How the Saints can fix their playoff failures and stop repeating the same mistakes

The New Orleans Saints have won 37 games in the last three regular seasons, more than any other NFL team. They haven’t made a single Super Bowl appearance over that span, though.

The “Minneapolis Miracle” ended their season in January 2018, and a blown pass interference call cost them last year. (And that’s just recently — the string of Saints postseason heartbreak stretches over a decade.)

This time, New Orleans didn’t even make it through Wild Card Weekend. Despite being an eight-point favorite at home, the Saints trailed almost all game against the Vikings. They forced overtime with a 49-yard field goal, but never touched the ball again.

Minnesota won the overtime coin toss and drove the entire length of the field. Tight end Kyle Rudolph ended the game by hauling in a 4-yard touchdown for the 26-20 win. He also appeared to get away with a push that probably should’ve been called offensive pass interference.

That touchdown ended yet another season for the Saints that seemed destined for much more. If it felt a bit like déjà vu, that’s because it is. It was just as painfully close as all their recent postseason losses.

Bad luck is frustrating, but New Orleans isn’t doing itself favors when it transforms into a mess every January. It doesn’t have to be like this. Just a few small tweaks could keep the Saints from repeating the same annual mistakes.

The Saints finished the regular season on a tear. Brees totaled 16 touchdowns with no interceptions in his last five games, and had an absurd 137.0 passer rating in December.

Brees threw 191 consecutive passes without an interception before he casually lobbed a ball into double coverage just before halftime Sunday. It wound up being an easy pick for Anthony Harris, who set up the Vikings in good field position with about two minutes left in the half.

The Vikings drove 45 yards and scored a touchdown to take a 13-10 lead into the locker room.

Brees cost the Saints again in the fourth quarter when he carelessly fumbled deep in Minnesota territory.

That mishap happened immediately after Taysom Hill broke free on a 28-yard run that put the Saints in the red zone. New Orleans finally had some offensive momentum and looked poised to take the lead. Brees’ fumble — the biggest mistake on Wild Card Weekend — spoiled that.

Minnesota didn’t do much on the following possession, but it did halt a potential scoring drive for the Saints. The Vikings also managed to waste more than two minutes of clock and punt the ball back into New Orleans territory.

It wasn’t exactly a terrible showing for Brees, who still had 208 passing yards and one touchdown. Still, the loss to the Vikings is the fifth consecutive playoff game in which Brees has finished with an interception. It was also the fourth time he’s fumbled over that five-game postseason stretch.

That sloppy play was the Saints’ demise last season too. Even after the pass interference drama, New Orleans got the ball first in overtime and had a chance to win. But Brees threw an interception near midfield, and the Rams only needed a little bit of offense to set up a game-winning 57-yard field goal.

Brees’ propensity for playoff mistakes is an odd quirk for a quarterback who has been one of the NFL’s most efficient quarterbacks for years. He had just four interceptions during the 2019 season and didn’t fumble once. The Saints even broke a record in 2019 for the fewest turnovers in a season.

Alas, this may be a problem he doesn’t get a chance to correct. Brees turns 41 this month and there are tough decisions about the future to be made by both the Saints and their veteran quarterback. He’s not the only one in New Orleans with postseason struggles to fix, though.

The entire New Orleans’ offense seems to save its worst days for the playoffs.

Last year, the 290 yards it gained against the Rams in the NFC Championship were well below its season average of 379.2 yards per game. That was against a Los Angeles defense that finished the 2018 season ranked 19th in the NFL in yards allowed, too.

The Vikings’ 2019 defense is a little more stout than that. It gave up the fifth-fewest points, although it was 14th in yards allowed. Still, the Saints had no trouble scoring against other top defenses in the NFL. It put up 46 points against the 49ers and 36 against the Bears. In the last four weeks, the Saints averaged 40 points per game. Against the Vikings, they managed just half that.

Minnesota didn’t have much of a special formula to shut down the Saints’ offense. It just won in the trenches in a way few teams have against New Orleans.

Right tackle Ryan Ramczyk didn’t allow a single sack during the regular season, but gave up two against the Vikings. One came on a third-and-goal that forced the Saints to settle for a 29-yard field goal.

That spoiled a golden opportunity to capitalize on an early Vikings fumble that set up the Saints in Minnesota territory. It was also one of several unsuccessful third downs. New Orleans converted just four in the game, largely due to consistent pressure from the Vikings’ Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen.

Brees — who was sacked 12 times in 11 regular season games — was pressured 12 times by the Vikings and sacked three times.

The Saints’ defense had a subpar day, too. Minnesota tallied 362 yards of total offense, its highest total since Week 10 of the regular season. Dalvin Cook’s 94 rushing yards were the most any player has had against New Orleans since 2017.

In the regular season, the Saints’ defense only allowed 35 percent of third downs to be converted. The Vikings were successful on 56 percent of their third downs Sunday — including twice on its game-winning drive in overtime.

Even the Saints’ coaching seems more prone to brain farts in the playoffs. At the end of the fourth quarter, head coach Sean Payton chose not to use his final timeout at all — even though there were a couple of times that could’ve helped set up a game-winning touchdown.

Payton should’ve used his timeout after the Saints’ defense sacked Kirk Cousins with about 2:48 left, but instead he allowed Minnesota to take the clock all the way to 2:10 left. The ensuing punt and punt return took the game to the two-minute warning, wasting another chance to stop the clock.

He also should’ve used his timeout when a false start penalty with 21 seconds left forced a 10-second runoff. Payton kept the timeout in the reserves the whole time, and the Saints settled for a 49-yard field goal to tie on a second down.

Payton struggled to handle the clock last year too. The now-infamous pass to Tommylee Lewis that didn’t draw pass interference shouldn’t have been a pass play at all.

The Saints had the ball in the red zone at the two-minute warning with the game tied. Even if three run plays were all unsuccessful, it could’ve flushed away the Rams’ final timeout and wound the clock to about 30 seconds left before a chip-shot field goal to take the lead. Incomplete passes on first and third down gave Los Angeles had 1:41 to drive into field goal range.

Saints safety Vonn Bell appeared to score a go-ahead touchdown off a fumble late in the game, but replay determined that Dalvin Cook’s knee was down. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore suffered an injury in overtime and Kirk Cousins threw a 43-yard completion to Adam Thielen, who was covered by backup cornerback Patrick Robinson, on the very next play. It was the Vikings’ only pass play of more than 20 yards all game.

A team can’t exactly fix its luck. If that were possible, the Chargers wouldn’t be the Chargers.

But the Saints’ loss to Minnesota shouldn’t have come down to whether or not Kyle Rudolph’s end zone push constituted offensive pass interference. Simply put, New Orleans wouldn’t have to worry so much about playoff misfortune if it played like the same team in the postseason that it is in the regular season.