The Atlanta Falcons led their arch rival New Orleans Saints by 16 points with only 12 minutes left in regulation. And, in the truest possible Falcons fashion, they lost.
Atlanta, led by Marcus Mariota, took a 16-7 lead into halftime and a 26-10 advantage with 12:41 to play in the fourth quarter. This did not matter. New Orleans scored on its next three possessions to earn a 27-26 win, which would be painful enough in its own right. But, because this is the Falcons, there was self-inflicted salt added to the wound.
After shutting down a game-tying two-point conversion with 3:46 to play, Atlanta just needed to sustain a medium-sized drive to salt away the clock. Two first downs eventually brought up third-and-one at the Saints’ 42-yard line. Gain one yard and the Falcons would win.
The Falcons did not gain one yard. They didn’t even really get the chance.
Mariota, who’d run for 73 yards and a touchdown by that point, fumbled the snap and wound up getting dropped for a loss of one. This led to an Atlanta punt. Jameis Winston covered 47 yards in four plays — two passes, two spikes — and set up a 51-yard Wil Lutz field goal to take a 27-26 lead with 19 seconds to play.
But the Falcons wouldn’t lose that cleanly. Two short completions and an unnecessary roughness penalty set up a potential game-winning 63-yard field goal for Pro Bowler Younghoe Koo. Like the third-and-1 play before it, it fell apart before it even had a chance for success.
BLOCKED.
RETURN TO SENDER. pic.twitter.com/79kXF1X90y
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 11, 2022
Koo’s kick was blocked, cementing a disappointing beginning for the rebuilding Falcons and giving the Saints a very unconvincing 1-0 start.