Honestly, if you’re a New Orleans fan, the 2025-2026 season was a wild, exhausting ride that felt like it ended just a few minutes too soon. The season finale on January 4, 2026, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was the perfect microcosm of the whole year. A struggle. A spark. Then, a "what if" that’ll haunt the Bayou until training camp. The saints score quarter by quarter against the Atlanta Falcons tells a story of a team that finally found its rhythm in the winter, only to trip over a late-game hurdle.
New Orleans finished 6-11. It sounds bad, and look, it wasn’t great. But they went into that Week 18 matchup on a four-game winning streak. They were actually playing like the team everyone hoped Kellen Moore would build. Then they ran into a Falcons team desperate to save their own season.
Breaking Down the Saints Score Quarter by Quarter
The game was a defensive slugfest that felt like old-school NFC South football. You know the kind—where every yard feels like it's being earned in a gravel pit. Here is how the scoring actually shook out over those sixty minutes of chaos.
The First Quarter: A Defensive Standoff (0-7)
The Saints started slow. Real slow. While the defense was flying around, the offense under rookie Tyler Shough—who took over earlier in the season—was clearly feeling the noise of the Atlanta crowd. Kirk Cousins didn't waste much time, though. He found Drake London for an early touchdown that put the Falcons up 7-0. The Saints' offense? Basically stuck in neutral. They traded punts, and while Xavier Watts managed to recover a fumble to give New Orleans some life, they couldn't turn it into points.
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The Second Quarter: Finding Some Ground (3-3)
Things got a bit more interesting before the half. The Saints finally put together a drive that didn't end in a Bradley Pinion punt. It wasn't pretty, but they moved the chains enough to let Charlie Smyth—the Northern Ireland native who has been a revelation for this team—knock through a field goal. Atlanta added three of their own via Zane Gonzalez. We went into the locker room with the saints score quarter by quarter looking like a 10-3 deficit. Not ideal, but manageable.
The Third Quarter: The Momentum Shift (7-6)
This is where it felt like New Orleans might actually pull off the season sweep. The defense was relentless. Carl Granderson picked off Cousins in the red zone, which was a massive "get out of jail free" card. Tyler Shough started using his legs more, eventually scrambling in for a touchdown. For a moment, the sideline had that 2009 energy again. Atlanta managed two field goals in this frame, keeping them ahead 16-10, but you could feel the momentum shifting toward the Black and Gold.
The Fourth Quarter: The Alford Dagger (7-3)
If you want to know where it all went wrong, look at the 3:14 mark. The Saints were trailing 16-10 and had marched all the way to the Atlanta 20-yard line. Shough dropped back, looking for Dante Pettis. It looked like a go-ahead touchdown was coming. Instead, Dee Alford jumped the route.
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Alford didn't just pick it; he took it 59 yards back the other way. That interception set up another Gonzalez field goal, making it 19-10. Even though Shough hit Ronnie Bell for a spectacular one-handed touchdown late to make it 19-17, the onside kick failed. Kyle Pitts smothered the ball, and that was that.
The Statistical Reality of the 2025 Season
When you look at the saints score quarter by quarter across the entire 17-game stretch, you see a glaring trend. The team was 28th in the league in scoring. They averaged only about 18 points per game. You just can't win in the modern NFL when you're hovering under 20.
But the defense? They were legit. Top 10 in total yards allowed. Cameron Jordan, the ageless wonder, actually put up double-digit sacks (10.5) for the first time since 2021. It’s a weird feeling to have a top-tier defense and an offense that’s still trying to find its car keys in the dark.
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- Final Score: Falcons 19, Saints 17
- Total Yards: Saints 313, Falcons 319
- Turnovers: Saints 1 (The Alford INT), Falcons 2
- Key Performer: Chris Olave (Finished the season with 1,163 yards)
Why the Late-Season Surge Matters
Despite the 6-11 record, the way the saints score quarter by quarter evolved in December is why fans aren't totally giving up. They beat the Buccaneers, Panthers, Jets, and Titans in consecutive weeks. They were scoring 24, 20, 29, and 34 points in those games.
The offense finally opened up. Kellen Moore started trusting Shough to throw downfield to Juwan Johnson and Olave. The running game, which was mostly a committee of Devin Neal and Kendre Miller after Alvin Kamara’s knee injury in Week 13, finally found some traction. It was a glimpse of what the 2026 season could look like if they can just avoid the "Alford moments."
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights for Saints Fans
The season is over, but the work isn't. If you're tracking the team's progress, here’s what you should be watching in the coming weeks as we head toward the draft.
- Monitor the Quarterback Room: Tyler Shough showed enough to be in the conversation, but with Spencer Rattler also on the roster and a high draft pick (Top 10) coming up, the Saints have a massive decision to make. Do they stick with the "cheap" rookie contracts or go big in free agency?
- Evaluate the O-Line Health: Most of the Saints' early-season struggles (the 2-10 start) came because the line couldn't protect anyone. Watching the medical reports on the interior linemen during the offseason will tell you more about the 2026 record than any mock draft will.
- Draft Focus: The defense is old. Cam Jordan had a great year, but he can't play forever. Look for the Saints to target an edge rusher or a high-impact linebacker early in the 2026 NFL Draft to support Demario Davis.
The saints score quarter by quarter in the finale was a heartbreaker, but it showed a team that refused to quit. They ended the year as the "team nobody wanted to play," and in the NFL, that's usually a sign that something better is just around the corner. Now, we wait for the draft.