There are 30 other NFL teams the New Orleans Saints wouldn't have beaten Sunday. They just happened to play the one team they could.
Yeah, they won, which is the most important thing.
And an ugly win is much better than a pretty loss.
But don’t let the final score — Saints 28, Panthers 6 — fool you.
The Saints didn’t dominate quite like the scoreboard suggested they did.
Just ask Jimmy Graham, who understands Saints fans perhaps better than anyone on the team.
The veteran tight end has felt the love, and he’s heard the boo over the years.
“I know this crowd,” Graham said. “They love us. They believe in us and they are there for us. But you’ve got to make them stand up and holler. They love to dance in here. They love to party. But you’ve got to give them a reason to.”
Well, the Saints didn’t really give their fans a reason to dance or party Sunday.
When you’re playing the worst team in the NFL, you can get away with a ho-hum offensive performance and still walk away with a double-digit win.
We learned two things Sunday.
One: Derek Carr and the Saints offense, 13 games into the season, still haven’t figured things out.
And two: The Carolina Panthers are even worse than you probably thought they were.
The Saints pulled away late, but nobody who witnessed what took place in Caesars Superdome left overly optimistic about where the rest of this season is headed.
Carr struggled yet again up until the fourth quarter, and the Panthers just kept hanging around. Carr’s huge 44-yard completion to A.T. Perry early in the final quarter helped the Saints finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Truth be told, the Panthers are probably the only other NFL team the Saints would have beaten Sunday. And there’s a chance they won’t win another game if they play like that.
But nothing cures a three-game losing streak like the Panthers, who have won just one game all season. Seeing them Sunday made you wonder how in the world they managed to beat the Houston Texans on Oct. 29.
For the second straight week, Carr received his share of boos.
The boos weren’t as loud as they were last week, but that was only because the Dome wasn’t quite as full as usual. You could find a ticket for this one for $5, less than the price of a concession stand hot dog, a telltale sign of just how frustrated the fans have become. That frustration spilled over to the players in the third quarter when Saints center Erik McCoy and Carr got into a heated exchange after Carr was sacked. Both players chalked it up to just being in the heat of battle.
Fortunately for the Saints, Carr got going after the exchange. He had thrown for just 41 yards in the first half, and that total had dipped to 37 yards by the end of the third quarter. But his strike to Perry in the fourth, followed by a clutch third-down throw to Graham and then a touchdown to Chris Olave gave the Saints a 21-6 lead and some cushion.
The Panthers, meanwhile, squandered opportunity after opportunity. At least for now, the Saints should be thrilled Carolina used its No. 1 overall draft pick on Bryce Young instead of C.J. Stroud (the front-runner for Rookie of the Year whom the Texans drafted at No. 2). Young misfired on some passes to some wide-open receivers that could have made the outcome of this one much different. He finished the day a dismal 13 of 36 for 137 yards and was sacked four times.
Carr, meanwhile, completed 18 of 26 passes for 119 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Allen’s assessment of Carr’s day?
“Up and down,” Allen said. “Much like the whole offense. Up and down. There were some good things. There are some things that we need to do better at.”
Carr was more interested in the final results than assessing his individual numbers.
“We won,” Carr said. “I’ll throw 20 yards in a game and get a win any day. I came here to do that, so however we have to do that. We’ve thrown for 300 and lost, and that’s a crappy week. … I got enough yards and touchdowns for a lifetime. I came here to win, and hopefully we can keep doing that.”
And for the Saints, that’s the good news. The NFL doesn’t give any style points for how you win.
They won, which is something they hadn’t done since Nov. 5, when they beat the Chicago Bears.
“I think everybody in that locker room and everybody in the city of New Orleans needed the Saints to win,” Allen said. “I was glad we were able to do that.”
By the time the day was over, the Saints found themselves in a three-way tie for the NFC South lead with the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They play both of those two team to end the season. But first, they host the New York Giants and then play at the Los Angeles Rams over the next 11 days.
They’ll need to play better offensively than they did Sunday to win any of those.
This one wasn’t nearly enough to make anyone think all is right in Saints Land.
But at least the boos disappeared late. While there may not have been a whole lot of dancing and partying in the Dome, there was in the Saints locker room.
“You just take a win anytime you can get them,” Carr said.
This one, much like this season, wasn't pretty.
