Halo

Five thoughts on the Saints’ stunning playoff loss to the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks:

1) The No. 1 culprit was not the coaching or the injuries or the crowd. It was Roman Harper’s first-half performance.

Clearly, the Saints did not match the Seahawks’ intensity level after the 10-0 start. But without Harper’s inexplicable nightmare of a first half, New Orleans would have won. Relatively comfortably.

It’s strange. Harper had the best year of his career, forcing six fumbles, breaking up eight passes and, for the first time in five seasons, not looking lost when the ball was in the air.

His regression Sunday was remarkable. He was directly responsible for all three Seahawks’ touchdowns in the first half, getting abused for easy scores by tight end John Carlson twice and wide receiver Brandon Stokley once. He also got burned by tight end Cameron Morrah for a 39-yard gain that set up the second touchdown.

As well as quarterback Matt Hasselbeck played (very, very well), Seattle would not have won without Harper’s mistakes.

2) Criticize Sean Payton for his decision to go for it on fourth-and inches in his own territory during the third quarter all you want. The bigger factor was the sequence of three plays after the Saints had first-and-goal at the Seattle 11 while trailing 34-27.

Payton’s fourth-down gamble did not hurt. After stuffing Julius Jones, Seattle cracked under the pressure of going ahead by three scores and ended up punting thanks to a confidence-sapping dropped pass and delay-of-game penalty.

But when the Saints had a real chance to tie the score at 34 and make the reeling Seahawks panic, they became too conservative. With a first down at the Seattle 11, Brees never threw for the end zone, a mistake that also cost the Saints a game at Arizona earlier this year.

On first down, he checked down to tight end Dave Thomas for a 5-yard gain. Then he handed off to Julius Jones for two yards. Then he threw a quick out to Devery Henderson, who had to make someone miss or break a tackle, neither of which are his strengths. Three guys clobbered him two yards shy of the first down.

New Orleans settled for a field goal and never came close to tying again.

If Brees had taken three shots at the end zone, the Saints almost surely would have scored a touchdown. The way the Seahawks were gagging, New Orleans would have become the clear favorite to win.

3) The rationalization that the Saints definitely would have lost to Chicago or Atlanta if they had eked out a win in Seattle doesn’t wash.

Teams do not play the same way every week. They can, and often do, follow terrible performances with terrific ones. Teams that pull of huge comebacks usually play looser and better the following week. Doesn’t matter now.

4) The obsession with stripping the ball instead of tackling finally cost the Saints an important game.

We saw it in Baltimore a few weeks ago, but the Saints still would have been a No. 5 seed if they had beaten the Ravens. Lynch’s clinching 67-yard touchdown run will go down as one of the best in playoff history, but it came courtesy of horrendous tackling. The Saints tried to rip the ball out of his grasp instead of bringing him down, turning what would have been a third-and-eight into a first down and then a touchdown.

Fundamentally sound defenses wrap up before they try to strip. The Saints have become far too conscious of creating turnovers, and this time all they created was a season-ending touchdown.

5) Wasting two timeouts killed the Saints at the end.

The first one came when the Seahawks faced a third-and-8 in the fourth quarter. After the timeout, Hasselbeck completed a 12-yard pass.

The second one came when the Saints faced a third-and-8 at their 19. Brees threw incomplete on the next play, and New Orleans punted.

With only one timeout remaining, the Saints were dead when they did not recover Garrett Hartley’s onside kick, although Seattle mystifyingly gave them two chances to cause a fumble by handing off instead of taking a knee.

Note to Pete Carroll: With 1:28 left, you can take three consecutive knees and run out the clock when the other team has one timeout left. Do the math.


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