TAMPA, Fla. — Being on the receiving end of a stunning Tom Brady comeback is never an easy thing, and after dominating for most of the game Monday night, the Saints gave up two touchdowns in the final three minutes to take a difficult 17-16 loss, completing a season sweep.
Instead of being a half-game out of first, the Saints are 4-9 and in last place in the NFC South, something they’ll have to digest during their bye week before the final four games of the year.
“We didn’t make the plays when they were there and, at the end of the game, they did,” quarterback Andy Dalton said. “That’s what it came down to. We had opportunities for that game to be very different than what it was, and I feel like I’m a broken record saying the same thing. We’ve just missed opportunities.”
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Some of the Bucs’ rally is an all-time great engineering of two amazing drives, but the Saints also know they helped facilitate the comeback. Three times, New Orleans had drives get inside the Bucs’ 20 but only yielded field goals, keeping the game closer. As the Saints tried to run down clock in the fourth quarter, up 13 at the time, running back Mark Ingram ran out of bounds a yard short of a first down, both stopping the clock and forcing a third-and-1 that the Saints didn’t convert.
“I’m sick about this one,” Ingram tweeted after the loss. “Regardless of circumstances or how I feel, I have to get that fresh set of downs for the squad. I apologize to my teammates, my coaches and my city for a crucial mistake. We work way too hard to sacrifice blood, sweat and tears. I will be better.”
Facing a third-and-17 between the two touchdown drives, the Saints nearly pulled off a huge conversion, but Dalton’s pass to Taysom Hill was broken up by a hit by Bucs safety Keanu Neal, forcing New Orleans to punt the ball back to Brady.
Even the winning touchdown was closely contested, as the Bucs scored with three seconds left, with rookie running back Rachaad White taking a short pass from Brady and reaching the ball out into the end zone as he was tackled by Saints linebacker Demario Davis.
“You’ve got to play four quarters for a reason,” Davis said. “We knew that they were a good team in the fourth quarter, so we were locked in all the way down the stretch. They just made more plays when it counted.”
The Saints were well on their way to a third straight win in Tampa without allowing a touchdown in any of the games, with a 38-3 win in 2020 and a 9-0 shutout last season. They had eaten up nearly half the fourth quarter with a 12-play drive that started at their 20 and converted three third downs, but it stalled in the red zone, and they settled for a field goal and a 16-3 lead with 8:02 left.
Even then, the Saints defense got another three-and-out, only to return the favor on offense, setting up two touchdown drives in the final 5:21 for a shocking comeback victory for the Bucs.
“I mean, Tom Brady was Tom Brady,” defensive end Cam Jordan said. “He was meticulous and stayed to the plan of his dink-and-dunk mentality. He had the one prayer that he sailed out there and got bailed out with the flag, and that was costly. I think the defense made some plays today and we have to be able to capitalize on everything. I think there was still some more out there.
“It’s frustrating as hell to not come up with the win when you’re up 16-3 in the fourth and you lose. That’s been sort of the story of the year.”
The Bucs swept the Saints for the first time since 2007, and both games were close contests that got away from the Saints late. In New Orleans in Week 2, it was a 3-3 game with eight minutes to go, and the Bucs pulled away thanks to four Saints turnovers in the fourth quarter on the way to a 20-10 victory. Monday’s loss was more of the same, the greatest regular-season fourth-quarter comeback of Brady’s career.
“It hurts. You don’t process anything,” Jordan said. “I’ve got to go into a bye week knowing that we should have beat this team. The first time, we should have beat this team. We should have beat Carolina. We should have beat a lot of other teams. We didn’t. Right now, this is the facts. This is what we’re facing. We’re beyond an uphill battle. We’ve got to swing our way out of these last four games.”
What’s worse, the Saints don’t have the consolation of knowing a disappointing record at least yields a high draft pick, as they dealt their 2023 first-round pick to the Eagles to trade up for receiver Chris Olave in April. That pick is currently the No. 5 overall selection, but not having it means there’s no penalty for going for a strong finish in the final four games.
“It sucks, it stings, it hurts,” coach Dennis Allen said. “We’re going to get a little time on this bye to get rested up and recovered. Then we will get back at work and get ready for Atlanta. That’s what our job is. Our job is to get ourselves prepared to go play the best football we can, so that’s what we will do.”
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Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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