The New Orleans Saints loss to the Los Angeles Rams doesn’t mathematically eliminate the Saints from playoff contention, but it made surely feel impossible.
The Saints currently sit four games behind the Washington Commanders, who hold the last wild card spot. New Orleans would have to win four of their last five games which includes beating the Commanders and hope Washington loses four of their last five in order to catch them. Then the Saints have to hope none of the other teams ahead of them make it to nine wins.
The Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are tied at the top of the division with six wins. That’s two games ahead of the Saints and New Orleans doesn’t have the tiebreaker over either squad. Had New Orleans beat the Rams, they’d be just one game behind, and we’d be having a different conversation.
Most importantly, the loss to the Rams dropped hope in the Saints as a team back to where it was prior to the two game winning streak. Some of the same flaws returned. The schedule isn’t hard, but games against the Commanders and Packers would be critical in making ground on the division leaders.
Losing to the Rams made all of those hopes go from feeling improbable to impossible.
