NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Quarterback Tyler Shough and the New Orleans Saints exhibited a knack for the comeback in the first two weeks of the season, only to lose their late-game mojo in the Superdome in Week 3.
“There was a lot of good,” coach Kellen Moore said Monday after reviewing video of New Orleans' 35-27 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. “Ultimately, we didn't get it done.”
Click to Gallery
New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore responds to a question during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ella Hall)
New Orleans Saints tight end Noah Fant (87) catches a touchdown pass as Las Vegas Raiders safety Isaiah Pola-Mao (20) defends during the first half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore stands on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Saints led 27-16 in the third quarter before giving up 19 unanswered points, including two Raiders touchdowns that stemmed from two of the Saints' four turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“Every opponent is going to put an emphasis on creating turnovers and we’ve got to do a better job protecting the football,” Moore said. “The big thing for us is take the emotion out of it and just keep going. ... We all get to learn stuff from each and every game.”
The Saints (1-2) are a few plays away from being 3-0. After erasing a 21-point deficit at Detroit, they lost in overtime on a failed 2-point conversion attempt. They rallied to win at Baltimore in Week 2 before falling apart in the late stages of their home opener.
The good news for New Orleans is that no team in the NFC South has more than one victory through the first three weeks.
“It's the NFL; every game is going to be tight,” Moore said. “We've got a lot of big-time moments moving forward. The biggest challenge in the NFL is the riding of the roller coaster, so to speak, and the emotions of every game. ... You've got to be able to respond and just keep building and keep climbing.”
The Saints executed well on third downs. They converted nine of 15 opportunities into first downs against Las Vegas. The 60% conversion rate was New Orleans' best in more than a season.
The Saints will have to do better with ball security. Four turnovers on three fumbles and an interception in their final four possessions cost them dearly in an eight-point loss.
Tight end Noah Fant, in his first year with the Saints, caught all four balls thrown his way for 33 yards, two for touchdowns.
Defensive end Chase Young had two sacks.
Veteran running back Alvin Kamara, who likely will be the starter this weekend, has yet to find the form to which he — and the Saints — became accustomed during the first eight years of his career. He had 36 yards rushing and 5 yards receiving against the Raiders.
Running back Travis Etienne, who pulled a hamstring in the third quarter is expected to miss at least one game. Linebacker Pete Werner left Sunday's game with a stinger in his neck and shoulder area, while defensive end Carl Granderson left with an ankle injury and Anfernee Jennings left with a knee injury. Moore has yet to provide a recovery timeline for them.
12 — The number of losses for the Saints in their past 18 home games.
The Saints host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday, Oct. 5, just a week after the 20th anniversary of Steve Gleason's punt block — memorialized in a statue outside the Superdome — in New Orleans' first home game after Hurricane Katrina.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore responds to a question during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) throws a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ella Hall)
New Orleans Saints tight end Noah Fant (87) catches a touchdown pass as Las Vegas Raiders safety Isaiah Pola-Mao (20) defends during the first half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore stands on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A 71-year-old man who was convicted of killing a police chief's aunt and spent decades on death row is being released Monday after prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence doesn't link him to the crime.
A Utah judge ordered Douglas Stewart Carter let out on bail late Monday over objections from the victim's family. Carter will be required to wear a GPS monitor while he awaits a new trial in the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter has maintained his innocence and says a signed confession was coerced.
No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, but the jury convicted Carter, a Black man, based on the confession and the testimony of two witnesses who said he bragged about killing Olesen, who was white. Those witnesses later recanted.
A DNA analysis received Sept. 22 excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.
Judge Derek Pullan said those results further undermined the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury still could conclude that he killed Olesen.
Pullan also ordered Carter to avoid contact with Olesen's family. Defense attorney Neal Hamilton said Carter was expected to be fitted with the GPS monitor and released Monday night.
“If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct,” Hamilton said after learning of the judge's order. He urged prosecutors to seek dismissal of an aggravated murder charge still pending against Carter.
Carter will be placed in an extended stay hotel near the family of his son, Tyler Anger, who was adopted by another family as an infant and didn’t learn about the conviction until years later, Hamilton said. Carter also will need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, the attorney said.
“This is going to be a lot for him,” Anger said as he waited outside the Utah County jail, where Carter was held while awaiting retrial. “I want Doug to put his feet on the grass. He hasn't done that in 40 years.”
A two-month retrial was planned next year, but last week county prosecutors withdrew a notice that they intended to seek the death penalty.
Utah County prosecutor Erwin Petilos told the judge Monday that reassessing Carter’s bail was “necessary and fair” as the state continues to look at the remaining evidence in the case.
Carter, a Chicago native, had been living with his mother in Utah at the time of Olesen’s killing on Feb. 27, 1985. Court documents indicate the investigation eventually focused on Carter, who was suspected of killing Olesen during a robbery.
By that April, Carter had fled Utah believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault case, according to court documents. He was apprehended that June in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession while under interrogation by a Provo detective.
Carter said later that he falsely confessed after police repeatedly threatened him. He was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which the defense called no witnesses. He was again sentenced to death after a 1992 retrial, and courts in Utah rejected numerous appeals from Carter in subsequent years.
A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter's original trial were tracked down in Mexico. They said they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police, who told them not to disclose the payments. They also said police and prosecutors threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.
More than a decade of legal wrangling followed before the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” by police and a prosecutor. A DNA analysis of the evidence was conducted in response to that order, and prosecutors said the results arrived last week. They declined Monday to say whether they're using the DNA evidence to search for other suspects with matching DNA.
Carter's defense attorneys have said witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
They allege that prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, according to court documents.
Orla Olesen, a painting contractor who died in 2009, told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.
Theresa Olesen, a daughter-in-law of Eva Olesen, said during Monday's bond hearing that her family had "serious concerns" about Carter's release.
“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “It doesn't mean he wasn't there."
“We just want justice for Eva. And if he had any part of it we want that to be known,” she added.
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former death row inmate Douglas Stewart Carter appears in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, for a bond hearing on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
