Early mistakes, huge deficit through three quarters, followed by furious comeback to make the final score respectable. As I was sitting there watching it, I kept wanting to leave, to go watch literally anything else. But, I knew the switch would flip at some point. Whenever these games come around, I’m usually off watching something else in another room, only hearing about (or reading about on Twitter) what amazing things are happening in my absence. This time, I thought I’d stick around to see the “magic”, but it took longer in arriving than I hoped.

So much of my Friday preview came to fruition, just not exactly the way I’d anticipated. I said Teddy Bridgewater is fucking mediocre, and lo and behold, 177 yards on 19/27 with 2 TDs and 0 INTs, for a 6.6 average. He was never going to botch this game for his team, and they were smart to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Much more quickly than I ever could’ve expected, as the Seahawks’ pass rush – complete with the return of Ziggy Ansah – couldn’t do a damn thing.

Also, both teams were shaky on third downs (NO – 3/11; SEA – 5/14), but critically the Saints were 1/1 on fourth down (for a TD) while the Seahawks were 1/4, a huge reason why we lost this one.

Ironically, while the game did largely hinge on turnovers, they were technically even, and the team that had the ball last did NOT win. So, chew on that one if you dare!

My biggest gaffe in the whole Friday preview was stating the following:

I don’t expect Chris Carson to fumble, in case you were wondering. I think he’ll actually come out with a pretty monster game this week to silence all the critics of his first couple games

– Some idiot

I mean, I couldn’t be more wrong if I tried. 53 yards on 15 carries, with countless slips and falls thanks to not being able to run on wet fake grass. I would argue his fumble was costlier than the Saints’ (and not just because they ran it back for a touchdown), as he immediately started to lose snaps as both the team lost confidence in him and he probably lost confidence in himself. I don’t know how you don’t bench him immediately and send a message through loss of playing time, but he’ll certainly be the guy getting the first handoff next week.

The general focus of my Friday preview was that the Seahawks are fully capable of blowing a game they should win, and that’s all you really needed to take away from it. Punt return for a touchdown. Fumble return for a touchdown. Sloppy tackling all day long, particularly on Alvin Kamara, who is apparently tougher to wrangle than the Incredible Hulk I guess.

Even though the Seahawks threw for over 400 yards, the Saints did something pretty interesting on defense. Instead of shutting down Lockett – who went off for 154 yards on 11 receptions – they shut down D.K. Metcalf by largely having their best cornerback on him for most of the day. He had only 2 catches for 64 yards, and one of those was a 54-yarder as the clock expired for the first half. It’s not a bad plan, to be honest, as he’s proven in his short career to be a beast with a 50/50 ball in one-on-one coverage. You can let Lockett eat all he wants as long as you don’t let him get past you deep, and that’s pretty much what happened.

The biggest thing the Saints did to thwart the Seahawks was to shut down the running game. Wilson scrambled for 51 yards on 7 carries, but if you’ve watched tape on the Seahawks for the last year and a half, you’d know that’s the exception and not the rule. The actual Seahawks running backs went for 58 yards on 19 carries, for an average of just over 3 yards per carry.

The most brutal thing to watch was actually how ineffective the defense was at stopping Kamara. I guess it’s a good thing we don’t face him every week. I’ve noticed we tend to be weirdly terrible whenever we have to play in the rain, which is absolutely not something you would expect. Someone on the weather service needs to get on it, because I swear the Seahawks always suck in the rain.

This was just disappointing anyway you slice it. I always hate it when my teams lose, but I hate it so much more when they repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot, in a game they’re supposed to win. The funny thing is, if Drew Brees was out there instead, the Saints probably would’ve won by 20 and I’d have a remarkably different tone.

As shitty as it is, we’re still on pace. I said the Seahawks would go 1-1 in the 2-game stretch between the Steelers and Saints; the results I expected just flip-flopped. Fortunately, the Saints are who we thought they were, and the rest of the NFC South is a dumpster fire, so we shouldn’t be competing with them for a wild card spot (if it comes to that). The downside, of course, is that if we’re both divisional winners, this one might bite us in the ass, but that’s certainly a better problem to have, and a much more luxurious bridge to have to cross.