Juwan Johnson fumbled a pass from Spencer Rattler that felt like the New Orleans Saints best opportunity for a comeback against the New England Patriots. When asked about the play, the beginning of the tight end's answer may leave Saints fans infuriated.
The first Johnson said when asked how he felt about the fumble was "it is what it is" preceded by a scoff. It appears that part of his answer was largely in reaction to it being called a fumble, however, it can be difficult to get past those being his first words on the matter.
The call was close, and Johnson doesn't agree. More importantly, however, it shouldn't have been close. The Saints simply couldn't afford it. They were down six points, and that play would have put them right at midfield with momentum. When the stakes are that high, we don't want to hear you be nonchalant about if it was a fumble or not.
Juwan Johnson is starting to have a knack for mistakes at the wrong time and his responses continue to leave more to be desired
This isn't the first time Johnson has missed an opportunity to make a splash play. Against the Cardinals, Johnson dropped what could have been a game tying or game winning touchdown, depending on how aggressive the Saints were.
After that game, Johnson appeared nonchalant about the severity of his drop. The main premise of his response was that the team has to move forward. While technically true, no one wants to hear that from the person who just dropped the ball immediately after the game. His criticism of focusing on late game mistakes also came off as a bit of a deflection.
Johnson took a slightly better approach after this mistake. After his initial comment, he later goes on to explain how he plans to bounce back from the fumble. "The one thing I can do go into this week really focusing on holding the ball properly." It's at this point it feels he owns his role in the play.
The Saints had only ran two plays on that drive and both resulted in first downs. New Orleans had just kicked a field goal on the possession before, and it felt like the offense was picking up steam. The fumble took that momentum away.
If there was one piece of advice to give Johnson, it would be to start a little better. Hearing "it is what it is" is the last thing anyone wants to hear from a player after his own mistake. It can actually make it difficult to digest the accountability Johnson took on seconds later. However, the greatest hope is the tight end stops making these critical mistakes, so we stop needing to grade his responses.