NFL: New Orleans Saints Miss Big Opportunity in Loss to Tampa Bay Bucs

On a day that Drew Brees passed his way into the record books, the New Orleans Saints lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-20 on the road. He became the first quarterback ever to throw for 350 yards in four straight games.

Brees passing for 383 yards on the day was not a big surprise. His interception total of three was, however.

Sean Payton, coach of the Saints, was injured in the first quarter of the divisional game. After Jimmy Graham made a first-down catch, he got tackled into his coach. Payton suffered a broken bone in his left leg and was forced to call plays from the bench.

The whole thing made for great TV because the players on the Saints sideline had to continually move so their coach could see the field and read the defense.

Calling plays from the bench worked out well on the second drive for New Orleans. They marched right down the field and scored a touchdown to take the lead at 7-3. Drew Brees connected with Marques Colston on a 38-yard touchdown pass, which was Colston’s first of the season.

Also, it marked the 39^th consecutive game that Brees has thrown a touchdown pass. Only Johnny Unitas has a longer streak at 47 games

The Saints would go into halftime down 20-10.

The second half was very exciting, and played out like most of the games in the season so far. However, Brees could not perform his normal heroics that Saints fans have become accustomed to seeing.

Even though New Orleans had three turnovers going into the fourth quarter, they still had a chance to win the game. Late in the fourth quarter, Drew Brees marched his team into Bucs territory.

After making the first part of the drive look easy, Brees and company stalled inside the 10-yard line.

On a fourth-and-two from the Bucs four-yard line with 3:42 left, Brees rolled out to his right looking for anybody open. Tampa Bay must have been in the huddle with the Saints because they had the play covered beautifully, and Brees threw a prayer to end zone.

Jimmy Graham had made some big catches earlier on that drive, but could not come up with one more. The ball was intercepted for a touchback.

The Bucs closed the door on the Saints, and sealed a big division victory for them.

Graham continued his great play of this young season with seven receptions for 129 yards, and Brees threw for over 350 yards. The only thing missing from this game was a come-from-behind victory engineered by Brees.

The Saints can be proud of how they fought back and gave themselves a chance to win the game, but that is not enough for the fans or the team anymore. Everyone involved with the Saints expected Brees to complete that pass on fourth down, but it should not have come to that in the first place.

They played sloppy football yesterday and had four turnovers (3 INTs by Brees).

The Saints dropped to 4-2 on the season, and more importantly, they are now tied with Tampa Bay for the NFC South lead.

Waking up this morning the loss still hurts, but expect this missed opportunity to take a big lead in the division to hurt even worse as the season gets into the final weeks.