The New Orleans Saints are not better than the Green Bay Packers. You didn’t need to watch the first half to know that, but the first 30 minutes was filled with constant reminders.
If the Saints were going to compete with a team that’s much better than them, you couldn’t also commit self-inflicted penalties. That’s exactly what the Saints did in the first half.
Spencer Rattler stalled the two Saints possessions with any momentum. The rookie fumbled in Packers territory, and simply didn’t secure the ball well. On the last possession, Rattler took a bad sack and pushed the Saints out of potential field goal range.
New Orleans forced the Packers into a pair of third and sixes, but turned those into third and ones with offsides penalties twice. This made it easy for the Packers to extend drives and eventually score touchdowns.
There was one mistake that ended up not costing them. The Saints secondary completely lost Christian Watson in coverage, but Jordan Love opted to take the safe throw for a first down.
That was one of their biggest mistakes, and they got lucky for it to not cost them, though Green Bay still ended that drive with a touchdown.