Should DeShaun Foster Have Taken a Knee? - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Somewhere, Walter Camp is smiling at Sean Payton.

In yesterday's Carolina Panthers-New Orleans Saints game in Charlotte, the Panthers found themselves with the ball, a 4-point lead, and about 4:54 on the clock. Obviously, the goal for them was to run the ball and run out the clock to win the game, which they did -- almost.

With 1:56 left, the Panthers faced 3rd and 7 from the Saints' 43 yard line. New Orleans was out of time outs, so they had to get a stop to get the ball back. Teams huddled up at the two-minute warning to discuss strategy. The Saints had to know Carolina would run the ball to keep the clock moving at all costs, and predictably, John Fox called a DeShaun Foster sweep.

Now here's the tricky part. Once Foster had gotten the first down, the Saints let him go, and he ran 43 yards for a touchdown. With the Panthers up 11 with less than two minutes left, it looked over, right?

Wrong. The Saints immediately came back and scored a touchdown with 1:15 left. Suddenly, it was a 3-point game, and New Orleans had a chance to win it if they could recover an onside kick. They didn't, but the chance was still there.

So here's the scenario. You're DeShaun Foster. You've done your job and gotten the game-icing first down. The end zone is clear in front of you, and you turn around and notice that no Saints are pursuing you. Do you go ahead and score the points, or do you take a knee 20 yards from the end zone, knowing that the Saints can't stop the clock and two or three Jake Delhomme kneels will end it?

Obviously, if you've got Foster on your fantasy team, you want him to run it in. After yesterday's crazy finish, though, it would appear that Saints head coach Sean Payton told his charges to let Foster go if he got the first down, because that gave New Orleans the best shot of winning, and Foster played right into Payton's hands by scoring. Brilliant move, and just the sort of thing Camp had in mind when he invented the scrimmage in the first place.

I'm not going to knock Foster for his decision here. How many running backs do you know that would have taken a knee with 30 yards of daylight in front of them and nobody chasing? Still, these are little things that every player has to know during the last few minutes of the game, and from the looks of it, Sean Payton's players were just a little more on top of the situation than John Fox's. Things like that ought to make Payton an early favorite for Coach of the Year.