ATLANTA (AP) — The first two weeks of the season, the New Orleans Saints looked unbeatable.
Now, back to reality.
The Saints let one slip away for the second week in a row, taking the type of loss that can “rip your heart out,” in the words of coach Dennis Allen.
New Orleans managed to lose 26-24 to NFC South rival Atlanta on Sunday without giving up an offensive touchdown to the Falcons.
This one really stung on the heels on a 15-12 setback the previous week to the Philadelphia Eagles, who pulled out the victory with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.
The Saints (2-2) looked like one of the league’s top teams with a 47-10 rout of the Carolina Panthers and a 44-19 blowout of the Cowboys in Dallas.
Not anymore.
“You try your best not to be so angry about it,” said quarterback Derek Carr, who completed 27 of 34 passes for 223 yards against the Falcons and also had a deflected pass returned for a pick-6. “But you hate losing, especially close ones. They stink.”
After getting stopped on a fourth-and-goal at the Atlanta 7 with 4:01 remaining, the Saints got the ball back and drove for what looked to be the winning touchdown.
Carr connected with Chris Olave on a couple of huge third-down passes before Alvin Kamara punched it in from the 1 with a minute to go. Blake Grupe’s extra point put New Orleans ahead 24-23.
With no timeouts, the Falcons faced second-and-10 from their own 30 after a false start penalty on center Ryan Neuzil.
Kirk Cousins launched a pass down the sideline for Darnell Mooney, but the ball seemed to hang in the air a bit longer than expected. That prompted Mooney to flash his hands like he was about to catch the ball, drawing contact from cornerback Paulson Adebo.
The 30-yard pass-interference penalty moved the Falcons to the Saints 30. Cousins threw three straight incompletions, but it didn’t matter. Younghoe Koo booted his fourth field goal of the game from 58 yards with 2 seconds remaining, salvaging the victory for Atlanta (2-2).
“I’ve got to be better right there,” Adebo said. “Personally, I know a big part is on me playing clean late in the game.”
The biggest miscue for the Saints came early on, when punt returner Rashid Shaheed inexplicably called for a fair catch at his own 2, then let the ball ricochet off his shoulder. It skidded into the end zone, where KhaDarel Hodge covered it for the Falcons’ first touchdown.
“It’s a bad decision,” Allen said. “We don’t ever want to field that ball. He’s typically been a guy who’s made a lot of really good decisions back there, so it was uncharacteristic for him to make that decision to field the ball there. But we certainly don’t want to do that.”
Atlanta’s other TD came when Matthew Judon deflected a pass from Carr, sending the ball high into the air. Falcons linebacker Troy Andersen made the interception and took off down the sideline for a 47-yard scoring return.
It was a bit of a bad break for Carr, but he didn’t look at it that way.
“I’ve got to get rid of it quicker when it’s not there,” he said. “I can’t wait that long to throw it away.”
New Orleans already was banged up, going without two key members of the offensive line — center Erik McCoy and right guard Cesar Ruiz — as well as linebacker Demario Davis.
Then, two more players went down during the game. Linebacker Willie Gay Jr. was ruled out with a hand injury, while all-purpose offensive weapon Taysom Hill left with injured ribs on the opposite side of the chest issue that kept him playing against the Eagles.
Hill scored the Saints’ first two touchdowns on runs of 2 and 5 yards — the first taking a direct snap, the second with a traditional handoff — but didn’t play at all in the second half.
The New Orleans offense clearly missed his versatility.
“When you lose guys like we’ve lost and got that many injuries and battled back, that gives you confidence that you have a good football team,” Allen said.
“But, really, it’s still about going out and winning games. Everybody faces adversity and we’ve got a figure out a way to face this adversity and come out on the other side of it and win games while doing it.”
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AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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