Saints’ undoing: failing to finish

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 4, 2009 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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New Orleans Saints fans should prepare themselves to hear the word “finish” over and over and over this offseason.

After all, the inability to finish games is why the Saints 2008 season is finished and perhaps the main reason Sean Payton’s team failed to make the playoffs for a second straight season.

It likely will be the theme for the 2009 Saints, so much so that they’ll probably hear it in their sleep as Payton and his coaching staff try to hammer their message home in the aftermath of an unfulfilling 8-8 season.

Payton apparently gave a hint of what’s to come this spring after a 33-31 season-ending setback to the Carolina Panthers last Sunday. It was the sixth loss of the season for the Saints in which they held a lead or had a legitimate chance to take the lead in the closing minutes of a contest.

From one corner of the locker room to the other, the Saints repeatedly used the word finish when talking about the loss to the Panthers and five other agonizing defeats. They lost those six games by a total of 18 points.

Take any two of those games and move them from the loss column to the other side of the ledger and the Saints, who were 0-5 in games decided by a field goal or less, are 10-6 and still playing this weekend.

No one had to remind Payton, who watched four playoff teams pull out tight games en route to postseason berths. Carolina and Atlanta were each 3-0 in games decided by three points or less; Indianapolis was 3-1 and Minnesota 4-1.

“We had three or four games where it got close, and we couldn’t hold on to the lead,” Payton said in his season-ending news conference. “Everybody in the building works so hard toward the postseason, toward an opportunity to get in the playoffs. It’s hard when you don’t meet those expectations. That’s the easiest way to say it wasn’t good enough.

“We talked about it in the meeting, where each one of us has to do a better job of putting ourselves in a position (to win) — so a year from now we’re not packing up. We’re preparing to play in the postseason again.”

The loss to the Panthers was a perfect example of what the Saints need to be successful. They staged a rally to come back from a 30-10 deficit and vault into a 31-30 lead with just more than three minutes to play, only to give up a big pass play and lose on a field goal.
The same thing happened in a loss to the Chicago Bears on Dec. 11. The Saints needed one stop to protect a three-point lead in the waning minutes, but the Bears drove to the game-tying field goal then won in overtime.

“Here’s a lead with three minutes left and we need to make a play above our head on the football,” Payton said. “That’s everyone. That’s not one specific person. We need to hurry the passer. We need to be able to get our hands on the football. Those are the things that we weren’t able to do and the result ends up in a loss.”

While it’s worrisome to Payton, it’s just as frustrating to his players. While coming back to take the lead against the Panthers was big, the inability to hang on in the end was disappointing to tackle Jon Stinchcomb.

“We’re going to address that in the offseason,” Stinchcomb said. “We really have to find a way to close the door. When you steal the lead in the waning moments, you have to find a way to keep it.”