Max Miceli
With a little over two minutes left in a blow out in the Superdome, a team that was up by 22 points decided to throw the ball.
Why would they do that?
because they wanted to break a record.
Could they have set the record next week?
Yes.
Was there a point in doing to this week?
Not really, they are playing at home next week so you can't say that he wanted to break it at home or anything.
I feel as though this sums up the Saints season pretty well though. They are a high powered offensive team that likes to pad their stats in blowouts.
You can make the case that they don't have a defense, but that's no reason to run up the score against a winless Colts team or pass the ball at the end of a game with a 22 point lead.
Drew Brees deserved this record, but they did not need to force this. He has an entire game next week to break the record. There is no reason to try this hard to break the record. Dan Marino didn't do it when he set the record. Brees didn't need to do it tonight.
I'm sorry, but this is a terrible show of sportsmanship. I feel as though this is pretty much saying, "kids, don't run up scores. Win with class... unless you are trying to break a record... Then do whatever the hell you want".
That's just unacceptable.
Win with class guys.
I might be going over board on this one, but I have really strong feelings about being a good sport. What happened tonight was not by any means being a good sport... at all.
Now that I have that off my chest we have some football to talk about.
Brees's record breaking aside, the story of the night was a serious lack of efficiency by the Atlanta Falcons. Three times the Falcons were forced to kick field goals when they needed to score a touchdown. This was due to a 47% third down conversation rate. Though the Falcons showed glimpses of their potential, they were held back by going 8 for 17 on third down and 0 for 3 on fourth down.
At the beginning of the game the Falcons seemed to be doing exactly what they needed to do. They drove right down the field on their first drive, but the Falcons offense got stopped up right around the 20 and were forced to kick a field goal.
Despite Drew Brees throwing two interceptions, the Saints held the Falcons to 16 points, and when you are playing the Saints, 16 points isn't going to cut it.
Even while the two picks, Brees cruised to 307 yards and four touchdowns leading the team to a 45-16 win.
With the win the Saints have clinched the NFC South, but they are still fighting for the two seed and the bye. The San Francisco 49ers have an identical record to the Saints, and it the Saints want the bye, they will need to play hard next week against the young star Cam Newton's Panthers next week.
so when did sports stop being fun? continuing to pass when you're comfortably ahead is classless? he had just as much reason to break the record during that game as the next. why wait? since when was running up the score a bad thing in games? isn't that generally the point? they are all professionals, I'm sure the falcons' feelings aren't hurt, they're big kids.
ReplyDeleteAt what point should a team start running the ball? When would that make them good sports? Why would running the ball (the only point of which I see would be to prevent possible Saints injuries) be somehow classier than passing?
I have strong feelings about good sportsmanship too but you do a real disservice to the falcons by suggesting there was a point the Saints should have started treating them with kiddie gloves for the sake of "sportsmanship"
Thanks for the input Zanza!
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think that this makes the Saints classless. The point being made is that ,under any other circumstances, the Saints would be running down the clock. They would be trying to end the game. They may pass on third down, but that's third down.
There isn't a specific point a which you start to run down the clock, but up by 22 with 5 minutes left is definitely that point.
Drew Brees deserves this record. There is no doubt about it in anyone's mind, but he could have easily won it next week.
I think that records should just happen. Record setters in the past have done it without passing in the circumstances Brees did last night. Why should he break their records by doing that.
last night it felt forced to me.
I look forward to seeing Brees throw for 300 yards against the Panthers next week and showing how much he REALLY deserves the record.