The New Orleans Saints defeated the Washington Redskins 34-31 to win their eighth straight game. Here are three takeaways from the Redskins’ loss to the Saints.
With three minutes remaining in the game, the Washington Redskins led the New Orleans Saints 31-16. Rookie tight end Jeremy Sprinkle had just caught his first career pass for a touchdown with less than six minutes remaining to extend Washington’s lead. All Washington needed was for its defense to make a stop. One stop. Instead, New Orleans and quarterback Drew Brees marched down the field to cut Washington’s lead to 31-23 with 2:53 remaining.
This time, all the Redskins needed was one first down. New Orleans had two timeouts remaining and rookie running back Samaje Perine had two positive carries to get nine yards. Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins called timeout to get the Redskins into the right play. One yard to get a first down and this game is over. Out of the timeout, the Redskins ran Perine to the right and the play was dead in the backfield as two Saints defenders went unblocked. Just like that, the ball went back to Brees.
Uh oh.
As expected, the Saints marched right back down the field, scored and connected on the two-point conversion. Just like that, it was tied. Cousins and the Redskins did get the ball back with a minute remaining and moved right back down the field, but a questionable intentional grounding call moved Washington out of field-goal range and overtime happened. That, of course, didn’t work too well for the Redskins as the Saints kicked a field goal to win, 34-31, and move to 8-2 on the season.
Here are three takeaways from Washington’s gut-wrenching loss to the Saints on Sunday.