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 more than five minutes left and somehow managed to blow it and lose 17-16.
There was one moment in the fourth quarter when things completely changed.
Todd Bowles made another questionable decision to punt and gave the ball back to New Orleans with seven minutes left. The Saints had a second-and-eight 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.
The Saints ended up with a third-and-one 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.
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.
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