NEW ORLEANS ― Twice in the fourth quarter, New Orleans’ defense came up with critical stops of Carolina, handing the ball back to its prolific offense, which answered with touchdown drives each time.

AP Photo / Alex Brandon

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, right, passes the ball before being hit by Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers (90) in the second half of their NFL football game in the Superdome in New Orleans, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008.

But when the game was ultimately on the line, the Saints’ defense let down its teammates and fan base one more time in 2008.

Carolina’s Jake Delhomme completed a 39-yard pass to Steve Smith in between two Saints defender and six plays later, soiled New Orleans’ home finale with a 42-yard John Kasay field goal.

New Orleans lost 33-31 to Carolina after coming back from a three-touchdown fourth quarter deficit to take a late-game lead.

The Saints owned a one-point lead with 3:11 to play after Drew Brees hit Lance Moore for a 13-yard touchdown pass.

“It’s a disappointing loss to finish the season that way,” Saints Head Coach Sean Payton said. “Proud of how we fought back to get in the game, but we made too many mistakes in the first half that put us in a deficit.”

“We did our part to make it interesting,” Carolina Head Coach John Fox said. “At the end of the day in this league, as much as I mention it throughout the year, it’s always hard. Today was no exception.”

The Saints’ defensive letdown accomplished one more thing – it made it basically impossible for Brees to take ownership of the NFL’s record for passing yards in a season.

Brees finished the game with 386 yards, putting him 16 yards short of Dan Marino’s 1984 record of 5,084 yards. The Saints quarterback had four touchdown passes and one interception

“Winning the game is priority No. 1,” Brees said. “If the record came with that, then great. It almost did.”

Marques Colston finished with 123 yards and a score on seven catches and Moore tallied 91 yards and two touchdowns.

New Orleans’ season ended at 8-8 while Carolina captured the NFC’s No. 2 seed and the NFC South division title. The Panthers (12-4) became the first NFC South team to win on a division-opponents home field in 2008.

The Saints nearly came up with a post-Christmas game to remember.

First, Brees hit Robert Meachem for a 7-yard touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter. That cut the Panthers’ lead down to 30-17. Then, after the defense came up with a stop, Brees led New Orleans on an 89-yard scoring drive capped by a Brees-to-Lance Moore 9-yard touchdown.

Then, after a poor Carolina punt, Brees used three plays to give New Orleans its first lead of the day with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Moore.

“I looked up and saw 30-10 going into the fourth quarter and thought we can do this,” Brees said. “There’s no better time than now.”

But it wasn’t meant to be thanks to a secondary that let up one more big play, a similar scenario to the Saints’ losses to Chicago and Minnesota.

“We both were in position, went up, tried to make the play and tried to get the interception,” New Orleans cornerback Jason David said. “He (Smith) jumped up and timed it very well and made the great play.”

“We made one stop when we needed it and didn’t make the stop when we really needed it,” Saints linebacker Scott Fujita said.

Delhomme finished the day 14-of-20 for 250 yards and a touchdown while Smith ended the game with 134 yards on five catches.

In the first half, though, it was Panthers’ running back DeAngelo Williams who made life difficult for New Orleans. He had 143 yards in the first half before finishing with 178.

And it started on the opening drive.

Williams rushed the ball four times for 40 yards to help set up a Kasay 45-yard field goal for a 3-0 Panthers lead.

Carolina took a 6-0 lead a short time later when Kasay converted a 26-yard field goal. Jonathan Stewart’s four-tackle breaking 16-yard run set up the attempt.

New Orleans finally mustered some offense on the ensuing drive, getting to the Panthers’ 3 before settling for a Garret Hartley 21-yard field goal that made it 6-3.

The Saints’ defense again was forced to stuff another Panthers drive that made it inside the 30. Kasay hit a 34-yard field goal for a 9-3 lead.

And then the bottom seemingly fell out of the Saints’ final game of the year.

First, Brees threw an interception that turned into a Delhomme-to-Mushin Muhammad 8-yard touchdown four plays later. On the next kickoff, Landon Johnson stripped the Saints’ Skyler Green at the 12 and Carolina’s Dante Wesley returned it for a touchdown.

In a span of two minutes, the Saints went from trailing by six to being down by 20.

But the Saints answered, driving 80 yards in nine plays, the scoring drive capped by a 26-yard Brees –to-Colston 26-yard touchdown with 40 seconds left in the second quarter. That made it 23-10 at the half.

Not that it mattered.

Carolina took its first possession of the third quarter and drove 72 yards in five plays capped by a Stewart plunge into the end zone for a 30-10 lead.

That only set up the game-ending fireworks.

Now, however, the Saints have to figure out how to win the close games. New Orleans lost six of the nine games it played that were decided by five or fewer points in 2008.

That helped the team finish the season at .500, though few players felt like this team is average.

You look at the guys in the locker room and some of the things we’ve done this year and you shake your head and you say, ‘How is it possible we’re 8-8?” Brees said. “It makes no sense. But we are who we are.”

Bradley Handwerger can be reached at bhandwerger@wwltv.com or 504-529-6439.