{"id":227790,"date":"2026-01-05T02:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227790\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T02:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:04:06","slug":"smyths-breakout-season-with-saints-ends-in-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227790\/","title":{"rendered":"Smyth&#8217;s breakout season with Saints ends in defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charlie Smyth&#8217;s breakout season with the New Orleans Saints ended in defeat to Atlanta Falcons, a result that sent the Carolina Panthers \u2060to the NFL play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>Had the Falcons lost, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would have clinched the NFC South.<\/p>\n<p>However Zane Gonzalez made all four of his field goal attempts, Dee Alford had a crucial fourth-quarter interception, and the Falcons prevailed 19-17.<\/p>\n<p>With the win, Atlanta (8-9) sent the Carolina Panthers \u2060to the play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a remarkable season for Co Down man Smyth who was signed to the New Orleans Saints&#8217; 53-man active roster on a three-year contract before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Kirk Cousins threw for 180 yards and a touchdown, while Drake London had 78 receiving yards and a score for the Falcons, who finished the season \u200don a four-game winning streak. Tyler Shough threw for 259 yards and a touchdown, while adding a score on the ground for the Saints (6-11), who saw their four-game winning streak snapped. It gives them the eighth pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, which will be held in April.<\/p>\n<p>Leading 10-7 at half-time, Atlanta doubled their advantage on Gonzalez&#8217;s 51-yard field goal with 8:50 remaining in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\">Charlie Smyth adds 3 points for the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Saints\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Saints<\/a> \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\udfaf <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R7XgqdK09j\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/R7XgqdK09j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NFL UK &amp; Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLUKIRE\/status\/2007909501492773156\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>New Orleans had a touchdown taken off the board on its ensuing drive, as Dante Pettis&#8217; offensive pass interference negated Kevin Austin Jr&#8217;s one-yard score.<\/p>\n<p>The Saints settled for former Down inter-county footballer Smyth&#8217;s 29-yard field goal to pull within three at the 2:15 mark of the third.<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez pushed the Falcons&#8217; lead back to six with his 38-yarder with 10:43 left in the fourth.<\/p>\n<p>After punts from each team, Shough&#8217;s \u206029-yard rush pushed the Saints&#8217; possession to Atlanta&#8217;s 23. Three plays later, Alford picked off Shough&#8217;s pass and returned it to New Orleans&#8217; 27 with 3:14 \u2060left.<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez then drilled another 38-yarder, giving the Falcons a nine-point edge.<\/p>\n<p>The Saints answered just 1:41 later, with Shough&#8217;s 16-yard touchdown pass to Ronnie Bell pulling New Orleans within \u2060two. \u200dAtlanta recovered the \u2060subsequent onside kick to seal the win.<\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Smyth&#8217;s breakout season with the New Orleans Saints ended in defeat to Atlanta Falcons, a result that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-227790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}