One thing about sports that’s often overlooked is the life lessons that it teaches. The Sept. 22 football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles was full of them.
It was a defensive battle. The Saints, just a week after steamrolling the Dallas Cowboys, led only 3-0 at the end of the third quarter. The Eagles had shut them down, but the Saints defense played just as well.
Philadelphia, as you probably know, won the game 15-12. Running back Saquon Barkley scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. One was on a long run and the other was with a minute to play when a short pass to the tight end turned into a 60-yard gain that put the Eagles at the Saints goal line.
If good old Jim Mora was still the Saints coach, he would have called this a game the Saints woulda, coulda, shoulda won. And they sure had their chances.
During the game the Saints intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble and blocked a punt — and got no points from any of them.
Not only were the Eagles sloppy with the ball, they killed two other drives by failing to convert fourth downs.
The Saints missed an important fourth-down try as well. They blocked the punt near the end of the third quarter and faced a fourth-and-1 at about the Philadelphia 20 as the fourth quarter began.
This is where the what-ifs start creeping in. At first I thought we should go for it. Alvin Kamara can get a yard, right? This was the play where we really missed human bulldozer Taysom Hill, who was out with a chest injury.
But then, remembering the many sermons I’ve heard on ESPN’s “NFL Live” about the value of 3 points in a close game, I changed my mind.
The Eagles dropped Kamara for a loss on fourth down, so the blocked punt got us nothing. But doing the math, a field goal would have given us a 6-0 lead. After the Eagles’ first touchdown, we kicked another field goal, which would have put us ahead 9-7.
Then the touchdown pass to Chris Olave would have made it 16-7 Saints, a two-score lead that probably would have clinched the win.
Had the Eagles lost, their fans would be moaning about not kicking a field goal on at least one of their failed fourth downs. That would have given them 17 points, enough to win the game. And the one time, late in the game, that they did try a field goal, it was a miss from 60 yards and led to the Saints’ touchdown.
No doubt Philadelphia remembered their loss to Atlanta the week before. Late in the game, the Eagles kicked a field goal for a 6-point lead. The Falcons then drove for the game-winning touchdown.
The Eagles took the 3 points against Atlanta and still lost, which might explain why they kept going for it on fourth down against the Saints.
If, if, if. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. This game was a good example of pro football’s Serenity Prayer. Coaches must decide when they should try to convert a fourth down and when they should kick a field goal, and they must have the wisdom to know the difference.
A coach in any sport is a king when he knows this difference and makes the right decision. But there’s no way a coach will be right every time. It just doesn’t work like that.
Sometimes you get stuffed at the line, the way Kamara did, and you just have to get up and try again. Both teams did it last Sunday, and the Eagles were successful one more time than the Saints were.
That’s just the way life works. Sometimes you make a mistake, or a bad decision, or you get a bad break. You learn your lessons, and you learn how to handle things better the next time.
Sometimes you get an F in your junior high drama class because you were being lazy. This actually happened to one of my kids. So you pay attention, do the work and get a better grade — and the teacher notices and changes the prior F to a D. That was a nice touch.
Sometimes you get ticketed for driving 63 mph on Apache Drive, where the speed limit is 30. This happened to another of my kids when he was a teenager. You learn the lesson and slow down.
I could write 10 columns about mistakes I’ve made at home or running the newspaper. The things that didn’t work out are immensely valuable experiences. You remember them when the next problem arises.
Don’t drown in the what-ifs of life. The Saints lost, but they can play with the big boys. The next three games — another painful loss Sunday at Atlanta, then next week's Monday nighter at Kansas City, then home vs. Tampa Bay — will show if these lessons stuck.
