Sean Payton has described the New Orleans Saints' playoff defeat to the Seattle Seahawks as "disappointing".

The NFC South side tried to recover from a 16-0 deficit at half time, but went on to lose 23-15 to the conference's top seeds.

The head coach told reporters: "Obviously it's a good win for them. It was a hard fought game, it's disappointing. Obviously we planned on playing it differently. At the end of it we weren't able to make enough plays.

"I'm proud of the way our guys competed. We weren't able to get it done and we just go from here. It's tough, its always tough when you get this far and your not able to finish.

"I thought they fought hard this year, that's one of the things that I told them. It's disappointing, it's disappointing to lose in a playoff game, so close to where your final goal is and yet I thought there were a lot of good signs from a lot of good young players and veteran players to."

The Saints have not progressed past the divisional round of the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl in the 2009 season.