What the New Orleans Saints did while lined up in victory formation Sunday is being talked about more than the victory itself.
That’s really too bad, because this dismantling of the rival Atlanta Falcons in the regular-season finale was one of the Saints’ best performances of the Dennis Allen era.
It still is, whether the final score was 48-17, which it was, or 41-17, which it would have been if it wasn’t for some Saints players who wanted to do one of their teammates a favor.
You’ve surely seen or heard about the play by now.
The Saints, leading 41-17 and at the Falcons' 1-yard line after a Tyrann Mathieu interception, lined up in victory formation. That’s usually a signal to the other team that you’re just going take a knee and let the clock run out. Instead, Saints backup quarterback Jameis Winston handed the ball off to running back Jamaal Williams, who scored with 1:10 left. Atlanta coach Arthur Smith was irate with Saints coach Dennis Allen when the two of them met for what was supposed to be the postgame handshake.
Allen apologized after the game, saying he instructed Winston to take a knee. The players in the huddle, particularly the offensive linemen and Winston, decided to make sure Williams got his first touchdown of the season. The play has led to plenty of questions over the past 24 hours.
We’ll answer some of those questions here.
Question: Why was the Atlanta Falcons coach so upset? Isn’t it his defense’s job to stop the offense?
Any coach on any level of football would have been upset about the other team scoring so late in a game when they simply could have run the clock out. Making this one even tougher for Smith, who was fired Sunday night, to swallow was that it came while the Saints were in victory formation, typically a sign that your team is calling off the dogs. I actually told my co-worker sitting beside me before the game ended that we should pay close attention to the postgame handshake, because there’s no way Smith was going to be OK with that. He wasn’t, which was quite obvious if you could lip-read the expletives he yelled at Allen near midfield.
Question: Why did Allen apologize?
Because it’s one of those unwritten rules that you don’t run up the score like that, especially from victory formation. The head coach is accountable, and he wanted to make it known that it wasn’t his decision.
Question: What could Allen have said so it wouldn’t seem like he was throwing his players under the bus?
Well, he could have just said something like this. “Yeah, that’s not the play we called. I've talked to the team about it and we’ll handle it internally.” Or something to that effect. But really, I’m not sure if anything he said would have sufficed to a fanbase that hasn’t been pleased with Allen since he took over. Allen could have said “Yeah, we scored because I hate the Falcons and I considered going for the 2-point conversion,” and fans would have complained about that and said he’s going to get players hurt making those type of decisions.
Question: Does the decision to override Allen’s play call say something about the team’s feelings towards him and that he has lost the locker room?
The simple answer is no. People who are viewing this as some act of defiance towards Allen are overreacting. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision with the clock winding down on the game and a frustrating season. It had nothing to do with Allen and everything to do with Williams.
I’ll let some of the players who made the decision elaborate.
Here’s what offensive lineman James Hurst had to say: “The decision wasn’t meant in any way to undermine or overrule anybody on the field or on the sideline, even though that is exactly what it was. There’s no division or anything. Definitely not any sort of mutiny or any other word. From a player’s perspective who was in the huddle, it was just about Jamaal. … It was a decision that was made very quickly. It was an emotional decision, because we were trying to do something for a teammate and a friend and hopefully give him a moment of satisfaction that we feel like he didn’t have."
Question: Why Jamaal Williams?
Williams, in his first season with the Saints, played with the Detroit Lions last season and led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2022 with 17. He had yet to score a touchdown with the Saints.
Here's why right guard Cesar Ruiz said it was so important.
“When you’ve got a guy like that who comes in and works his a** off every single day, day in and day out and was the touchdown champion the year before and he doesn’t have one, I just wouldn’t be able to go to sleep at night knowing I didn’t get him one.”
Question: What does the touchdown mean?
In the grand scheme of things, nothing. It was a touchdown while lined up in victory formation, meaning you and I probably could have scored. (OK, maybe not me.) But for Williams, it meant everything.
“I appreciate my teammates more than anything,” Williams said. “They see what I go through, what I’ve been going through this whole year. I’m just trying to help the team in any way I can. I appreciate them for getting me a touchdown.”
Question: Why didn’t Winston just have take a knee?
"It's all about team," Winston said. "The team decided that we wanted to get Jamaal in the end zone, so we did that."
Question: Should the Saints cut Winston because of this?
OK, I’ll admit this one was laughable to me. I only posted this question because it was suggested by national sports analyst and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe on ESPN Monday morning.
The answer is no. Let’s just start with this. There isn’t a player in the Saints locker room more liked than Winston. Despite being the backup quarterback, he’s been the ultimate teammate since arriving in New Orleans in 2020. Everybody on the team loves Winston. It’s why so many players went to social media to defend him when people criticized him for a play that was more the linemen's decision than his. Any thought of releasing Winston because of that play is an extreme overreaction.
Question: What does the play mean for the Saints-Falcons rivalry?
Well, it adds another memorable chapter to one of the NFL’s fiercest rivalries. No, it’s not on the Gleason blocked punt level, but it’s a moment that will be remembered by Saints fans just as much as Shy Tuttle’s stiff-arm of Matt Ryan or Sean Payton doing the choke sign to Devonta Freeman.
Sunday's play, and the criticism that came with it, prompted Saints tight end Jimmy Graham to make a social media post Monday afternoon. In the post, he told everyone to "get off Winston's back."
Graham ended his social media post with some words that echoed the same sentiments many Saints fans uttered about the late touchdowns: “f*** the Falcons.”
For some, that's all that matters in a rivalry now dead even at 55 wins apiece.
But Graham's words right before that sums the play up best.
“Was a rare situation and we all take responsibility,” Graham wrote. “Nobody thought it would get blown out of proportion.”