Sometimes being really good in football isn’t good enough.
For most of their Week 3 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints’ defense was on the edge. The Saints managed a shutout for three quarters, losing a lot of ground here and there but making up for it with some big plays of their own.
But the fourth quarter belonged to the Birds, as Philadelphia scored two goals that made the difference in the game: Saquon Barkley raced unhindered through the Saints defense for a 65-yard touchdown, and tight end Dallas Goedert ran free down the sideline and scored a 61-yard touchdown in the final two minutes to give them the lead.
“You can play great defense for 55 minutes and after five minutes it can kind of get away from you,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said.
New Orleans needed its defense on Sunday. An offense that steamrolled the Panthers and Cowboys by a combined 91 points managed just one field goal in the opening drive through three quarters on Sunday.
And it looked like the defense was up to the task. Time and again, the Saints showed great defensive moves at critical moments. In fact, the Saints defenders managed to hand the ball back to the offense on four consecutive attacks.
1: When the Eagles threatened at the Saints’ 11-yard line, Mathieu intercepted Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ pass in the end zone on the first play of the second quarter.
2: After a three-and-out by the Saints offense, the Eagles marched down the field again and made it to the Saints 40-yard line before Carl Granderson sacked Hurts from behind and forced a fumble that Willie Gay recovered.
3: On the 15th play of the Eagles’ ensuing drive, facing a fourth-and-1 at the Saints 15-yard line, the Eagles tried to catch the Saints on the vaunted “Tush Push” play. Instead, Hurts gave the ball to Barkley, but Chase Young and Pete Werner sensed the play and dropped him with no gain.
4: On the opening drive of the second half, Philadelphia managed another fourth down from the Saints 34-yard line. This time, it was defensive tackle Bryan Bresee who made the play, sacking Hurts for a loss of 6 yards.
“I thought we played hard, I thought we played fast,” Mathieu said. “There were just a few moments in the game where our defense broke down.”
It was Barkley who was charging through the gaps in the fourth quarter. Mathieu said the Saints took a Cover 0 position, with a blitz from the left side of the Eagles formation, and that’s where the play went.
Philadelphia’s offensive line blocked the play perfectly, and by the time Barkley got past the first line, there was no one left on the second or third level. Barkley saw the gap, made a cut, and beat Marshon Lattimore and Alontae Taylor on a run to the end zone for a 65-yard touchdown.
“He’s a good player,” safety Will Harris said. “If you give him something, he’ll take it.”
Nevertheless, New Orleans took the lead again when Derek Carr found Chris Olave for a touchdown with about two minutes left, leaving the game to the defense, which thus had a chance to make amends.
For a moment, it looked like they were going to get their revenge. Bresee got his second sack and set up a third-and-16 with 1:16 left. And then the Eagles, playing without their star receivers AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, called a pick play to free up Goedert.
Mathieu said the Eagles ran that play three or four times in the game. Goedert had already put on an impressive performance up to that point, with his first nine catches netting 109 yards. He and Barkley were the two players who drew the most attention from the Saints.
That might explain what happened next: Goedert crossed right to left, under a left to right crossing route by teammate Jahan Dotson. Safety Jordan Howden slammed hard into Goedert, colliding with Marshon Lattimore, who in turn collided with Harris.
Harris covered Goedert on this play. The pileup freed the big tight end, who ran 61 yards to the Saints’ 4-yard line. Barkley scored the decisive touchdown on the next play.
“It is what it is,” Harris said. “I have to get better; we have to find a way to get the guy on the floor.”
Not everything will look good upon closer inspection. The Saints allowed 460 yards of net offense against an Eagles team that was already without a Pro Bowl receiver (Brown), another (Smith) and also lost two offensive linemen (Lane Thomas and Mekhi Becton).
But the performance was enough to win… until it wasn’t.
“Our team is always going to fight, but there’s no ‘hey, you did a good job’ when you don’t win,” defensive end Cam Jordan said. “There are a lot of positives, but at the same time there are some plays you wish you had again.”
“There are two in particular where you think, ‘Damn, if you take one of these out, we’re in a whole different situation.'”
