New Orleans walked out of Ford Field on the wrong end of a 31-30 overtime game, and the thing that will follow the Saints onto the plane is not the final drive. It is the Saints-Lions overturned touchdown, a defensive score that went up on the board and then came back off it, in a game that was decided by one point in an extra period.
Kellen Moore, asked about it afterward, called it "a little bit of a challenging circumstance." That is coach language. Translated out of coach language, it means: we had seven points, then we did not, and we lost by one.
What happened on the overturned touchdown in Saints-Lions
I am not going to pretend I have the full replay-booth language in front of me yet, because I do not, and I am not in the business of guessing at officiating mechanics and calling it reporting. What is established is this: New Orleans got a defensive touchdown in a one-score game, review took it away, and the Saints lost by a single point in overtime. Everything after that is arithmetic a fifth grader can do.
That is the cruelty of a defensive score. It is not a drive you can go re-earn on the next series. It is a discrete, unrepeatable event, seven points that arrive out of nowhere and swing a game sideways, and when it gets erased there is no equivalent way to get it back. You do not get a mulligan on a fumble return. You get a first down and a long afternoon.
Jahmyr Gibbs did the heavy lifting for Detroit
While the officiating story takes the headline, the reason Detroit was still standing in overtime has a name and a workload. Jahmyr Gibbs went for a career-high 29 carries and 156 rushing yards with two touchdowns, and added five catches for 30 more. That is 186 scrimmage yards on 34 touches in an opener.
| Gibbs, Week 1 vs. New Orleans | |
|---|---|
| Carries | 29 (career high) |
| Rushing yards | 156 |
| Rushing TDs | 2 |
| Receptions | 5 |
| Receiving yards | 30 |
| Total touches | 34 |
Gibbs said he felt "fine" and waved off the workload question, which is exactly what every running back who has ever lived says in September. Twenty-nine carries is not a red flag by itself. Twenty-nine carries in Week 1 for a back Detroit has spent three years carefully keeping fresh is, at minimum, a tell about how this offense wanted to win this particular game. They leaned on him because they needed to.
from the almanac: the Saints know this genre better than any franchise in football. january 20, 2019, the nfc championship at the superdome, the pass interference that was not called on the rams. the league rewrote the replay rules that offseason to make pass interference reviewable, then quietly killed the experiment after one year. that is what happens when the sport tries to legislate away heartbreak.
What comes next for the Lions and Saints
Detroit turns around fast. The Lions are at Buffalo on Thursday night, September 17, a short week after a game that went to overtime and after asking their lead back to touch it 34 times. Three and a half days of recovery against a Bills team that is not a merciful landing spot. How Detroit manages Gibbs' reps in that window is the most interesting thing on their board this week, and I do not think they have the luxury of resting him.
For New Orleans, the story is harder and quieter. Moore's group went on the road, walked a legitimate contender to the final possession of overtime, and got one point less than they needed. There are worse Week 1 losses to build a season on. There are also very few that leave a locker room feeling like something got taken from it, which is a feeling that either hardens a young team or hollows it out. The next two weeks tell you which.
I will be watching whether the league office says anything about the review, and whether Gibbs' Thursday snap count looks anything like his Sunday one.