Soooooooo next year if a Saint gets a knee blown out by the Falcons because Atlanta is bum rushing a victory formation, the Falcons should just say, “That’s too bad. And f—— the Saints.”
Gotcha Jimmy Graham.
What an absolute clown show for everyone involved, and I say this as a Saints fan. Jameis looks like an ass for going rogue on his coach for the sake of style points in a meaningless situation, but honestly it might reflect even worse on Dennis Allen. If he’s lost the respect of his players so badly that the rest of the team would be willing to go along with something like that (and even publicly double down on it after the fact), the Saints’ locker room situation seems to be a lot worse than I thought.
I doubt a defense is going to bum rush a victory formation in what is a completely lost game. I feel like this whole thing is getting blown out of proportion.
Graham’s response wasn’t classy though
Dunno bout all that. I feel if Jameis is ever in the very highly unlikely scenario of being in a victory formation again he better keep his head on a swivel
I’m just astonished that Jimmy Graham is still playing in the NFL.
Falcons veteran Calais Campbell said he had no problem with going for the score but was more upset that they appeared to lineup in a victory formation.
“I wish they would have lined up in run formation,” he said. “Don’t look like you’re going to take a knee and then run then ball. … I was just frustrated with that because I just feel like there was a way to do it, if you’re gonna do it.”
OK, that’s a valid gripe to me.
Yeah, it’s understood that in the victory formation, the offense is going to take a knee. There’s no need for the defense to try to play hard and risk someone getting hurt. Greg Schiano was the coach of the Bucs in 2012/13, and he had his team rush the line on kneel downs. He got crucified for it, lost his job for it (among other reasons), and hasn’t been back in the league since. These guys’ health is their paycheck, and if the Saints are going to pull this kind of crap, someone is going to get hurt. Jimmy Graham is being unnecessarily cavalier about it.
Yep.
I have absolutely no issue with a goal line run in a blowout. I don’t have a real issue with the QB, with the team united behind him, deciding to let a guy do something the team thinks he deserves even against the wishes of the coach. But victory formation is game over. I’m fine with the defense giving a pop and being ready for a fumbled snap, but they’re not playing a real snap, so abusing it is not cool.
