Despite a promising start – what with Taysom Hill proving his vitality within the Saints offense with two fantastic runs and an equally great effort from Pete Werner on an early forced fumble – the Saints found themselves in a position that, until Sunday, almost certainly meant that they would lose their first game, to hated divisional rival the Atlanta Falcons, nonetheless. They were down 26-10 entering the fourth quarter, a sixteen-point deficit that, when faced 208 times previously, ended with the Saints collecting the L. And there was nothing in particular that occurred during this game’s first 45 minutes that convinced anyone watching that time 209 would be any different.

But then the Falcons came calling.

And offense that was dormant in the first half, a passing offense that was literally a net negative for the team at the half (when the Saints had -2 yards passing), came to life out of thin air, or whatever was in that blue medical tent Jameis Winston went into before he absolutely took off in the fourth. Whether due to a change in scheme or a tiring front, the Falcons pass rush that made the Saints look like the clear fourth best team in the NFC South through three quarters was unable to fluster Winston at all, and he diced up the Falcons secondary with his new and improved receiving corps.

But just as the Saints finally kicked into gear, trailing by two with a two-point conversion to go, they seemingly did everything in their power to not score the necessary points to win the game. First, on the two-point play, the team ran the wildcat formation, which had resulted in the team’s best running plays up to that point. The only problem was that instead of Taysom Hill in the backfield, the team had Mark Ingram take the snap in a rushed attempt to try to catch the Falcons off guard. It didn’t work.

Next, when facing a third-and-six from the Atlanta 44-yard line, a Marcus Mariota incompletion – which would have resulted in the Saints getting the ball back with more than 90 seconds and two timeouts – was wiped out by a 5-yard defensive holding call on Marshon Lattimore, which gave the Falcons a new set of downs. Now just needing one first down, and one yard to get it, to seal the game, the Falcons truly played down to their reputation with a fumbled snap by Mariota, which actually turned out not be as big of a disaster as it could have been, with him getting back to the line of scrimmage. Arthur Smith’s next decision was the most inexplicable, taking a delay of game penalty and pushing his team back five yards instead of trusting the running back that had just become the first player to run for 100 yards against the Saints since 2020 to gain one more yard.

But with only forty seconds and no timeouts, a drive beginning from their own 25-yard line didn’t seem like a recipe for a team about to pull of a winning drive. But Jameis Winston was precise in a huge deep through to homegrown talent Jarvis Landry. The team, thinking the clock was running, hurried to the line to spike the ball. How no one on the sideline was able to articulate to anyone on the field that they, you know, didn’t need to hurry up, is the type of communication breakdown that would sink most teams. But the Saints overcame that and another premature spike two snaps later when the Saints could have run enough time off the clock to not allow the Falcons enough of a shot to pull off a last-second victory.

But as weird as all that was, the ending was truly remarkable. The Falcons were seemingly out of all hope when Cordarrell Patterson took a five-yard completion to their own 40-yard line with two seconds remaining. But Lattimore gifted the Falcons with an inexcusable 15-yard personal foul penalty that allowed the Falcons to attempt a game-winning field goal. It was only then that the Saints decided to win the game, 2021 first-round draft pick Payton Turner coming up with the game-sealing block on Yung-hoo Koo’s kick.

In what was an absolutely ridiculous game that didn’t make much sense, here are the things that we’re most trying to sort out to see what it means.

The Saints Offense Is Still Looking For Its Footing Post-Brees

In the 18 games now without Drew Brees, one thing that has made itself most clear is how much of a model of a consistency he was at the position. While he ultimately led the team to victory this week, Jameis Winston was not able to do anything through three quarters, largely due to his offensive line being unable to keep with a Falcons pass rush that was downright awful a season ago. The offensive stagnation has been a large part of the Saints experience since Brees retired, and it was disappointing to see the same inability to get anything going on that side of the ball during the second and third quarters.

Holes In The Saints Defense?

A unit that will need to be among the best in the league for the team to achieve their lofty goals for this season did not play their best Sunday. Despite two great defensive plays on their two fumble recoveries, the Falcons gashed the Saints defense to the tune of 201 yards rushing and 416 yards overall. And while Mariota is a mobile quarterback, the team was unable to record a single sack. But despite those negatives, the Saints defense did enough good things that I’m left not as concerned about them on that side of the ball. Of their thirteen third-down attempts, the Falcons were only able to convert on five of those. And while the Falcons ran 14 more plays than the Saints, they averaged nearly one yard less per play than the Saints.