few weeks we would have cake-walked through these playoffs. I really feel that way.

In my mind, this does not excuse the debacle from yesterday. I just think you have a fair (if unpopular) point.

 

[rail]

Remember when Montana and the 9ers would absolutely kill teams at the end of games who were Playing to Stop the Run .

He'd go Play Action!

That 2nd down play should also have been Play Action!

I've been wanting them to use more play action, especially off of Ingram, for weeks now. I think they did it once yesterday for a nice 8-9 yd completion. Teams have been stacking the box with 7-8 guys when Ingram is the single back pretty much all season.

 

[Swimmer]

I love Brees. I want him to play 2-3 more years.

When Brees 1st came to the Saints, some games, especially when he was getting pressured up the middle, he would get too hyped-up and make some bad plays, INTs, pick sixes and fumbles. He matured through this under SP's coaching. But frankly, I know we don't want to say that Brees is human, but it looked like he wanted that win too much and actually choked a little in the latter part of the game. That INT in OT was not one of his best decisions.

And i still want Brees leading this team for a few more years.

 

[meily]

The play calling was questionable only because it didn't work and on top of that, the initial play call was a good one but Brees threw the ball in the dirt which made the call sheet change for 2nd and 10 to what may of been 2nd and 3 or 1st and goal had he caught it and got enough YAC to make it to the red zone.

 

[Dr. Sting]

I think the 1st down slant to MT is the one caused the whole series to bad.

I know that saying anything that can be even remotely viewed as negative on Drew is a no no on this board, but the play was a run call. He checked out of it to a pass because the Rams were in a zero blitz. He should have still run the ball IMO.

https://www.nola.com/saints/2019/01...lete-pass-that-left-rams-with-extra-time.html

 

[saintsmarchin]

Here is how I end this thread with one simple thing.

We ran it against the Vikings kicked a field goal.. they had nothing left on the clock and a miracle happened.... The end.

 

[catch22]

I think the 1st down slant to MT is the one caused the whole series to bad.

not a terrible call, but a really bad pass by Brees at a really bad time

 

[DaveXA]

Here is how I end this thread with one simple thing.

We ran it against the Vikings kicked a field goal.. they had nothing left on the clock and a miracle happened.... The end.

Weirdly enough, this is one of the reasons I wanted us to go for the td or run the clock to 5 secs and kick the fg.

 

[renegadewa]

I don't know whether this is true, but I have heard on talk-radio that Brees changed the call to a pass.

It is true. A run was called and Brees checked out of it and went to a pass play.

It still doesn't matter because if the PI is called the Saints have a fresh set of downs and could have run the clock down to around 11 seconds after the field goal.

I'm not saying that the Rams couldn't have scored with 11 seconds left but they would have been out of timeouts by then and good luck gaining the necessary yardage and spiking the ball to kill the clock to even give them a chance of even trying a kick to send the game into overtime!!

Plain and simple the league and the refs blew it on the biggest scale EVER!!!!

And to add insult to injury the league has decided to NOT issue any kind of statement!! That's chicken crap!!!

I've been hearing it for years but I never felt that the NFL was truly rigged until yesterday!!

 

[dapperdan]

Payton didn’t call the play on first down. Brees made an audible and then a horrible throw. But guess what we still got screwed.