Sluggish begin dooms Saints, who no longer control playoff fate after loss to Rams

With a prime-time audience and significant playoff ramifications on the line, the New Orleans Saints hadahardtime for 3 quarters Thursday night, falling behind 23 points before rallying for 2 goals late in a 30-22 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

The defeat implies New Orleans no longer controls its playoff fate, and while they’re at worst a videogame out of initially and playing the division-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers next week, this was another opportunity for a signature win that came and went.

“We definitely would haveactually liked to start the videogame muchbetter, play the videogame muchbetter, surface muchbetter,” Saints coach Dennis Allen stated of his 7-8 group. “But we didn’t. I’m not into the portions . I’m actually not. I’m simply focused on … appearance, we let an chance go by, so now we haveactually to get prepared for the things we control, which is getting prepared to go play Tampa.”

New Orleans’ defense had not offered up a goal in its last 2 wins versus the Panthers and Giants, however they provided up 3 in falling behind Thursday. The offense, which hadactually taken a action forward in the last 3 videogames, hadactually a 45-yard goal from Derek Carr to Rashid Shaheed, however didn’t take a breeze in the red zone till midway through the 4th quarter; the Rams had 17 of them at that point.

On important downs, the Saints offense regularly came up empty. In the veryfirst 3 quarters, they went 2-for-8 on 3rd down and 0-for-3 on 4th down, with Carr going 3 of 8 for 22 lawns with an interception and 2 sacks on those plays.

“We did a fantastic task of combating back, however it wasn’t enough,” stated Carr, who hadactually 2 goal passes in the last 7 minutes to pull within a rating.

The Rams got separation in a close videogame in a series of plays before and after halftime. The Saints, routing simply 10-7 with a minute left before halftime, hadactually a fourth-and-5 at the Rams42 Allen decided to go for it, and Carr’s pass meant for tight end Juwan Johnson fell insufficient. The Rams capitalized, marching down the field and getting a goal with 21 seconds left for a 17-7 lead, then prolonged that with a field objective on the opening drive of the 3rd quarter.

“I love the aggressiveness,” Carr stated of Allen’s self-confidence to go for it. “DA was extremely clear on that to the group. Obviously, versus that offense, you’re not going to win a lot of videogames kicking field objectives versus them … We understood as an offense we required to perform, and we hadactually chances.”

The New Orleans defense, which had 18 takeaways in the initially 9 videogames, has simply 4 overall in the last 6, and no interceptions in the last 4. They permitted Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to play within a point of his finest passer score of the season, going 24-for-34 for 328 lawns and 2 goals. Needing a protective stop late to get the ball back for a prospective connecting rating, the Saints saw seasoned Cam Jordan get flagged for a neutral zone offense on 3rd down, enabling the Rams to run out the clock.

The Saints are now left to hope the Bucs fail down the stretch — if Tampa Bay wins any 2 of their last 3 videogames (including versus the Saints next week), they win the department. If they stumble and lose to the Jaguars on Sunday, the 2 groups are still connected for veryfirst, however the Bucs would haveactually the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Saints, even if New Orleans won next week.

If the Saints can pull out wins versus Tampa Bay and Atlanta in the last 2 weeks, their chances to make the playoffs at 9-8 are quite strong — the New York Times playoff simulator hasactually them with simply a 15 percent possibility to make the postseason ideal now, however with 2 wins, that dives up to 72 percent, with a 58 percent possibility to still win the department.

“We’ll regroup,” Allen stated in closing his postgame remarks Thursday night. “We’re still in this thing.”

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South pressreporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having invested time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.