Beats By Drew

That settles it. The Saints lost yesterday because of the refs. A borderline offensive pass interference call on a Jimmy Graham hail mary was the only thing standing between this team being 4-5 or 5-4. It couldn't possibly have been an initial drive that consisted of three straight pass plays and a turnover. Defnitely wasn't the defense, or lack thereof, in the first half. No way a porous effort by Marques Colston, that was highlighted by a drop on a potential game breaking play, was responsible.How dare people blame a blatant case of time mismanagement at the end of the first half. How could we possibly fault our offensive mastermind head coach and our future Hall of Fame quarterback for an arrogant play call, and the resulting turnover, with time on the clock and timeouts in our pocket?

Here is a fact. A fact that Saints fans do not want to accept. The New Orleans Saints did not deserve to win the football game yesterday. Sean Payton's desire to be pass happy was the reason that the game started off miserably, went into halftime the same way, and ended in dismal fashion. I don't want to leave Drew Brees out either. The interception to end the half cannot happen. Winning quarterbacks do not throw that ball into triple coverage. Jimmy Graham could have been superhuman (he basically is) and he would have had no shot at that ball. Wnning teams do not make that play. We had time on the clock and timeouts in our pocket. Go figure the first time we actually have timeouts left at the end of the half and we don't take advantage of them.

I have seen Corey White getting eviscerated since that 4th and 10 play. Not sure if anyone was actually watching the same game, but that play was due to the failure of Kenny Vacarro. Regardless, If you had told me before the game started that the defense would hold the 49ers to three second half points I would have guaranteed a win.

There is no one source of blame. The coaches deserve some. The quarterback deserves some. The  defense deserves some. I am not going to sit here and pout about an officials ruling on a hail mary. The game shouldn't have come to that. Good teams make plays when the game is on the line. In four out of five losses the Saints have given up a game tying or game winning drive.  That's not winning football. Losing the turnover battle is not winning football. Refusing to be two dimensional offensively, while your running back is having success, is not winning football. Forgive me, If I put more value into a multitude of mistakes the Saints made, instead of 50/50 penalty call on a desperation play.

P.S. Was it a push off? Yes. Was it a flop? Yes. Did the defensive player get hurt? Yes. All three of those resulted in what the official saw. Just a freak play. Penalties are not usually called in that situation. However, upon first gaze I thought it was a penalty too. It's only upon slow motion review that you see Jimmy barely extends his arm. Tip your hat to the defender's sell job and move on to next week. The Saints didn't deserve this one.