Thursday night’s 33-10 loss to the Denver Broncos was nothing short of embarrassing for the New Orleans Saints — and it extended beyond just their subpar performance on the field. But that didn’t stop their old head coach Sean Payton from basking in it.
They were outscored by their former kicker, Wil Lutz, alone as he tallied 12 points in his own right to the Saints’ 10 points as a team. Going into the game, Payton downplayed his presence as just one of many former Saints on the opposing sideline. But afterwards he enjoyed a victory lap and rare appearance at the postgame show set.
New Orleans also recorded back-to-back home losses by 20 points or more for the first time in decades and fell to their ex-head coach’s new team on the same night that legendary former quarterback Drew Brees was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame.
Payton was obviously pleased with the results as the Broncos came out on the right side of what was a more lopsided loss than even the final score may tell the story of, as the Saints trailed 33-3 up until the final two minutes of the contest.
“This was the last team I hadn’t beaten,” Payton said after the game, which some had referred to as a “revenge game” for him.
Payton served as the Saints head coach from 2006 to 2021, marking one of the best eras the team has ever seen. Payton and Brees made quite the pair for a team that was a force to be reckoned with while they were at the helm, as then Saints won seven division titles and a Super Bowl in their time there.
It’s safe to say that at least for now, with a long road of fixing ahead, those days are long gone.
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