Sean Payton, Saints shed aggressive skin, pay price vs. Patriots

TheOak · 10-15-2013, 12:14 PM

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

10-15-2013, 12:14 PM	#1
TheOak 10000 POST CLUB Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Cypress Tx. Posts: 19,039	Sean Payton, Saints shed aggressive skin, pay price vs. Patriots 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 Attached Thumbnails lynwood likes this.
	It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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