New Orleans Saints fans deserve better than this. With their team competing in prime time and nothing to lose after being eliminated from the playoffs, they instead sat and watched the black and gold get thumped by the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.
The Saints fell, 34-0, in the first shutout of the 2024 season. It’s the second time they’ve been shut out in three years, having been defeated 12-0 by the San Francisco 49ers in 2022, which snapped a streak of 369 games without a shutout running back to 2005. All three shutouts happened on Mickey Loomis’ watch as general manager.
It’s embarrassing. Packers quarterback Jordan Love was pulled in the fourth quarter after an efficient night; he completed 16 of 28 passes for 182 yards and a score while the Pack set a franchise record with nine different players logging at least one rushing attempt, three of them scoring touchdowns. Defensively, the Packers recovered a Spencer Rattler fumble and intercepted the rookie quarterback.
Sure, New Orleans was shorthanded without their best wide receivers; Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed are out with injury, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling was a late scratch with an illness and injury of his own. But the special teams unit was a mess, the defense couldn’t tackle anyone, and the once-proud rushing attack wilted without Alvin Kamara leading them. The Saints gave up.
There’s just two games left. They’ll return home to New Orleans for a matchup with Derek Carr’s old Las Vegas Raiders team and then hit the road to close out the season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who just might be in the driver’s seat to win another NFC South division title. This isn’t the vision Loomis had for this team, but his decisions steered them here.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5]