NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough was “embarrassed.”
Second-year coach Kellen Moore was “disappointed” and “frustrated.”
And a day of festivities commemorating one of the most triumphant moments in New Orleans Saints history ended with boos and early exits.
Three plays into Monday night’s game against Atlanta, running back Bijan Robinson silenced an electric Superdome crowd with a 59-yard touchdown run.
The Saints' performance
in a 45-24 loss to the Falcons bore no resemblance to their landmark 23-3 victory against the same team 20 years ago, when the Superdome finally reopened after being damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
On that made-for-TV night, Steve Gleason blocked a punt on the Falcons’ opening possession and Curtis Deloatch recovered it for a touchdown, sending the Saints on their way.
This time, New Orleans held pregame ceremonies commemorating those magic moments two decades ago, with retired players Drew Brees, Scott Fujita, Scott Shanle, Deuce McAllister, Devery Henderson and Deloatch joining Gleason — now in a wheelchair because of ALS — on the field before kickoff to lead fans in the team’s familiar “Who dat!” chant.
Irma Thomas, a New Orleans native who sang the national anthem when the dome reopened, reprised her role.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell even traveled to New Orleans to commemorate the “Domecoming” game he also attended in 2006.
Earlier in the day, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno gave Gleason a key to the city. Gleason later shared a moment with former Falcons punter Michael Koenen at the “Rebirth” statue outside the dome which memorializes the famous punt block.
Then came the game itself — the first nationally-televised, nighttime home game for the Saints in nearly two years.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Shough said. “It’s embarrassing. I can’t say enough good things about fans showing up, the entire process, what this game meant and we fell short as a team. … We’ve got to do better on all fronts.”
One of Gleason's mottos is, “Never punt.”
The Falcons seemed to take that to heart, scoring their most points since a 48-33 victory against Carolina in 2016, never punting after the first quarter and getting touchdowns on five of their last six full possessions.
The Saints (1-3), who thought they had a breakthrough victory at Baltimore two weeks ago, have followed that up with two straight losses at home.
“We’re all frustrated, all disappointed with where we’re at,” Moore said. “We’re going to have to learn from this one and move forward.”
Shough threw for 286 yards and wide receiver Chris Olave had eight catches for 116 yards, but the Saints scored on only one of their five first-half series, falling behind 24-7. After they settled for a 27-yard field goal on their opening drive of the second half, Atlanta responded with a nine-play, 74-yard touchdown drive to go ahead 31-10.
The dome started to empty out at that point, and it turned into a red-clan Falcons’ fans celebration after Atlanta scored another touchdown to go ahead 38-17 with 9:50 left in the fourth quarter.
“I love New Orleans. I love this place,” Shough said. “And you see the energy, the passion of everybody, the culture behind this place and it sucks whenever you don’t come through on the field in that way, especially against our division rivals. It hurts me. I don’t want to feel like that ever again.”
Playing without injured defensive end Carl Granderson, linebacker Kaden Elliss and running back Travis Etienne among others, New Orleans was no match for Atlanta. Bijan Robinson ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns, and Brian Robinson Jr. added three scoring runs.
After falling behind, New Orleans pretty much abandoned its running game, finishing with 50 yards on 19 carries.
New Orleans fell a game behind NFC South coleaders Atlanta and Carolina.
“We squandered an opportunity but we’ve got more opportunities,” Shough said. “You’ve got to kind of take it on the chin and we’ll see them again.”
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