Packers’ loss adds to the Saints’ pain
On a long plane ride home from the West Coast late Saturday night, the New Orleans Saints probably figured their lost weekend couldn’t get any more painful than it already was.
Yet, it did Sunday afternoon.
The Saints were still feeling the sting of an NFC Divisional Playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday in Candlestick Park when the Green Bay Packers added a bit of insult to injury.
Before their 36-32 setback to the Niners, the Saints expected to go to Green Bay to play the top-seeded Packers in the NFC Championship game with the winner going to Super Bowl XLVI.
But there was one problem: The 49ers spoiled the Saints’ plans, crushing them like a used paper cup. And when the Packers were bumped off by the New York Giants about 24 hours later, it had to feel like a well-placed punch in the gut for the Saints.
After kicking away a chance to get to the conference’s title game, they found out they would have played that game at home — where they were 9-0 this season — thanks to the Packers’ stunning loss.
In fact, the Saints, who turned the ball over five times against the 49ers, may have been more stunned by the turn of events in Green Bay than their own loss.
They would have been playing a Giants team, which they dominated in a 49-24 blowout in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Nov. 28, for a shot at going to their second Super Bowl in three seasons.
“Just disappointment,” Saints coach Sean Payton said of watching the Packers commit four turnovers in blowing an opportunity to get within one step of a second straight Super Bowl. “You’re still playing through the game you just played. You’re really watching to some degree what happened to Green Bay, in regard to the turnovers, repeat itself.
“But (it was) disappointment, and yet, you recognize it’s just how this league is.”
Maybe, but it didn’t make it any easier to take as far as linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar was concerned.
“That bothered us … that was tough to swallow,” Dunbar said Tuesday. “We would’ve been playing the NFC Championship game at home, and we don’t lose at home.”
Not this season anyway. Eight of their nine wins at home — counting a wild-card playoff win over the Detroit Lions — were by double-digit margins. They scored 45 points in each of their last three games.
“I’m sure everyone was more disappointed when they watched that game Sunday,” said defensive end Will Smith. “You can go through all the ‘what-if’ scenarios you want. We knew we had a great opportunity, and we didn’t take advantage of it.”
Playing at home, however, never crossed punter Thomas Morstead’s mind going into Saturday’s game. He just knew they were going to be playing this Sunday.
“I didn’t care about where we were going to play,” he said. “I had it in my mind that we were going to Green Bay. I thought we were going.”