The New Orleans Saints defense held strong until the final minutes of their Week 3 game with the Philadelphia Eagles. There are two explosive plays that stand out with Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert both delivering gains of over 60 yards.
Each of these plays happened in the fourth quarter. These big gains also stripped away the Saints’ best defensive trait on the day. The Eagles drove down the field consistently, but the Saints played bend-but-don’t-break defense, conceding shorter pickups while guarding the deeper reaches of the field. There wasn’t a chance for that strategy after Barkley scored and Goedert took the ball inside the 5-yard line.
Tyrann Mathieu perfectly summarized the sense of disappointment in that collapse: “You can play great defense for 55 minutes and in 5 minutes’ time will get away from you.”
Goedert’s catch and run was the true death blow. Not only did it lead to the game winning score, the moment was easily avoidable. It was terrible execution and felt like the defense fell apart.
The defense stood tall many times, but when they were needed the most they couldn’t stop the Eagles. Despite this moment, Mathieu maintains the defense hasn’t lost their confidence.
Confident or not, the team has to do a better job closing out games than they did Sunday.
