Saints Nation: Saints’ Season Ends In Heartbreaker in San Francisco

You can look to point to one individual for this loss all you want, the bottom line is there was plenty of blame to go around. The defense completed caved in late, the offense turned the ball over three times and special teams turned it over twice. All three units were terrible at times and brilliant at others. Today was just one of those games where one play at the end was going to decide it and the outcome truly could’ve gone either way. It’s really too bad, because to me the Saints were the superior team in my opinion, but one play at the end of the game costs them a trip to the NFC Championship. So it goes. The Saints lose 32-36 in San Francisco and the terrific season ends on a sour note. It was a crazy game that completely defied any semblance of expectation and the ending was less likely than the final score. Regardless of how you paint it, the end product is the season being over and us fans left with the “what ifs” and the question marks that precede any offseason. Below are my notes on the game bullet style.

• It’s going to be so painful revisiting to come up with grades. Ugh.
• Colossal fail by Malcolm Jenkins. The Saints put him on Vernon Davis often in an effort to slow him down. It cost them the game. He was horrible in coverage. I’m not convinced at this point he’s good enough to be a starter at that position.
• Roman Harper struggled mightily on Davis too, but he was a beast blitzing. 
• The 5 turnovers almost started to get comical. The Saints tried really hard to self destruct and suffer a blow out loss. To Brees’ credit though they kept fighting and coming back.
• Give the defense a ton of credit for the way they played for 3.5 quarters. They completely carried the team.  
• What so surreal about those final two drives by the 49ers is how atrocious they looked offensively to that point. Now everyone is praising Alex Smith as a hero when he looked so far beyond bad for 3.5 quarters. The Saints also completely shut down the run until the penultimate 49ers drive and Alex Smith couldn’t complete a pass to save his life.
• Jimmy Graham’s final TD was sick.
• Marques Colston had a fantastic game but could have had a TD before Kasay’s field goal. Too bad he had alligator arms there.
• Losing Pierre Thomas on that first drive and his fumble at the one yard line was a sign of how the game would go. Hope he’s ok. That was a nasty hit and he was out cold for a second.
• The offensive line struggled mightily. Jermon Bushrod in particular was poor, but the Saints’ interior struggled badly. I blame that mostly on the play calling. No commitment whatsoever to the run. The Saints were very clearly going to pass every single time. It was kind of like the Lions last week. Poor balance. I don’t care how good the 49ers are at stopping the run, you have to make them at least respect the possibility that you’ll do it.
• Terry Bradshaw made a good point post game that I agree with. Gregg Williams called man coverage at the end of the game. The Saints should have played deep zone. Don’t agree with the coverage decision. That left a tight end one on one with Jenkins when he had beaten you all day long.
• Saints had 63 passes and 14 rushes. That is inexcusable.
• I was surprised to see John Kasay hit a clutch 48 yarder. If that’s his final game as a Saint, tip of the hat to him. He’s had a very solid season.
• Robert Meachem is terrified of being hit. I am so sick of him gingerly tip toeing out of bounds. I would happily rid myself of him if we can get a new receiver with skills.
• Lance Moore missing was really tough. He really could’ve helped early against this 49ers’ defense with his ability to find soft spots after the play broke down.
• The 49ers threw an unreal amount on 1st down. A very similar gameplan to Alabama vs. LSU to keep them honest when they sold out on stopping the run. The lack of commitment to Frank Gore was pretty shocking. Gore had 13 carries. I can’t believe they were able to win despite this.
• Darren Sproles broke an NFL record with 15 receptions in a playoff game. That’s all this team does.
• We’ll talk more about the offseason plenty, but tough decisions await the Saints. Most notably, Drew Brees, Marques Colston, Carl Nicks, Robert Meachem and Tracy Porter all have expiring contracts. We’ll see who sticks. It would be horrible to lose Colston or Nicks. I’m going to assume the Saints will franchise Brees worst case scenario.
• The draft lead up isn’t going to be that exciting as the Saints have no 1st round pick.
• Drew Brees was hit 11 times. That’s an obscene amount. He’s going to be very sore tomorrow. He was also sacked 3 times. 
• Consider the 4 sacks the Saints got: Harper twice, Wilson once, Jenkins once. So 3 sacks by safeties and 1 by a linebacker. Once again, the front four’s inability to get to the quarterback is an achilles heel.
• I still can’t believe we lost this game. Twice.

Thanks to you guys for supporting Saints Nation, and we’ll of course start to look ahead to the 2012 season. At least the lockout won’t shut us down this year and we’ll get some roster news after the Super Bowl. Stay tuned for the grades. What a sad way to end it. Geaux Saints.