It appeared that the New Orleans Saints were on their way to a home victory over the Carolina Panthers to close out the regular season, but a nightmarish final two minutes saw the script flip.
The Panthers ended up securing a 10-7 win after a last-second field goal from Eddy Pineiro, which was especially painful considering Saints kicker Wil Lutz had a late field goal attempt blocked that would’ve made it a 10-7 game in favor of the Saints.
The Saints were -450 on the money line prior to Lutz’s field goal attempt, so Panthers money line bettors who got them as +340 underdogs were able to profit nicely, but the over/under was a way for bettors of both teams to profit.
The pregame total was set at 41.5 points, and while an early Saints touchdown appeared to set the stage for an over, anyone who hit the live under at any point during the game was able to cash in since there were only 17 points scored.
To make matters even more frustrating for Saints bettors, the Saints had 304 yards of offense, which was over 100 more than the Panthers while also winning the turnover battle.
The Saints were favored by 3.5 points before kickoff and were live favorites throughout the duration of the contest, so it was a bitter end to a frustrating season to say the least.
“The way this game ended seemed to depict the Saints season entirely,” Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “The team never gives up, but when you let a team last until the end of the fourth quarter and end up getting beat in the fourth, how many times have we seen that this year?”
“Just seemed like in the games we lost that’s exactly what happened. You let somebody who shouldn’t have been in the race stay in the race, and you end up losing.”
While things didn’t end the way the Saints wanted, rookie wide receiver Chris Olave finished with a 1,000-yard season in which he crossed that mark on the Saints’ lone touchdown early on, and Alvin Kamara also had a strong finish to the year with over 100 rushing yards on the day.
On the season, the Saints ended up with a 7-10 record while also finishing 7-10 against the spread, with only four of their games having a differing result against the spread than in reality.
As far as totals, 11 of the Saints 17 games ended up going under the pregame total, with six of those coming in their last six games, which represents how well their defense performed down the stretch.
The Saints were only 3-3 during that stretch though due to a lackluster offense, which struggled to consistently put up points with Andy Dalton under center despite Olave and Kamara having solid years along with a pair of young weapons emerging in Juwan Johnson and Rashid Shaheed.
There’s no doubt that the Saints have several questions heading into the offseason, but a strong foundation on defense offers hope that this team can get back in the playoffs if they can figure things out on offense.
