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Tough New Orleans Saints Loss: Observations from the cheap seats

By Tony Twillie

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JANUARY 05: Drew Brees #9 of the New Orleans Saints reacts after fumbling the ball during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Mercedes Benz Superdome on January 05, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JANUARY 05: Drew Brees #9 of the New Orleans Saints reacts after fumbling the ball during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Mercedes Benz Superdome on January 05, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

It’s not all bad

Let’s interject a bit of positive.

Taysom Hill was sensational – in fact, it was sad that he wasn’t used more. Deonte Harris showed why he’s an All-Pro returner again, several times getting big runs and getting the Saints in solid field position. Thomas Morstead continued his tremendous work.

The defense only gave up 20 points in regulation. If you tell any Saints fan the defense will only give up 20, they’d take that and say that’s a win for the Saints. They were on the field a lot and still only gave up a little.

As well, the Saints did take the game to overtime.

After all the bad and negative of the game, they still hung in enough to kick a field goal to send the game to OT. Unfortunately, the coin toss went the wrong way for the Saints and the Vikings never gave the Saints a chance to possess the ball in overtime.

Much is being made about the alleged pass interference call missed in the end zone and the lack of replay.

First, in my humble opinion, this was unlike the debacles of the last 2 seasons. In Minnesota two years ago, we played well enough to win, and we just had an unfortunate error. Last season against the Rams, we played them toe to toe and got unlucky with that call.

For certain in every game, there are things that happen that might have changed your fortunes, but in both those games, the Saints had put themselves in a position to win. In this game, the Saints lost chances to win and truly were outplayed.

So there was no feeling as though something was taken from us – we gave things away, and the Vikings earned things.

Second, there was some hand fighting going on between both players.

There were mixed reviews of the call – some former officials said it was offensive pass interference. To me as well, it could have been called and had they called it and reviewed it, it would have stood as OPI.

But ultimately, the powers that be agreed with the call on the field even on Monday after league review. And let’s be real – if they HAD reviewed it at the moment, does anyone truly think it would have been overturned and ruled OPI?

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