RANDALL’S RANT: Why did Chiefs field that punt?

Article content

There is often one pivotal play in NFL games that ultimately decides a win or a loss and more significantly to gamblers, a cover or non-cover. For those that had the Saints +3 (the 32-29 Kansas City win ended in a push for most) the play that is still replaying in their minds involved a punt at the end of the first half of New Orleans’s game against the champion Chiefs. With the score 14-7 for KC and just 16 seconds remaining until halftime, the Saints were punting. In his wisdom, Chiefs punt-returner Demarcus Robinson opted to field the ball inside of his own 15-yard line rather than let it bounce to wherever and allow his team to head to the locker room with a satisfactory seven-point lead. Based on this decision, it is safe to assume that Robinson flunked punt returner school. Why touch the ball? What good can come of it? In fact, why does Andy Reid have anyone back there at all? Many bad things can occur and sure enough, it did. A slew of Saints’ players descended upon their target and one was able to strike the ball loose. The pigskin took a perfect bounce into the end zone and just one of the five or six black shirts of New Orleans could fall on the ball, resulting in touchdown and a morale-boosting 14-14 tie at the intermission. Instead, the flock of players looked like a bunch of 5-year olds chasing after a soccer ball as the football escaped the scrum and ended up going through the back of the end zone for a safety. The five-point difference between a safety and a touchdown is enormous. The physical miscue of the Saints was disappointing. The mental breakdown of Robinson’s decision to field the ball is inexcusable. That fiasco was by two of the top teams in the league. Makes you wonder sometimes.