New Orleans Saints

Sean Payton, Drew Brees both back the choice to punt

Published Sep. 14, 2015 1:48 p.m. ET

foxsports

In reality, the idea of going for it on fourth down from your own seven is pretty much crazy. Truth is, both head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees likely at least considered it when all was said and done on Sunday afternoon.

With the Saints down by five points to the Arizona Cardinals, and just one minute and 58 seconds remaining, they faced a fourth-and-6 from the 7-yard line. New Orleans obviously chose to punt, and two plays after that, running back David Johnson took a pass 55-yards to the end zone for the Cardinals to put the game away.

The question is, do Payton and Brees regret the decision? According to Mike Triplett of ESPN, both stand by the choice.

“There’s an aggressive side of you that wants to go for it,” Payton told ESPN. “[But] I think with the two timeouts and the situation that we had, two minutes, it’s something that we would normally do. I think most people would."

When asked about whether he pushed to go for it, Brees spoke on the topic.

“Yeah, that was a big discussion,” Brees said. “Hindsight, obviously, because they scored two plays later. But you know, you just feel like, ‘OK, here’s the scenario, we punt, we stop ‘em, use our timeouts, we get the ball back with 1:03, something like that.’ And you’re like, ‘OK, we like our chances there better than, all of a sudden if we miss that, then pretty much the game’s over.’"

Obviously, things didn't play out, but the Saints did likely make the right decision. Brees probably put it best when stating that if they don't get the first down, that the game was essentially over.

(h/t ESPN)