By Jordan Long
The first Sunday in the NFL is now over. It was an exciting day of football with 10 games decided by 7 points or less. One of the best games of the day was the Oakland Raiders beating the New Orleans Saints 35-34. Oakland went for a two-point conversion with 47 seconds to go in the game and made it to take the lead. That left 47 seconds for the Saints to drive into field goal range to win the game. Saints’ kicker Wil Lutz missed a 61-yard field goal with no time left, giving the Raiders the victory. Once the game was over, an interesting NFL record was extended.
The Saints gained a total of 507 yards. Usually when a team gains 500 yards they win the football game. Not the case with the Saints. This is the 9th time in their history that they have lost a game while gaining 500+ yards, which dates back to 1967. The Saints lead that category. Their last lost with a total of 500 yards was in 2014 when the Ravens knocked them off 34-27 in week 12. The next team on the list are the Denver Broncos with 7 games.
The surprising part of all this is 6 of those 9 losses were with quarterback Drew Brees. Brees has been the quarterback of the Saints since the 2006 season. Brees can march the Saints down the field to score touchdowns like he did yesterday but the problem has been his defense. He hasn’t had a defense to match his offensive production since 2010. That was the year they went on and won the Super Bowl.
I understand it’s only one week into the season, but if Brees and the offense keep producing 400 to 500 yards, the defense must do their part and stop the opponents from scoring. If they don’t we could see the Saints continue losing when the offense gets 500+ yards. Then again the Saints will have plenty of time to make adjustments on defense for week 2 when they face the New York Giants on the road.
What do you think of the New Orleans Saints extending their dubious NFL record?
Leave a Reply