The New Orleans Saints won Monday night’s game against the Carolina Panthers, but a mistake by Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis in the closing minutes left that result in doubt when it didn’t have to be.
Lewis made a diving attempt to break the plane of the goal line on a run play with 1:51 remaining and the Panthers out of time outs. Panther cornerback James Bradberry dislodged the ball from Lewis’ grasp and it flew across the from corner of the end zone and out-of-bounds for a touchback that suddenly gave the ball back to Carolina.
If Lewis simply is tackled in bounds, the clock ticks down inside a minute remaining as the Panthers were out of time outs. Will Lutz could have pushed the lead from three points to six on a chip shot field goal try of 20-25 yards and Carolina would have had less than a minute to get the touchdown they needed.
Instead, the fumble stopped the clock and immediately gave possession back to the Panthers without the additional three points on the board.
Lewis knows he erred in his eagerness to reach the end zone.
“Just trying to do too much, trying to get in the end zone,” Lewis said, via Josh Katzenstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “At that time in the game, that’s a bad play just by me. Luckily, the defense came through in the clutch for me. I’ll learn from it, just a dumb play.”
Regardless of the debate over whether the offensive fumble into the end zone should be a touchback or not, the reality is that it remains the law of the land. The one thing the Saints could not do was find some way to give the ball back to the Panthers. The way in which Lewis did so was about the most penal way possible outside of a pick-six or scoop and score fumble opportunity.
However, it didn’t come back to haunt the Saints as the Panthers were unable to do anything with the situation gifted to them.
