Saints force their own fumble to give the Lions the ball

Yikes. The Saints forced their own fumble to give the Lions the ball, setting up a too-easy lead-extending touchdown:

Look, somethings the ball just doesn’t bounce your way. Sometimes your pulling guard clips the quarterback and forces a fumble right into the arms of the defense. These things happen in pro football. They just seem to happen to the New Orleans Saints more often than many other teams.

And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time on Sunday. The Saints defense held the Lions offense to a short field goal and got off the field at the start of the fourth quarter, only for disaster to strike. Left guard James Hurst right hand accidentally struck Derek Carr’s hands as he received the snapped ball from center Erik McCoy, interrupting the exchange. Carr lost his grip on the ball and it bounced away and into the hands of the Lions defense.

That let the Lions offense set up shot on the New Orleans 26-yard line. A Jahmyr Gibbs run got them into the red zone, and a creative Jameson Williams end-around reverse sent the speedy receiver rocketing into the end zone for a lead-extending touchdown.

It’s near-impossible to win football games when your team is making these kind of mistakes and compounding them with bad luck. But that’s been the story of Dennis Allen’s team far too often.

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