Turnovers End Saints' Disastrous Season in Fitting Fashion

As he danced around the pocket, looking, hoping for one of his pass-catchers to get open, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees had the football swatted out of his hands.

Watching the pigskin rattle onto the turf of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, there was suddenly a chilling realization that the Saints' disastrous 2014 season was over. 

For Saints fans, it's upsetting to know that the team's 2014 adventure will be remembered by Atlanta Falcons linebacker Osi Umenyiora scooping up Brees' fumble and returning it for a touchdown as the clock struck zero. 

What's even more upsetting is that fumble was the fourth turnover of the contest.

In retrospect, the 30-14 defeat was a fitting way to end this thing. Not only did the loss put the Falcons in a great position to win the division next week against the Carolina Panthers, but it also marked the first time Atlanta swept the season series since 2005.

That year, Aaron Brooks was the quarterback and Jim Haslett was the guy on the sidelines wearing the headset.

This year's version of the Saints that got swept by the Falcons weren't starved for talent. General manager Mickey Loomis spent the offseason manipulating enough cap space to sign a talented free-agent safety in Jairus Byrd and come to terms with tight end Jimmy Graham.

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They had a rookie in Kenny Vaccaro who was blossoming into a star, they had Sean Payton calling the plays, and yes, they had Brees.

But it all came tumbling down in what turned out to be a season impaled by turnovers, inconsistent play and a defense that had major issues slowing anybody down when they needed to the most.

Prior to their showing in Week 16, Rob Ryan's defense was ranked 31st in the National Football League. The only defense that was worse? The Falcons.

Football Outsiders' advanced grading formula placed the Saints defense 30th. That special DVOA equation showed that no matter how you attacked them, they couldn't consistently find a way to get stops.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan took advantage of that notion, throwing for 322 yards and a touchdown. He completed 30 of 40 receiving attempts, hitting 10 different receivers in the process.

Sports Illustrated senior editor Tom Mantzouranis took to Twitter to express his thoughts on how bad the Saints defense was playing:

All the defensive mishaps and blown coverages weren't the only problem. Offensively, so much went wrong for so long.

On paper, the Saints offense appeared to play well. Averaging 422.6 yards per game before Week 16, they were slotted behind only the Pittsburgh Steelers in that category.

That's a great number to have, and it shows you Coach Payton can still construct a scheme, but all of those yards don't mask the fact that the Saints were minus-seven on the year when it came to turnovers.

It doesn't mask the fact that Brees wasn't at his best this year. To the dismay of many, Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman was one guy who transmitted to the world how the veteran QB hasn't looked the same at times:

After a strong showing against the Chicago Bears in which he threw for 375 yards and three scores, Brees had problems getting it going against the Falcons.

Passing for 313 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, the fact is he wasn't as sharp as he needed to be in order to help his team win a football game. 

To be fair, it wasn't entirely Brees' fault. A sloppy route by wide receiver Nick Toon allowed Falcons cornerback Robert McClain to make an easy pick with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter.

Football Outsiders' Aaron Schatz threw this interesting piece of information to the universe to defend Brees:

No matter what side of the fence you're on, the real issue here is that we've been talking about Brees having problems for what feels like a full calendar year now. That alone is something Saints fans haven't been accustomed to hearing.

Everything that could have gone wrong for this team did. Even the Saints' seemingly untouchable home-field advantage disappeared, as ESPN's Ed Werder pointed out:

Losing that crippled their chances of making a late playoff run.

In the end, the Saints just couldn't get their inconsistencies and poor play hammered out. When Coach Payton was asked at his postgame presser, via NewOrleansSaints.com, whether he was baffled by the entire season, he replied with the following:

"

It's not a head scratcher though, I appreciate the question, but it's not. It’s pretty clear; there are some things that we have to look closely at. I don't really look at it like it's puzzling. The things you need to do to play consistently and win in this league, we haven’t done those consistently. We have done it at times and yet not consistently enough.

"

The one thing we do know is that big changes are needed. Next season, the Saints have to be better. There's far too much talent on this roster to post up another losing record.

Though it will take time and it won't be easy, we all have to sweep 2014 under the rug and hope for better results in '15.

Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information come courtesy of ESPN.com.