You can’t say the New Orleans Saints don’t have any fight in them. They rallied from a 21-0 deficit to keep it close with the Detroit Lions in the second half, but it wasn’t enough: that late-game effort couldn’t make up for their mistakes early on. The Lions left as victors with a 33-28 final score.
What went wrong? Derek Carr missed an open receiver to force the ball to his tight end on the first play from scrimmage, which was dropped and intercepted by the Detroit defense, setting up a short field on their next touchdown-scoring drive. Things got worse before they got better.
The Lions ran for 142 yards as a team and Jared Goff didn’t turn the ball over after giving it away six times in his last two games. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta was unstoppable, finishing with 9 receptions (on 9 targets) and 140 receiving yards plus a touchdown catch.
It wasn’t all bad. Carr was surprisingly efficient after the end of the first quarter, though he threw too many off-target passes that asked a lot of his receivers. Fortunately Chris Olave (5 catches for 119 yards) was up to the task. Alvin Kamara ended the afternoon with 58 receiving yards and 51 rushing yards with two scoring runs. Taysom Hill impacted both phases, leading the team with 59 rushing yards and catching two passes for 15 receiving yards. Pete Carmichael made some clever play calls, picking up chunks of yardage on play action passes to Olave and Foster Moreau. They went 4-for-4 in the red zone.
But, again, it wasn’t enough. The offense showed too little too late to make a difference. Dennis Allen’s handmade defense was shredded. A 5-7 record is the best showing Allen has ever had after Week 13. This is his ceiling, and the Saints shouldn’t mistake it for anything else.
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