The beginning of Sunday’s game looked like a New Orleans Saints secondary that had shown drastic improvement in the win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the week prior. Facing off at home against a horrifically injured San Francisco 49ers squad that was starting fourth-year Nick Mullens at quarterback, this game had all the makings of either a repeat of the thrashing that occurred the week before or a massive letdown.
At the start, it looked like the former, as Mullens led the 49ers on a 13-play, 60-yard drive that spanned nearly half of the first quarter and ended with a 4-yard pass to Brandon Aiyuk to give San Francisco a 7-0 lead over the NFC South leaders.