METAIRIE, La. -- When the New Orleans Saints won their first game in almost 10 months, there was an outpouring of emotion as the clock hit 0:00.
The Saints beat the New York Giants 26-14 on Sunday, and the Tennessee Titans defeated the Arizona Cardinals 22-21, snapping the two longest active losing streaks in the NFL. Now only the New York Jets remain winless through the first quarter of the season.
Sunday, the Saints threw open the doors to their locker room and danced like it was 2024.
"It was like a club in there. I was like, 'Man, it turned from a football game to the club quick.' It was fun though," New Orleans running back Kendre Miller said.
The Saints' home locker room was renovated last year as part of a $450 million facelift to the Caesars Superdome, and the upgrades included built-in speakers so the team could have postgame dance parties.
But the last team to use those speakers was the Philadelphia Eagles after their Super Bowl LIX win in February. Saints coach Kellen Moore was the Eagles' offensive coordinator prior to taking the Saints job.
This New Orleans team hadn't danced in its own locker room since Nov. 17, 2024 -- the last time they won at home, beating the Cleveland Browns, 35-14.
"When you win at that dome, I think quickly you realize how awesome it's, it's a really special place," Moore said.
Saints safety Jordan Howden, now in his third season, said the experience was a distant memory.
"It's been a while since we had the fog and music playing and stuff like that. Almost forgot how that was," Howden said. "So to actually feel that and seeing Kellen Moore, he's a humble guy, so seeing him smiling and just getting with the guys. So that was pretty cool for him to actually experience that, like we used to do in the past."
Some players said they felt the tension leave their shoulders as they walked through those doors. Center Erik McCoy said he cracked a smile in the postgame locker room for the first time in forever. Miller said some people cried.
"It was just a crazy amount of people crying yesterday," Miller said on Monday morning. "You could just tell all the emotions that went into this and now people are crying. Like 'OK. We got one.'"
McCoy said the mental aspect of losing has weighed on the team, making for difficult Monday mornings.
"It sucks," McCoy said. "Across the board, because I mean, you put in the work, you put in the time, you put in the effort, you put in the physicality, your body hurts every single day and then just to not see the results on Sundays, it's hard."
McCoy says winning is special: "There's nothing like that. It's a feeling that you just want to keep reliving, truthfully."
Kellen Moore gives his first post-win locker room speech & AK made sure he got his game ball 😂🫡 pic.twitter.com/UQXYd63FWr
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 5, 2025
The Saints' losing streak extends to Dec. 15, 2024, when they lost 20-19 to the Washington Commanders a week after beating the New York Giants on the road. Interim coach Darren Rizzi, who was promoted to the position after Dennis Allen was fired following a Week 9 loss to the Carolina Panthers, started Jake Haener in place of an injured Derek Carr.
Haener played only the first half before Rizzi switched back to Spencer Rattler, who had started several games earlier in the season when Carr had a separate injury. Rattler helped put the team in a position to beat the Commanders, but couldn't pull out the win with Juwan Johnson on the potential game winning two-point conversion. The Saints lost the next three games to end their season with a 5-12 record.
With the exception of a 34-0 loss to the Green Bay Packers last season and a 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in 2025, the Saints have said they felt like they've been competitive in every loss, making it even more frustrating they couldn't figure out how to win them.
But for New Orleans, one of the key turning points of Sunday's win against the Giants was Rattler's 87-yard touchdown pass to Rashid Shaheed in the second quarter, a play that began the Saints' comeback after they fell into a 14-6 hole early. The play also energized the crowd at the Superdome.
"I felt like we were waiting on a play like that to hit for the last few weeks," Shaheed said. "When the opportunity came, we executed and that's always a great feeling, and I felt like it built momentum for the rest of the game for the offense."
Shaheed said he's proud of Rattler, who has started all five games this season.
"I'm super impressed by him," Shaheed said. "He's come in and he's handled everything like a pro and he comes to work every day, so I'm definitely not surprised that all the good things have been happening."
For Moore and several players, winning Sunday's game was as much for Rattler as it was for anyone else. Rattler's 0-10 start to his career was the longest active streak in the NFL, but if that number weighed on him, he kept it to himself, always maintaining a positive outlook during media sessions.
"He's been consistent and that's what I love about him. He's an awesome job. Battled through some really challenging circumstances and played a bunch of good football," Moore said.
Now the Saints (1-4) have to try to make up ground as the last-place team in the NFC South. The Saints will host the New England Patriots on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) and the Patriots are coming off a primetime win against the Buffalo Bills.
The Saints said they know it's important to build off this momentum. McCoy said that means correcting the red zone issues after the offense went 0-3 against the Giants, but also not riding too high off the win. The feeling is the "need to keep rolling," he said.
"Kellen has done a really good job of just telling us to continue to keep trusting the process ... and even after a win, we have to have a neutral mindset and go into this week, like nothing ever happened and go get us a win next time," McCoy said.