TheOak

The defining moment of Sean Payton's career -- the defining moment of the entire New Orleans Saints franchise, it turned out -- was his call for an onside kick to open the second half of Super Bowl XLIV. The rest is part of NFL lore: New Orleans recovered the kick, upset the Indianapolis Colts and secured the Saints' only championship.

It was a rare moment of riverboat gambling in a fundamentally risk-averse league, one so daring that even other coaches later admitted they were not sure they would have had the nerve to try it. In a league where coaches sometimes prefer to dodge disaster -- lest they have to explain their outside-the-box thinking to an angry owner on Monday morning -- the success of the onside kick helped stamp Payton with the reputation he sustains to this day, as one of the most creative, aggressive play-callers in the game. It is, combined with Drew Brees' artistry, what makes the Saints so dazzling and so dangerous.

Which makes the final minutes of Sunday's 30-27 loss to the New England Patriots so unexpected.

After clawing back from a 17-7 halftime deficit in Foxborough, the Saints led the Patriots by a single point late in the fourth quarter. And then, against type, they took their foot ever so slightly off the gas to let their machine idle, trying to hold the lead rather than extend it, hoping the clock would tick down fast enough to send Tom Brady to the Gillette Stadium showers before he could rain down ruin on them. The end result: Brady got three shots to win the game with 3 1/2 minutes remaining. You don't have to embrace advanced statistics to know that is almost always too many.

"We were kind of paying attention to the clock, and we were trying to get some yardage and possibly get a first down," Payton said. "We were getting a heavy front with the risk of throwing it and the clock stopping. So we can wrestle with that for a while, but they made the stops when they needed to, got the ball back and made plays. Next question."

There probably won't be many more. Great quarterbacks force coaches into uncomfortable -- and, when they fail -- confounding decisions.

Read More:
Sean Payton, Saints shed aggressive skin, pay price vs. Patriots - NFL.com

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TheOak

Last drive... Trying to get a 1st down and run out the clock... Anyone notice the reason our play calling wasnt as expected?

Go back and watch Drews roll out on the last play. Who is missing from the formation?

Sproles and Graham.... I believe those two threats being missing was why Payton did what he did.

Your the Pats defense and you see the Saints come to the line with out those two players.. What are you thinking or expecting?

Euphoria

Finally someone else seeing it the way I saw it.

dueceloose

I just hate the fact the media is glorifying Brady like they didn't get away with some murder. Hopefully Sunday comes and goes so we can get back to business.

ikecomp

I wasn't a fan of playing not to lose but he's the coach so I trust his judgement whether it works out or not.

Mardigras9

The Pats played a better game and deserved the win. I would have loved to sneak one out, but you just can't can't keep giving the ball back to and expect to win.
Like Brady or not (and I don't), he made a good throw when he had to.
No biggie, I'm good with an AFC team loss.

whybag

After all the hell we give the Falcons and Mike Smith for "playing not to lose", I'd fully endorse a little criticism.

alleycat_126

The fact of the matter is they didn't play a better game.... The refs missed calls... A drive stalled, when it should have been continued..... Helmet to helmet was called on a play that allowed a drive to continue where there wasn't any, same exact technique on our player nothing is called, brutal hands to the face and holding not called on the final play of the game..... They played well, but there is no way they out played us.... We got jobbed....

WhoDat!656

That is the same as saying that because they had better stats, the Vikings in the '09 NFCCG deserved to win, ignoring all of the turnovers they committed and their inability to protect Favre.

The Saints deserved to LOSE the game Sunday because they didn't, to quote Herm Edwards, "... play to win the game!"

mike27

Yea, six runs in a row at the end--they did all that catching up, but totally lacked creativity. I get it, the clock might stop, or the receiver might catch it, and you'll have three more plays.

In these situations I've seen him go to screen passes a lot. It's low-risk, as far as interceptions go, and sometimes pays off huge.

By the way, I thought the same thing against Miami, and the Bears with the Defense at the end. They slacked off, and the last touchdowns in both of those games seemed entirely preventable.

Sometimes you've just got to go balls-out and keep playing the way you have been, and I think if the offense had just tossed a couple of short ones over the middle, which let's face it, has been mostly their run game, we might have gotten a first down on at least one of those drives, and come away with a win.

Still, hey, 5-1, well ahead in the division--what are we complaining about? They barely lost, in an away game, against probably the best team we've played so far. And they've got to play without some of their best players for the next few games.