You just can't have both things, can you?
In Week 3, the New Orleans Saints had a chance to get their second win of the season and do it during their home opener. Instead, even after leading by a good margin in the middle of the third quarter, the Saints completely collapsed and lost to the Las Vegas Raiders.
What makes this loss confusing, besides the referee involvement, is that the Saints played well. This was a game where the Saints didn't just run the ball well; they started fast. I have talked all week, and really the entire season so far, about the Saints not being able to succeed early in games and struggling to face what defenses are throwing at them. This is why the Saints had to make their 4th-quarter comebacks against the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens.
Against Las Vegas, the Saints, for most of the game, were not going to have to make this comeback. The run game was doing really well; Tyler Shough looked calm and comfortable; the play calling was working; and the blocking was shutting down the Raiders' pass rush, which is not easy to do. Finally, Kellen Moore got the Saints off to a strong start, and they didn't look like they were going to slow down. But as I've mentioned, and with it being a loss, the Saints did slow down, and that turned into a full-on collapse.
The fourth-quarter Saints, a nickname given to this team due to the first two weeks of the season, were far from that against Las Vegas. It happened a bit earlier, but when the Saints needed to keep their foot on the gas and keep the Raiders from coming back, the team completely failed. Turnover after turnover after turnover gave the Saints zero chance of scoring, and some confusing mistakes by the refs did not help, but New Orleans had a chance of winning.
Then, when the Saints had to make a comeback, they vanished. Las Vegas controlled the game and kept the Saints from scoring again. This was the first real time under Kellen Moore that the Saints clearly should have won a game, but blew it late in the matchup. It was very similar to what the Ravens did against New Orleans last week.
The Saints had some good performances in this game, and the fast start was a positive, but blowing the lead like this is unacceptable. These are the moments that happen when a team is rebuilding, so as long as New Orleans can learn from this, all will be good.
