The Saints were beating the Eagles 38-7 in the fourth quarter when they went for it on fourth down and threw a 37-yard touchdown pass. But New Orleans coach Sean Payton says he wasn’t running up the score.
Payton said he just called the play that made the most sense on fourth-and-6 with 13:15 left in the game and a 31-point lead.
“It was gonna be a long field goal, longer than we wanted, with a potential block. We still weren’t at that point in the game. You know, you just have to play in one game where you’re up 31 in the fourth quarter and you lose,” Payton said, via ESPN.
For the record, no team in NFL history has ever been up 31 in the fourth quarter and lost. Only once in NFL history has a team lost a game after it led by more than 28 points, and that was the January 3, 1993 playoff game in which the Buffalo Bills came back from a 32-point deficit to beat the Houston Oilers, 41-38. But that comeback wasn’t in the fourth quarter. In that game, the Bills’ scoring surge came in the third quarter, and by the start of the fourth quarter it was a four-point game.
In this game there was no realistic chance of the Eagles coming back, and it’s fair to ask both Payton and Doug Pederson why they’d have Drew Brees and Carson Wentz in the game, risking injuries when it was all over. But as far as the accusation of running up the score, Payton is under no obligation to keep his own team from scoring. That’s the other team’s job, and other teams are having a hard time of that against the Saints.
