Though it seemed that no amount of coaching errors nor smart decisions would have kept the New Orleans Saints from blowing past the Miami Dolphins after spotting the Fins a 21-point lead, coach Tony Sparano talked Monday about the team’s time out with five seconds remaining in the first half as the Saints were preparing to attempt a field goal.
The Saints used the extra time to reconsider, and they decided instead to go for a touchdown.
And they got it.
The move, with the extra point, cut the Miami lead to 14. It also set the stage for the 43-10 reversal of fortune.
On Monday, coach Tony Sparano addressed the decision to call the time out, and he took the blame for it.
“I want my players to do this; I need to do it myself,” Sparano said in comments distributed by the team. “I have to take ownership of the situation that happened at the end of the half yesterday. I always have the power of trump and I did not do that. I should have lived with what was out of the field in that situation. That was a poor decision on my part.”
It’s a strong message to the rest of the team, but again it really doesn’t matter. Nothing was going to stop the Saints, once they woke up. And as we discussed earlier in the hour with Steve Duemig of WDAE in Tampa, it’s likely the first time a team went from trailing more more than 20 to win by more than 10.