The Monday night football celebration decisively disintegrated at the "football" part of the program for the New Orleans Saints.
New Orleans' 45-24 loss to Atlanta in the Caesars Superdome was the wet-blanket conclusion to what began as a festive, reflective day commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the Superdome re-opening after Hurricane Katrina. The Saints (1-3) produced a season-worst performance in the nationally-televised contest against their NFC South Division rivals, who evened their record at 2-2 with their second straight win.
After three straight close games, all decided in the fourth quarter or overtime, and Saints gave up a 59-yard touchdown run to Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson on the third play from scrimmage, fell behind 14-0 and never pulled closer than seven points as the Falcons rushed for five touchdowns and 205 yards.
"It's really upsetting when you think about the talent that we have on the team," Saints edge rusher Cam Jordan said. "I hate that we had a slow start and got punched in the mouths early and we were looking to respond. It's one of those games where we weren't good enough on offense, defense and special teams. And you look in the second half, like, 'fight back.'
"When you have a division rival, it's damn near worth two games. They had an early score with Bijan and at that point, (had) 60 yards on the ground. We've got to be able to figure something out. And you end up letting them – what, 200 yards rushing? That's on the defensive line. You can't look anywhere else. When you have a ground game like that, you have to look at your defensive line and say, hey, we've got to tighten up.
"It didn't happen this game, so our secondary had to come down and try to focus on the run and that's where they get to have their way. They had their way."
Atlanta totaled 420 yards and averaged 7.5 yards per play on 56 plays.
Offense was just as much of a struggle for New Orleans, which finished with 320 yards and managed just 50 rushing yards. Running back Alvin Kamara ran for 3- and 5-yard touchdowns to raise his franchise-record total to 89, but the Saints averaged 2.6 yards on 19 carries and, again, started slowly.
The first offensive possession ended on a three-and-out, the second on a missed 52-yard field goal attempt by Daniel Carlson and the third, on Kendre Miller's lost fumble – a down-by-contact field ruling that was overturned by Atlanta's challenge.
The Falcons were able to take advantage of the short field and score on a five-play, 22-yard drive as Bijan Robinson scored on a 4-yard run. The Saints forced an incompletion on the drive on fourth-and-4 from their 8-yard line, but cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry drew a defensive holding penalty in the end zone that gave the Falcons first-and-goal at the 4.
Brian Robinson Jr. ran for three touchdowns and quarterback Michael Penix added a passing touchdown as New Orleans never seriously threatened after pulling to within 14-7.
"We didn't shut down, our run defense," Jordan said. "Our run defense didn't show up to play early on – 60-yard touchdown happens. From there, they understand their zone schemes were working, they relied on that. And for whatever reason, we couldn't tighten up our gaps. Our gap integrity has to be at a premium, especially when you're going against a top-tier back like Bijan. Or any running back, the way that we're playing. It just wasn't good enough."
Jordan said the message from Monday's game was a clear one.
"The message is, if you get punched in the chin you tuck your chin and start swinging back."
