The New Orleans Saints disastrous fake punt on Sunday Night Football was easily stopped by a Dallas Cowboys special teams playing with only 10 men. Amazingly that s only the third or fourth most ridiculous thing about Sean Payton s fateful decision that basically clinched the game for the hometown Cowboys.
When the Saints cut Dallas s 31 3 lead to 31 17 early in the fourth quarter there was a quick shift of momentum. The Cowboys offense suddenly looked mortal and the Saints offense had come alive. You could practically feel the Tony Romo pick six coming. New Orleans stopped Dallas on a three and out and had good field position to try and make it a one score game. But after three unsuccessful plays from their own 40 yard line the Saints faced a fourth and 9.
There seemed to be only two options Go for it (the preferable choice given the Saints porous defense) or punt and hope to force Tony Romo into another three and out. Neither were ideal scenarios but that s what happens when you re down 14 points with under eight minutes remaining.
What shouldn t have been an option was a fake punt. If you re going to go for it go for it. Put your 11 best men in the huddle and have them go get the yards. If you re going to punt set up for the punt that pins back Dallas the most. Don t do it halfway and try to fake. Anyway a fake only succeeds by surprise not when every person playing attending or watching the game is keeping an eye out for it.
(GIF via Bleacher Report)
The Saints of corse went for the fake anyway almost as if they were hoping that the idea was so stupid it just might work.
On NBC Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels were in disbelief. Instead of entrusting one of the top five quarterbacks in football to make the team s most important pass of the season Payton gave the honor to Thomas Morstead a punter who had never thrown a pass in his six year NFL career. He rolled out found no open receivers then tried to run the nine yards before he was quickly tackled. Pre snap movements hadn t helped. ( When they brought the gunner in motion I didn t really understand the call but it worked out in our favor Cowboys safety Barry Church said after the game.)
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Hindsight s probably 20 20 Payton said after the game. It was on the hash mark that we wanted and they covered it pretty well.
Hash marks are more important than Drew Brees
And then there was the missing player. For the second straight week an NFC squad made a crucial special teams with an undermanned unit. Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas said the Cowboys mix up was due to the team s initial uncertainty about whether to play regular punt coverage or to play for the fake. When returner Dwayne Harris ran off the sideline to return the punt two Cowboys came off the field instead of one.
Frankly five Cowboys could have left the field and it still probably would have been enough to stop the lamest fake special teams play this side of Jim Zorn.
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