The New Orleans Saints fell short in their pursuit of the first winning streak of the year after losing to the New England Patriots in a close battle. The score was close and reflective of how close these two teams played on Sunday, but the Patriots were clearly the better team through the majority of the game.
The Saints kicked field goals, and the Patriots scored touchdowns. If you’re looking for the difference in the game, it can easily be pointed to that difference early in the game. It sounds cliche and simple, but cliches are heavily used for a reason. Sometimes things really are that simple. The Saints and Patriots both moved the ball down the field early, but the Saints settled for too many field goals.
The script was similar to the earlier games in the Saints’ season. The Saints entered the fourth quarter with the game still in the balance. Once again, they were playing catch up at this point. The Saints felt like they were building some momentum before a Juwan Johnson fumble stalled out the drive.
Saints and Patriots punters had an easy day
Both the Saints and Patriots kept their punters off the field for the majority of the game. Kai Kroeger spent more time holding kick attempts for Blake Grupe than he did actually punting the ball.
Each of the first nine possessions featured a mixture of field goals and touchdowns, and the two drives that didn’t result in points ended with a turnover on downs and halftime. The Saints didn’t punt the football until the back end of the third quarter. The Patriots followed suit on the ensuing drive on their final drive of the quarter.
The second time the Saints punted the ball was the last time they saw it. The Saints defense had done a good job keeping the Patriots from putting drives together. The Patriots found their mojo and closed out the game with a four minute drive to own it.
