What was Mark Ingram thinking? The New Orleans Saints running back has been blamed for the team’s 17-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
Ingram caught a pass from Andy Dalton and appeared to have an easy path to pick up a first down, but then he suddenly ran out of bounds. Dalton’s third-down pass to Marquez Callaway was incomplete. Saints head coach Dennis Allen elected to punt the ball away with 5:31 left to play.
In a Twitter post after the game, Ingram apologized to his teammates for failing to get a crucial first down after catching a pass on 2nd-and-8 midway through the fourth quarter.
Tom Brady led the Bucs on a 10-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that cut the deficit to 16-10 with three minutes left and once the saints went three-and-out on its next possession, Brady hit Rachaad White for a six-yard touchdown with three seconds left to give the Bucs a comeback win.
Ingram was back for his second game after he missed four weeks with a sprained MCL suffered during the Saints’ 24-0 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders back in October.
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Despite entering the game with a 4-8 record, the Saints were very much alive in the playoff race because the NFC South has been terrible. They would have gone into their Week 14 bye with the same number of wins as the Bucs.
Now, the Saints are effectively four games behind the Bucs after being swept in the two-game season series with four games to play.
