What we learned in Saints' Week 13 meltdown vs. Bucs

New Orleans Saints fans and NFL fans all over social media were laughing at Tom Brady and the Buccaneers when they were up 16-3 with roughly six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Well, it's not so funny now, is it?

The Saints defense, after playing so well through three quarters, suddenly couldn't stop anything, allowing the Bucs offense to score two touchdowns late in the game to win it. The offense didn't help the team either, frequently settling for field goals instead of being aggressive and trying to slam the door on the Bucs.

It won't be fun, but we have to talk about the game.

Mark Ingram's mistake cost the Saints the win

The player who deserved to be left behind in Tampa the most was, without a doubt, Mark Ingram. For whatever reason, the running back opted to run out of bounds one yard shy of the first-down marker. The Saints then had to punt and well -- We know what happened next.

Had Ingram just went one yard further -- and he could have, he had room -- the Saints could have bled the clock more and that comeback by Tampa probably doesn't happen. Ingram can be cut now and I'd be fine with it.

This one is on coaching

The offense had terrible late-game drives (if you can even call them drives) and the defense couldn't stop a struggling offense in the final few minutes. While yes, that looks bad for both of those sides, this one ultimately falls on coaching. Dennis Allen is not the right person to lead this team and he showed it by constantly being conservative with going for field goals and not touchdowns.

Maybe the Saints don't get points but at least we would have respected the team's aggressiveness in a must-win game.

The long-shot hope of making the playoffs is dead

This team had no business being in the playoffs anyway but now their chances of making it are surely dead. They've been swept by the Bucs and are now 4-9 on the year. They'd have to hope for a major implosion by the Buccaneers and the other two teams and even if they did win the division, do you really want to watch the Saints host a playoff game? Yeah, me neither.

This was an absolutely disgusting loss by the Saints and to be perfectly honest, I'd rather the team have gotten blown out. What a disgrace.