If you had to pick a cliche to sum up the Saints' Week 1 win in Atlanta, it'd probably be: All's well that ends well.
But there's no denying that the Saints made it a lot harder on themselves than it had to be, and that ran a lot deeper than simply digging a 16-point hole they had to climb out of late in the fourth quarter.
The most poignant example came just after the Saints took over at their own 20-yard line, needing a drive into field goal range with no timeouts and 48 seconds left on the clock.
Jameis Winston dropped back, surveyed the field and delivered a strike down the left sideline that Jarvis Landry high-pointed for a 40-yard gain. He went down to the ground with two defenders draped around him, then got up and ran downfield, stepping out of bounds. It was pandemonium on the Saints' sideline, with the official lost in the crowd. Dennis Allen called for a spike, believing his eyes that told him Landry had been contacted and went down inbounds. The only issue? The ref standing behind the Saints coach had signaled Landry out of bounds and the clock stopped.
When Winston got to the line and spiked the ball, a bit of yellow laundry was tossed onto the field. A spiked ball off a stopped clock draws an automatic flag for intentional grounding. The penalty is 10 yards and a loss of down. Because the clock was stopped there was no 10-second runoff, but that ultimately was more a benefit to the Falcons.
"I'm standing right there, and clearly to me looks like Jarvis makes the catch, he's contacted, he's inbounds and I'm saying 'clock it,' which is what you would do in that situation," Allen said on Monday with much of the day to digest exactly what happened. "It's really not until when you watch the tape -- the official is actually behind me that ends up, you know, kind of saying that the clock stops. So look, we got to do a better job as a coaching staff and in that situation."
It's unclear whether the call could've triggered a booth review, but down-by-contact as it pertains to the spot of the football can't be reviewed. There was no question whether Landry stepped out of bounds as he got up and ran. Inbounds/out of bounds can be reviewed to correct clock errors, but there was little time -- probably too little -- for that decision to even be considered with the Saints rushing to the line and spiking the ball immediately. It appears to be a blown call that, oddly enough, would've benefited the Saints. They just didn't realize it in the moment.
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Regardless, instead of 2nd and 10 at the Falcons' 40, it was 2nd and 20 at midfield with 38 seconds left. The play didn't torpedo the drive, but it greatly narrowed the Saints' options. If they couldn't get all 20 yards and a first-down, it was effectively the only play they had to either get into field goal range and spike it or get out of bounds.
Winston responded with a dart to TE Juwan Johnson up the seam right on the button of field goal range.
"That's why he's here," Allen said. "I mean those are the type of throws that he's capable of making and you know, I thought he thought he did a good job of keeping his poise and finding Juwan."
But that's where the next bit of clock mismanagement reared its head and made life a bit easier on the Falcons as they attempted to come back for a game-tying drive of their own. After the completion, the Saints rushed up to the line for a spike. It's unclear whether there was confusion over what down it was, but when the spike hit the ground there were 24 seconds left on the clock and the Saints were facing 4th down and a 51-yard field goal attempt that Wil Lutz calmly knocked through.
The spike was the correct call in general. If the Saints tried to run another play they'd have to do so on a running clock. A first down would've allowed for a potentially shorter kick and spike, but you'd be in danger of running out of time and there's the potential for a litany of bad things to happen. If a player was tackled inbounds short of the marker, you'd have forced Lutz to attempt his kick with a running clock. If Winston was sacked, it'd have been an even longer kick with a running clock.
The Saints executed the kick and took the lead, but there was clearly meat left on the bone. The mistake? There was no need to hurry a spike. The Saints could have allowed time to tick down before clocking it, which would have either made Lutz's kick a walkoff or forced Atlanta to use one of its three timeouts remaining. Doing so would've made their attempt at a comeback drive significantly more difficult.
When asked how coaches handled the clock management and composure at the end of the first game of his head coaching era, Allen didn't mince words: "Not as well as we needed to."
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That timeout loomed large as the Falcons managed to get the ball near midfield and used their final timeout, with the referees granted with 2 seconds remaining. But in the confusion and with the clock mistakenly running to zero, Marshon Lattimore got into a shoving match with Bryan Edwards, who showed off his Academy Award credentials with a fall that resulted in a 15-yard penalty. The play meant that was a likely Hail Mary attempt became an unlikely but far from impossible 63-yard field goal attempt that could've won the game.
It was the second personal foul on Lattimore in the final minutes, the first a questionable holding call that extended the Falcons' penultimate drive that milked a majority of the clock with the Saints trailing 26-24.
"I didn't love the first one. I don't totally agree with that but, you know, by the letter of the law it's a foul, and the second one was a foul," Allen said. "So we got to be better that, and Lattimore knows that, you know, he knows that. We've got to be better."
Thankfully for the Saints, Dennis Allen and his team, Payton Turner made sure they'd never have to find out whether Younghoe Koo has a bionic leg. Turner swatted the low-trajectory kick right back into the hands of punter/holder Bradley Pinion.
The play was at least the third time it felt like the Saints had won the game, Tuner said, but this time it counted.
"I thought so. If y'all sitting on the sideline, we all thought so a couple times," Turner said. "You know, we have we got really good core leaders on the team to keep us on track. So you know, we got out there with a Dub, though."
We started with a cliche and we'll end with a cliche: Survive and advance. That's what the Saints did, and some clock blunders in Week 1 can be written off as a learning experience. If they continue throughout the season, it's a different discussion. But "it was the first game for all of us," Allen said. Coaches, players and officials included. Better days are ahead in that regard -- or at least they'd better be.
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