 Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 9/14/2025 Article Courtesy of Crescent City Sports By: Ken Trahan In a season which figures to be a long, perhaps very long one for the New Orleans Saints, you were looking for improvement Sunday against San Francisco. In fact, with the 49ers dealing with an abundance of key players injured and without their starting quarterback, the Saints had a realistic shot at pulling an upset Sunday at Caesars Superdome. Instead, the team and its fans left upset after a solid effort which simply was not good enough. For the 2025 New Orleans Saints to win a game, much less games, they have to be near perfect. With seven penalties, a missed field goal and a turnover, that was not the case despite some positive signs. When healthy, San Francisco is markedly better than the Saints. Not healthy, that margin was thin. Of course, the Saints had a few key players out as well. The result was predictable. The 49ers won a close, competitive game. For the second straight week, the Saints had to play from behind all afternoon which is hard to do. For the second straight week, the Saints lost, this time 26-21 to the 49ers. Here are my Quick Takes: **Saints inactives included Kristian Boyd, Jonathan Bullard, Trey Palmer, Trevor Penning, Xavier Truss, Rezjohn Wright and Chase Young. **After a penalty on Taliese Fuaga on the first series of the game, Spencer Rattler connected with Rashid Shaheed on a perfectly thrown 39-yard completion to the San Francisco 26-yard-line. Shaheed was interfered with and still caught the outstanding throw. **Rattler then missed a wide open Chris Olave for what would have been a 26-yard touchdown pass. It was a poor throw, well behind Olave. **Blake Grupe, who missed a 37-yard field goal in week one, missed a 40-yard attempt wide right. **The New Orleans defense forced a 3-and-out with Alontae Taylor breaking up a Mac Jones pass on third down. **Juwan Johnson dropped a pass on the next possession after Alvin Kamara ran twice for 21 yards and the Saints had to punt. **Isaac Yiadom committed a pass interference penalty on the next San Francisco series to extend the drive as he interfered with Jauan Jennings. **Carl Granderson got a sack after Bryan Bresee had Jones in his grasp to slow him down. **Fadil Diggs then committed an illegal hands to the face penalty. **San Francisco took a 6-0 lead with 3:25 to play in the opening quarter as Jones hit Luke Farrell with an 11-yard touchdown pass. The drive covered 14 plays, 80 yards in 7:56. Newly signed Eddy Pineiro missed the extra point wide right. **The next possession was killed by a holding penalty against Erik McCoy, negating a first down scramble by Rattler. **Johnson then dropped another pass, his third in two weeks. **The Niners mounted another drive and Pineiro kicked a 44-yard field goal to extend the lead to 9-0 with 11:23 to play in the first half. The drive covered nine plays, 39 yards, taking 5:02 off the clock. **Rattler was sacked by Upton Stout on the first play of the next drive as Kamara missed the attempted block on the blitzing cornerback. **Granderson got a sack on the next San Francisco possession. **The Saints cut the deficit to 9-7 with 1:14 to play in the half as Rattler hit Johnson with an 18-yard touchdown pass. The throw was excellent, as was the catch. Upon replay review, the call was upheld. The drive covered 12 plays, 84 yards, taking 5:34 off the clock. **The momentum died quickly. The New Orleans defense came up empty, allowing the 49ers to drive 77 yards in nine plays, taking just 1:07 for Jones to hit Christian McCaffrey with a 7-yard touchdown pass to give San Francisco a 16-7 lead with seven seconds left in the half. It was simply a poor defensive series. **San Francisco finished the half with 192 yards to 155 for the Saints. **Grupe’s struggles continued. He mishit the second half kickoff, short of the prescribed landing zone, giving San Francisco the ball at its 40-yard-line. **Kool Aid McKinstry then sustained the drive with an illegal hands-to-the-face penalty when the Saints had stopped San Francisco. **Justin Reid went down hurt on the next play, replaced by Terrell Burgess. Reid was able to return. **Jones was hit by Chris RumphII, he fumbled and Demario Davis recovered at the San Francisco 47-yard-line. **New Orleans reached the San Francisco 21-yard-line and on fourth-and-one, Rattler kept it and converted a first down, running left with a 3-yard run to sustain the drive. **The Saints took advantage with Rattler hitting Rashid Shaheed with a 3-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 16-14 with 7:11 to play in the third quarter. The drive covered 47 yards in 10 plays, taking 5:08 off the clock. **San Francisco responded with a 46-yard field goal by Pineiro to expand the lead to 19-14 with 3:20 to play in the third quarter. The drive went 49 yards in eight plays, taking 3:51 off the clock. **Rattler continued to play well, completing 14 straight passes but on a short completion to Kamara, the star running back fumbled it away when hit by Fred Warner, who also recovered it and San Francisco was given the ball upon replay with the initial call of Kamara being down by conduct overturned. **San Francisco took advantage, driving to score as Jones hit Jennings with a 42-yard touchdown pass to give the 49ers a 26-14 lead with 12:18 to play in the game. **The Saints fought back, driving 71 yards in 13 plays with Rattler throwing his third touchdown pass, a 3-yard completion to Devaughn Vele to make it 26-21 with 6:18 to play in the game. **Bryan Bresee batted down a pass to help the Saints get a needed stop. **Unfortunately, the Saints went 3-and-out with Rattler getting sacked on third down by Nick Bosa. **Needing a stop, the Saints got it and forced a San Francisco punt. **New Orleans had to start at its own 6-yard line with 2:40 to play in the game. **The Saints moved it to their own 43-yard-line but on fourth-and-two, Rattler was sacked and fumbled to clinch the win for San Francisco. Bryce Huff beat Taliese Fuaga off the corner and Bosa got there as well with simply no pass protection. Kamara narrowly missed recording the 12th career 100-yard rushing game of his illustrious career, rushing 21 times for 99 yards. Kamara added six catches for 21 yards but had the crucial lost fumble. It was the first game in which Rattler has thrown for multiple touchdowns. He missed an easy touchdown throw early to Olave but played well after that. The second-year pro finished 25 of 34 passing for 206 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers for a very good Quarterback Rating of 118. Rattler was sacked three times and the Saints sacked Jones three times. Each team had a turnover. Davis played well again, once again leading the Saints in tackles with 11. Granderson had seven tackles, including two sacks. It was the first time the Saints have scored 20 points in nine games, dating to last season. Despite showing some improvement, it came against a San Francisco team which came in banged up and lost its fullback and a starting guard in the game. The Saints make the long trip to Seattle next week to face the Seahawks, who won at Pittsburgh 31-17 in impressive fashion. Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior) *John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. A huge Thank You to Cardio Health Solutions owned by Ron Sancho for sponsoring and believing in our publication!
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