By Ross Jackson
KANSAS CITY – The Saints lost the game on Monday night. They may have lost their quarterback.
After taking a hard hit on an incomplete fourth-and-8 pass, Derek Carr was taken to the locker room nursing what appeared to be an abdominal injury. A blitzing Chiefs defender got quick pressure up the middle after the snap and made contact with Carr, knocking him down to the ground as he released the pass.
The pass, which slipped through rookie wide receiver Mason Tipton’s hands, fell incomplete resulting in a turnover on downs with just over nine minutes left in the game. Carr came up grimacing and holding his left side. He went to the injury tent where spent just over three minutes of gametime being observed.
With about four minutes left in the game, Carr was announced as questionable to return by the team with an oblique injury. That stifled much hope when it came to the team potentially coming back from its 10-point hole at the time. Second-year passer Jake Haener was unable to mount any sort of desperation comeback, and the Chiefs finished the Saints off, 26-13.
This was an ugly game for New Orleans, who didn’t necessarily need to win this game to stay alive in the NFC South division. Afterall, they are just one game behind both the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers who sit at 3-and-2. However, they did need to show that they could hang with the NFL’s best in order to quell concerns around this three week nosedive.
The Saints didn’t prove much in this game except an ability to take advantage of some opportunistic moments. A 37-yard interception return off of a tip drill by defensive tackle Khalen Saunders and a 43-yard touchdown strike from Carr to deep threat Rashid Shaheed showed some signs of life. But unfortunately for the team, nothing reliably sustainable was proven in this one.
The Saints continued shuffling offensive line personnel, suffered injuries to key contributors and weren’t able to get star wideout Chris Olave involved in the game on offense. Plus, a litany of growing concerns on defense showed up. The run defense was porous, and the middle of field was wide open for Kansas City all night.
The Saints weren’t to win this game. But they didn’t do much to endear themselves in the process. They often looked lost, panicked and, overall, a bit reactive. Very rarely did they seem in control or command of their situation. That was a hapless team on the field tonight despite some bright spots. The Saints have a lot to prove moving forward with an important divisional game on the way.
The Injuries:
- Safety Will Harris Jr. left the game with a hamstring injury and did not return.
- Carr’s oblique injury kept him out of the game for the closing of the final quarter.
The Plays:
- Carr’s strike to Shaheed showed the first signs of life for New Orleans. A 43-yard deep bomb for a touchdown.
- Saunders’s interception return was the longest for a defensive tackle in Saints history.
- The Chiefs were backtracked to a 2nd-and-34 that they would eventually convert with the help of an impressive catch and lateral by tight end Travis Kelce.
The Stats:
- Per Next Gen Stats, Saunders got up to 15.79 mph on his interception runback. That ranks No. 3 by a player who weighs 320+ pounds since 2016.
- This is now the fourth consecutive season that New Orleans has a losing streak of at least three games.
- New Orleans was just 4-of-10 on third downs and 0-of-2 on fourth downs.
- The Saints defense held Kansas City to several field goals in the red zone. The issue? The Chiefs had 7 red zone possessions.
- Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones totaled 9 pressures per Pro Football Focus.
- Mahomes gained 174 of his 331 passing yards by targeting the middle of the field. 251 came after the catch, good for 75.8% of Mahomes’ passing yards.
