It's absolutely criminal that we don't have a SB to show for that 2017 draft

Icon said
I'm not questioning the impact of the no-call whatsoever.......what I'm saying is that Sean Payton, who typically was very good with those types of late-game play calling scenarios, somehow weirdly decided that in a tied game prior to the 2-minute warning, the Saints needed to try to score a TD in a chunk play, or get very close.

And if that had happened, while I would certainly like to believe that the Saints could have kept the Rams out of the end zone, they would have still had a solid amount of time to work with. Whereas if the Saints had been more methodical, we could have ended up with that walk off FG attempt (albeit likely from a longer distance than what we would have had if the no-call had actually been called).

I don’t 100% remember the sequence, and 100% refuse to go rewatch it, but I remember the Rams stepping up their pressure game to try and get the ball back which opened up the long pass. One of many things Payton was a master at was taking what the defense gave you. The defense gave us the opportunity with Ginn on a one on one.

Also, I think the loss in the playoffs the previous year played into how Payton approached that game. He wanted to get into field goal range, run the clock to 3 seconds, and kick the game winner with no time to lose the game.