RailBoss

Atlanta sacked Brees six times on Sunday; the Falcons had just seven on the season coming into the game. New Orleans committed a uncharacteristically high 12 penalties and finished just 3-for-12 on third down. Kamara, the Saints' do-everything back, did next to nothing on the ground, held to 24 rushing yards on just four carries.

How many of the 12 penalties did Brees commit & since he loves getting slammed to the ground so much he encouraged the Defense to sack him 6 times.

AsylumGuido

This was not on Brees. Once Peat went down Brees had no chance. Clapp was a turnstile and Armstead had clearly not recovered from the flu which caused him to miss Friday's practice. I read some say that Brees should have stepped up into the pocket, but the pressure was coming up both the middle on Clapp AND the outside on an obviously ailing Armstead. There was no place for Brees to go. A 30 year old Brees would have had the same issues in that game. Then add to that the dropped balls that killed drives and it was an uphill climb on the offensive side.

Atlanta had nothing to lose by going for it on fourth down. That in itself adds even more pressure on a defense that was already behind the eight ball.

It was also obvious that Kamara was no where near 100% and that effectively took him out of the game. The killer though was the penalties, especially the league mandated "point of emphasis" defensive hands to the face calls.

Another BIG blow was losing Lattimore for the game. That was huge.

The Saints clearly came out flat, but it was the combination of the penalties, dropped balls, incoming health, and in game injuries that spelled the doom.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill