Saints star on latest close loss: ‘This ... hurts’

The New Orleans Saints had a golden opportunity to get back into the playoff picture on Monday night, leading the division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16-3 with just over six minutes to go.

But veteran running back Mark Ingram inexplicably stepped out of bounds a yard short of a crucial first down and quarterback Andy Dalton misfired on 3rd-and-1, giving Bucs quarterback Tom Brady a chance to lead his team to an improbable 17-16 come-from-behind win.

Instead of New Orleans moving a half-game behind division-leading Tampa Bay in the NFC South, the Saints find themselves in last place with a 4-9 record.

“This (expletive) hurts,” defensive lineman Cameron Jordan told The New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We should’ve beat this team this time. We should’ve beat Carolina. We should’ve beat a lot of other teams. We didn’t. Right now, these are the facts of what we’re facing. Beyond an uphill battle.”

According to NextGen Stats, New Orleans had a 99.3% probability of winning the game when Ingram ran out of bounds at the Bucs 44-yard-line with 5:34 left. After Dalton’s incompletion, Saints coach Dennis Allen decided to punt the ball to Tampa Bay and force Brady to score twice.

Which he did, capping it with a TD pass to rookie Rachaad White with three seconds left.

As a result, the Bucs lead the NFL’s worst division with a 6-6 record, while the 5-8 Atlanta Falcons and 4-8 Carolina Panthers give chase. The Saints, at 4-9, have lost four of their last five games.

“We gave ourselves every opportunity, we just didn’t get it done,” Allen said. “It sucks, it stings, it hurts.”