The New Orleans Saints had a 24 point lead against the New York Giants with 10 minutes left in the game. The collapse in fourth quarter ended up being the talk of the game, and the momentum swing all started when Kellen Moore decided to dip into the reserves. He removed Tyler Shough and Erik McCoy in favor of Spencer Rattler and Will Sherman, and CJ Donaldson fumbled on the drive.
The Giants turned that fumble into a touchdown and two point conversion. Just like that the lead was 16 points, and Moore put Shough and McCoy back into the game. If the Saints had regained their offensive flow, expeditiously reversing course on going to the backups may have been a moment to laugh at.
Instead, it became a moment Moore had to defend after the game. It's just a couple of guys that are managing some stuff and the guys that are sore. Tried to get a few guys out and obviously it didn't work." Moore explained it was just McCoy and Shough, but just managing their bodies is the reason they were pulled.
Saints taking out the starters is only questioned because the nearly choked the game
Truthfully, the Saints should have been able to survive taking out the starters with that much of a lead with that much time left. Maybe Moore could have kept the starters in for another drive, but this doesn't feel like that much of a misstep in thought process.
If Donaldson doesn't fumble the football, this probably isn't even a discussion. The Saints just needed a normal drive, and they likely would have dripped about 2 minutes. The fumble took the clock management out of it, gave the Giants the ball in scoring position and changed the momentum of the game.
The thought process is being questioned when it's the execution that failed the Saints. Also, Donaldson has seen the ball enough to not necessarily be viewed as one of the backups who entered the game.
The idea of putting in your backups with about 10 minutes left is very slightly premature, if premature at all. It's something most won't even note in the moment, but when the offense absolutely shuts down, it's something everyone will talk about after the game. This is hindsight is 20/20 at its finest.
The one thing this potentially did was kill any momentum the offense had up to that point. They had scored on six of their last seven drives, but failed to get a first down after the starters were pulled.
Still up 24 you hope that lead is safe and the game doesn't come down to the wire. Now that it has, it opens up Moore for criticism for thinking the game is over.
While one could excuse this decision, the inability to close games still falls on coaching, so Moore isn't completely innocent. If anything, that will make taking out the starters less likely to be defended.
Add us as a preferred source on Google