The speed with which the unraveling occurred was "warp."
Each of the New Orleans Saints' four fourth-quarter possessions resulted in a turnover Sunday against the Raiders in the Caesars Superdome: Lost fumble, interception, lost fumble and lost fumble. And what had been a 27-22 lead entering the final 15 minutes became a heavily-assisted, 13-point close for the Raiders in a 35-27 victory that dropped New Orleans (1-2) below .500 and kept Las Vegas (3-0) undefeated.
"I thought we fell short in all three phases," safety Justin Reid said. "There's a couple of plays I fell short. I thought that we played a lot of good football and I thought there were some plays we just left short out there in all three phases. We just can't do that. We had a lot of good things going.
"We're going to learn from this and we're not going to get too down on ourselves, but a lot of guys are upset, a lot of guys are pissed off. I'm pissed off right now. That's OK, because we have high standards for ourselves, we have high standards for what we can do and we're going to step up to the occasion next time."
The standards were being met for a good portion of Sunday's game, New Orleans' home opener.
The Saints posted their first first-quarter score of the season — a 2-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Shough to tight end Juwan Johnson — and led 6-3 at the end of the first quarter. And even though the Saints trailed 16-13 at halftime, the offense appeared sharp early with two lengthy touchdown drives (79 yards on 13 plays on the touchdown pass to Johnson, and 72 yards on 10 plays leading to a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Noah Fant).
Two more touchdown passes to the tight ends in the third quarter — 1 yard to Johnson and 16 to Fant — allowed Shough (29 of 42 for 255 yards and four touchdowns, with an interception and two lost fumbles) to post his single-game high for touchdown passes and gave New Orleans tight ends as many touchdown receptions Sunday (four) as the position generated all last season in 17 games.
But after the Saints took a 27-16 lead on the 16-yarder to Fant with 5:46 left in the third quarter, on a score that came after edge Anfernee Jennings forced a fumble on a kickoff that was recovered by safety Jordan Howden, New Orleans was more imperfect at any stretch of the young season.
The Raiders answered with a quick-strike touchdown drive (71 yards on five plays in 146 seconds) and pulled to within 27-22 with 3:40 left in the quarter; their two-point conversion attempt failed.
The Saints couldn't take advantage when the ensuing kickoff went out of bounds and they began their next possession at their 40, gaining 17 yards and taking a 5-yard delay of game penalty before punting, but forced the Raiders to punt after a three-and-out.
The next possession began at the Saints' 39 with 1:36 left in the third and trickled over into the fourth quarter as New Orleans drove to the Raiders' 29-yard line. On third-and-4 from there, Shough was sacked from behind by Raiders edge Malcolm Koonce while attempting to throw, the football popped free and Maxx Crosby recovered at the Raiders' 45.
Six plays later, Kirk Cousins threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Cody White and the Raiders took a 28-27 lead with 9:21 left.
Shough was intercepted on third-and-6 to end the Saints' next drive, and it was returned 35 yards by cornerback Hezekiah Masses to the Saints' 8, fumbled by Masses, and recovered by defensive tackle Adam Butler at the 4. Cousins threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Brock Bowers three plays later and Las Vegas' lead grew to 35-27.
The next two drives ended on a Shough fumble from the Raiders' 20-yard line, and a Johnson fumble at the Saints' 40 to smother the last gasps for New Orleans.
The Saints on Sunday were perfect in the red zone (4 for 4), perfect on goal-to-go (3 for 3) and more than healthy on third down (9 for 16). But the turnovers and penalties (8 for 36 yards), several which drew the ire of the Saints' sideline, were devastating.
"It's frustrating, but we're on to the next," said edge Chase Young, who had the third two-sack game of his career, his second as a Saint. "This is the league. We could be better, we know that. We try not to bank our wins off the referees' calls. We may not like a call, but at the end of the day, we try to look past that and just play within the white lines."
