Why didn't Kellen Moore trust his offense to get three yards? The decision to kick a short field goal deep in Atlanta Falcons territory cost the New Orleans Saints big time, barely cutting into Atlanta's double-digit lead. After opening the second half with a 13-play, 59-yard drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock, Moore chose to take his offense off the field. His explanation after the game didn't hold up to questioning.
“Got it to at least a 14-point game, get the points, and if we can make a stop there then we can go, obviously we’d have to be really aggressive the rest of the way out. Felt like getting some points there got us back in a two-score game, by not going for it there the rest of the game was going to have to be aggressive and unfortunately
they came back and scored,” Moore shrugged.
Who could have seen that coming? Moore watched his defense get gashed in the first half, only forcing a single punt on seven Falcons possessions while giving up 6.8 yards per play. Instead of going for it and showing trust in his offense to reach the end zone, and at worst setting up the Falcons offense on their own 8-yard line, he put an undermanned defense that hadn't gotten a stop all night back out there. Instead of trailing by ten points, maybe, now the Saints needed 21. They weren't going to get them.
And a consequence of kicking that field goal was forcing the team to go for it on even bigger fourth downs later. Tyler Shough had to take a shot to Devaughn Vele on 4th-and-10 on the very next drive, followed by an Alvin Kamara dive up the middle on 4th-and-1 just minutes later. Their next possession ended with Shough getting sacked at his own 30-yard line on 4th-and-6. He found Chris Olave for a 23-yard pickup on 4th-and-7 at midfield in the Saints' final drive. If Moore had chosen to go for it earlier on, he wouldn't have had to be so aggressive later in the game. We've seen him make gutsy decisions before. This wasn't one of them.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Kellen Moore's field goal decision betrayed trust in Saints' offense
