The New Orleans Saints dominated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 54 minutes of Monday night’s Week 13 game. They were leading 16-3 with five and a half minutes left and somehow managed to blow it and lose 17-16.
There was one moment in the fourth quarter where things completely changed, one play that would have made a massive difference.
Todd Bowles made another questionable decision to punt and gave the ball back to New Orleans with seven minutes left. The Saints had a 2nd-and-8 at their 49 and Andy Dalton threw short to Mark Ingram.
Ingram easily could have run for a first down, but he was playing hurt and slipped out of bounds a yard shy of the first down marker.
THIS WAS THE GAME
Saints put an injured Ingram back into the game
2nd & 8, he caught a wide open pass but ran out of bounds short of sticks because he was too injured
3rd & 1, Bucs 44-yd line, Saints throw a pass
incomplete
4th & 1, Bucs 44-yd line, Saints punt
UNREAL 🤯 pic.twitter.com/C3WQuMO3zp
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 6, 2022
The Saints ended up with a 3rd-and-1 and threw an incompletion. On fourth down, they punted the ball back to Tampa Bay, setting up the first of two touchdown drives by the Bucs to close the game.
Prior to Ingram going out of bounds, the Saints had nearly a 99 percent win probability.
The Saints had a 98.7 win probability before Mark Ingram ran out of bounds 1 yards short of a first down on the second-and-8 play around the 6-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
— Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) December 6, 2022
Had Ingram gotten the first down, the Bucs’ hopes of winning would have been much smaller. Instead, the Saints punted after not converting, and the rest is history.
What a brutal play, and what a bad decision to have an injured player in there for that situation.
