Payton and Brees, стр. 4

Forty-eight seconds left, no timeouts, ball at your own 29, you need a field goal.

The two-minute planning carries over to the regular season. During the weekly game-planning, Payton and the offensive staff install plays they feel will be successful against the upcoming opponent based on their defensive tendencies in previous games. On the night before each game, Payton and Brees meet to go over the game plan and categorize Brees’ favorite plays. The two-minute drill is always a key part of the meeting. No one leaves the room until they feel comfortable with the two-minute plan going into the game.

Now, in the final minute of the fourth quarter of the Saints’ 2019 season opener, all of the preparation and planning were about to come into play.

Thirty-seven seconds was enough time for Brees to work his magic. But with only one timeout at his disposal, there was no margin for error. He would need to be perfect to march the Saints into field-goal range.

On the sideline, Saints players and coaches consoled C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was disconsolate on the bench. The rookie defensive back had drawn a roughing the kicker penalty moments earlier that negated Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn’s missed go-ahead extra-point attempt. The infraction gave Fairbairn a second try and he converted to give the Texans a one-point lead.

On the Houston sideline, Watson shared a laugh with teammates. The Texans were seconds away from one of the biggest road wins in franchise history. The electrifying comeback on a prime-time stage would be a milestone moment in Watson’s nascent career.

As the Saints expected, Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel employed a conservative defensive coverage scheme designed to prevent long pass plays. Cornerbacks Bradley Roby, Aaron Colvin, Keion Crossen, and Jonathan Joseph aligned in loose man-to-man coverage about five yards off the line of scrimmage. Behind them, safeties Tashaun Gipson and Justin Reid were positioned 15 yards downfield just outside the hash marks, and safety Jahleel Addae stood another 10 yards back on the fleur-de-lis logo at midfield. To reach Texans territory against this defense, Brees would have to move the ball in bites, not chunks.

Since they would be running a no-huddle, hurry-up offense, the Saints had their best playmakers at the skill positions on the field: running back Alvin Kamara; tight end Jared Cook; and wide receivers Michael Thomas, Ted Ginn Jr., and Tre’Quan Smith.

As he broke the huddle and surveyed the defense, Brees processed several factors in his mind: personnel matchups; pass rush; defender leverage in coverage; route access by his receivers.

For years now, Brees has run the two-minute offense largely by himself. Payton ceded the duty to him to expedite the play-calling and save valuable time. The Saints coaching staff trusted Brees implicitly to diagnose the defense and get the offense into the proper play at the line of scrimmage via a series of predetermined hand signals. Payton will make suggestions to Brees through the headset, but for the most part he’s standing and watching the sequence play out just like everyone else in the stadium.

“That’s something that Drew has done for a long time, and he’s real good at it,” Payton said. “Drew has got a real good clock in his head. He understands where we are at time-wise.”

At the snap, Brees retreated into his five-step drop and saw his first option, Thomas, double-covered by Roby and Reid on the left side of the formation. He immediately looked right and saw Joseph backpedaling in outside leverage on Ginn, a tactic designed to prevent an outside-breaking route. Bingo! He launched his pass just as Ginn was cutting inside on a 12-yard dig route. Brees never saw the pass land as end Jacob Martin swarmed him to the ground just after he released the ball. Ginn snared Brees’ pass at the 36, quickly dodged a diving tackle attempt by Gipson, and ducked ahead for another four yards to the 40. The entire sequence took less than five seconds. Ginn scrambled to his feet and tried to find umpire Alan Eck amid the chaos of players running to and from the line of scrimmage. Saints receivers had been drilled to run to the closest official and directly hand him the ball to expedite the spotting process. But on this occasion, Ginn failed to immediately find Eck amid the mayhem and a couple of extra seconds ticked off the clock. Brees finally spiked the ball at :20.

The Saints would realistically have time for only two more plays, barring a defensive penalty.

The Texans employed the same defense on second down, but this time Colvin aligned aggressively in press coverage against Thomas on the left side. Colvin was in his second season with the Texans after a disappointing four-year run in Jacksonville. The Saints had picked on Colvin all night, completing 7-of-8 passes on him for 106 yards. The All-Pro Thomas versus the journeyman Colvin is a matchup Brees takes every time, and Thomas delivered. With Colvin playing outside leverage, Thomas needed to be physical to separate from Colvin and access his out route. At the top of his break, Thomas quickly cut left, swam his right arm over Colvin’s shoulder, and deftly pushed him to the right. Brees didn’t hesitate. He threaded his pass into a five-yard window behind Crossen’s head and before the onrushing Reid could close on Thomas from his safety spot. Thomas snagged the ball at midfield and was snowed under at the Texans’ 49.

As the players scrambled to the line for the next play, precious seconds ticked off the clock. Payton almost signaled to the officials to take his final timeout but hesitated at the last moment as he watched Brees direct traffic on the field. Payton understood how valuable a timeout was in this situation. With it, the Saints could call any play in their offensive game plan and still have time to stop the clock. Without it, they were handcuffed. The Texans could align their defense along both sidelines and funnel the Saints receivers into the middle of the