Chase Young could only smile and shake his head.
For the Saints, it was a bitterly familiar scene, just flipped around from Week 1. Two weeks ago, Young’s strip-sack against Jared Goff turned into a Detroit touchdown only after officials ruled the Lions quarterback had started his throwing motion. On Sunday, Tyler Shough got no such break.
Shough was stripped on third down even though it looked as if he was beginning his throwing motion, and the Raiders recovered. That play helped swing the game, and Las Vegas rode it to a 35-27 win over New Orleans.
Still, the Saints made this loss their own. Four fourth-quarter turnovers will do that.
After the Raiders grabbed the lead again, Shough threw an interception on the next possession, and Las Vegas turned that into another touchdown. New Orleans trailed 35-27 with 6:22 left and could not mount another rescue.
The Saints had two more chances to erase the damage. First, Shough coughed it up again on fourth-and-1 for his third turnover of the game. Then Juwan Johnson lost a fumble with 53 seconds left to finish off the defeat and drop New Orleans to 1-2.
It was a rough ending to a day that had started with real energy in the Superdome. Coming off last week’s upset of the Ravens, the Saints had the crowd with them early.
When Chris Olave led the Who Dat chant before kickoff, the response rolled through the building. The last time New Orleans had this kind of buzz, arguably, was in 2024, when the 2-0 Saints posted back-to-back 40-point games with Klint Kubiak - now the Raiders’ play-caller - running the offense.
And early on, New Orleans looked ready to feed off it.
After an opening three-and-out, the Saints put together their first first-quarter touchdown since Week 14 of last season, a 13-play, 84-yard march. Shough was at the center of it, using his legs for a career-long 36-yard run, hitting Devaughn Vele for 11 yards on third down and then connecting with Olave for 12 more on another third down.
He finished the drive by finding Juwan Johnson for a 2-yard touchdown, and even though Daniel Carlson blocked the extra point, the mood stayed loud. For the first time under Kellen Moore, the Saints led after the first quarter - something they had not done in the previous 23 games.
The Raiders started punching back behind Kirk Cousins and Brock Bowers.
Bowers, back for his season debut after missing the first two weeks with a knee injury, moved all over the formation, including out wide against Kool-Aid McKinstry. New Orleans also hurt itself with penalties on defense.
On one Las Vegas scoring drive, the Saints appeared to get off the field twice on third down, only for Jonas Sanker to be flagged for pass interference and Danny Stutsman for unnecessary roughness. The second flag drew major reaction from the crowd and Moore, and the Raiders cashed in with Cousins’ 3-yard touchdown pass to Michael Mayer for a 13-6 lead.
The Saints answered before halftime with a 3-yard touchdown to Noah Fant, but they gave the Raiders a chance to close the half on a two-minute drive. New Orleans helped them with another mistake when Justin Reid hit a defenseless receiver in the end zone on third down, setting up Matt Gay’s 25-yard field goal and a 16-13 Raiders lead at the break.
Even then, the Saints kept landing punches of their own.
Shough hit Johnson for a 1-yard touchdown to finish a 12-play, 87-yard drive, and after special teams forced a fumble on the next kickoff, Shough found Fant for a 16-yard touchdown. That pushed New Orleans ahead 27-16 and kept the building alive.
But Las Vegas kept coming. Rookie running back Mike Washington broke loose for a 35-yard touchdown, and after a Saints punt, the defense answered with a three-and-out.
Then came the play that changed everything.
On third-and-4 with 13:04 left, Raiders defensive end Malcoom Koonce got to Shough’s arm as the quarterback dropped back. The ball came loose, and even though it looked like Shough’s arm was going forward, the officials let the fumble stand. Had it been ruled an incompletion, the Saints would have been punting with a five-point lead.
Instead, the Raiders took over and the game tilted for good. The Saints had a chance to make a statement. Instead, Las Vegas - with Kubiak on the other sideline - left New Orleans at 3-0.
In Other News...
Saints Fans Have Every Reason To Hate This Tyler Shough Ruling
The Saints had another rough Week 3 finish against the Raiders, and one sequence involving Tyler Shough has only added to the frustration. The NFL upheld the ruling on the field, saying Shough lost control of the ball before his arm started moving forward, leaving the play as a fumble and not an incomplete pass.
For Saints fans, the irritation is obvious because the league handled a similar-looking situation differently in Week 1 when Jared Goff was involved. NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth explained why the two plays were separated, but the explanation is unlikely to make New Orleans feel any better about how the call broke in a game already going the wrong way. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Fans Have Every Reason To Be Furious Over This Replay Ruling
The Saints already had plenty to argue about during their game against the Raiders, and the replay decision only deepened the frustration. Adrian Hills crew drew heat for a series of controversial calls against New Orleans, including multiple penalties on the defense, but the play that really stuck with fans was a quarterback drop that ended with the Raiders coming away with the ball.
NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth upheld the ruling after review, saying the quarterback lost control before his arm came forward. The problem for New Orleans is that the explanation landed differently than another similar play earlier this season, when the league ruled it an incomplete pass, leaving the Saints and their fans to wonder why a key judgment can look so different from one week to the next. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Let A Winnable Game Slip Away For One Infuriating Reason
For most of the afternoon, the Saints looked like a team that had done enough to put themselves in position to win. They had the lead against the Lions, got solid work from Travis Etienne, Tyler Shough and Fuaga, and saw productive stretches from tight ends Juwan Johnson and Noah Fant, all of which made the game feel very much there for the taking.
Instead, New Orleans watched a winnable result slip away in a finish that left plenty to gripe about. The late interception from Shough hurt, Etiennes hamstring issue added to the concern, and the officiating only sharpened the frustration around a loss that felt far more avoidable than inevitable. [Read more 🡒]