What Kellen Moore, Tyler Shough Said After Saints’ Collapse vs. Raiders

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The New Orleans Saints appeared to be in prime position to protect their home field Sunday, before a disastrous fourth-quarter collapse turned a competitive game into a frustrating loss.

Four turnovers on New Orleans’ final five possessions allowed the Las Vegas Raiders to erase a second-half deficit and hand the Saints a 35-27 loss at the Caesars Superdome. What had been a productive afternoon offensively unraveled when it mattered most, leaving head coach Kellen Moore focused on his team’s inability to finish.

Despite the collapse, Moore was reluctant to let the final stretch overshadow everything that preceded it. He acknowledged the pain of the loss while stressing that New Orleans had done enough good things to put itself in position to win before turnovers ultimately decided the game.

Quarterback Tyler Shough struck a similar tone after throwing four touchdown passes but committing costly turnovers down the stretch. Rather than dwell on the officiating or the controversial sack-fumble in the third quarter, Shough repeatedly pointed back at himself and the Saints’ need to protect the football, reset after mistakes and finish opportunities.

Here is what Moore and Shough had to say following the Saints’ loss to the Raiders:

Head Coach Kellen Moore

Opening Statement

Tough battle. Really good game. Ultimately, turnovers in the fourth quarter got us, and we weren’t able to overcome them. These guys finished better than us. There’s a lot of good stuff on this film, but ultimately, we weren’t able to get it done collectively.

On answers from the officials regarding the sack-fumble...

It was hard to get much communication during the game, so I don’t know.

On the four Saints turnovers...

They made plays. Obviously, a lot of them came at critical downs and critical situations that we weren’t able to get those downs done. Credit to those guys. Those guys made plays, and we weren’t able to.

On learning from this loss...

I think in many ways, there is a lot of good stuff on this film. As painful as this loss is, as frustrating as this loss is, we can’t let this thing linger too long. We were in a position to finish that game, and we didn’t finish it. We had our opportunities and were not able to get it done. We have to recognize the entire film, not just the ending.

On the atmosphere today...

I thought the atmosphere was awesome. I thought it was a great atmosphere. I thought our guys really rallied off of it. Obviously, we’re all bummed. Our whole community, our whole team’s bummed that we weren’t able to get this one done. We will work on it more, moving forward, and I’m excited to find that solution to get it done together.

Quarterback Tyler Shough

On the fourth quarter and his message to the team trying to get back in the game

I mean, one, we’ve just got to be better. Towards the end there, we had opportunities all the way towards the end, and we feel very comfortable in those moments, and we’re just a couple plays away. Whether it’s a miscommunication or a good job by them, but we can clean that up for sure. More than anything, it’s just keep going. It’s a long season. There’s a lot of great stuff to watch on film, a lot of stuff that we can learn from. Finishing strong in that game is really one of those things, and that starts with myself protecting the ball. It starts with all of us.

On emotions in the locker room

Oh, man, it hurts for sure, because you understand the work that was put in and you understand the fight. That’s the best thing for our team is—it hurts whenever you love each other that way. We all let each other down. As a team, we are going to figure out how we keep going. More than anything, it’s stuff to learn from on film. It’s not anything to freak out about. It’s more of, there’s some really good stuff, but how do we shore this up to where we want to be in the position where we want to be at the end of the year? How do we do that? That’s a really good football team, and they’re playing well, and I think we’re a really good football team and playing well. So it comes down to a couple plays, and we’ll fix those up.

On the first fumble in the fourth quarter and what he thought compared to the Goff play

Yeah, I mean, I thought I threw it. Personally, I thought my arm was going forward. I’m not exactly sure on the rule, but it doesn’t really matter to me. I’ve got to get it out sooner regardless. I thought I was going to get it off in time. Sometimes it happens like that. So keep learning from it, and we’ll get it done.

On emotions regarding the calls and how that affects the next play

It’s part of the job where you have to continue to do that, good or bad. But you’re humans too, and you want all of your guys to make the play or make the big play on defense, and we want to go out and score every single time. We’re fighting together, and that’s the best part—is when we can rally off each other. But at the same time, we have to respond regardless. So it’s a unique battle, but for us as an offense, I feel we do a good job of resetting. At the end there, they made a couple more plays, and we had to do a better job of ball security because that was kind of the story of it. So we’ll clean that up and put a huge emphasis on it as far as doing our job that way.

On what he saw on the interception

Yeah, I knew they getting to a ‘junkie 2’. So I was trying to find that alley right there. I just got hit. I’ve got to eat that one, either take the sack or run. They did a good job in that coverage, and it wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but I need to find a way to get out of their hands to the checkdown there or run. That kind of sucks. It happens that way when the ball gets floated in the air like that. So I’ve got to be better there as far as protecting it in those situations, especially on that side of the field.

On keeping composure after consistent turnovers

It goes back to going to the next play and how do you go back to the next play. They made a couple of good plays. At the end of the day, it’s football. Stuff like that’s going to happen, and I think we understand how we fix that more than anything, and it’s staying neutral throughout it. We’re not going to fall victim to riding that emotional wave. At the end of the day, we lost, and we have some plays that we can fix in order to win.

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