The surprise onside kick is one of football’s most exciting plays, allowing the kicking team to get the ball back or the receiving team to gain amazing field position all in one stormy play, and it is Sean Payton’s decision to run one of these that will go down in history.
Payton called for the New Orleans Saints to begin the second half of Super Bowl XLIV with a surprise onside kick.
Payton made the decision in the locker room to run “ambush” and declared, “Let’s go get this game.”
The Saints recovered after kicker Thomas Morstead got a nice bounce off of an Indianapolis Colts player. Drew Brees’ touchdown throw on the subsequent drive gave the Saints the lead, and they outscored the Colts 25-10 in the second half to defeat Peyton Manning’s team 31-17.
But that won’t happen again because to the NFL’s kickoff rule revisions this offseason, which prohibit surprise onside kicks. Teams can only use them in the fourth quarter while trailing, and they must declare the play before running it. This this means that the surprise onside kick has died in the NFL, and we will never witness another decision like Payton’s.
When asked how much he would miss the play, the Denver Broncos’ second-year coach responded, “I think you should ask Indianapolis that.”
Payton will always have a ring to remember the play, as well as a shoutout from President Barack Obama for his courage during the Saints’ visit to the White House.
In terms of the new XFL-style kickoff that the NFL will use, Payton stated that it will return more strategy to kickoffs by increasing the number of plays in Denver’s playbook this fall.
“Oh, there are all kinds…” There are all kinds of concepts that you keep hearing,” Payton explained. “There’s a box you need to kick it into. It’s a rectangle where you want the ball to land. You comprehend everything. You see why you get an 11th guy if it isn’t a kicker. The body type compared to who is returning will be intriguing, and I believe the body types along the front lines will be slightly larger because there is less running involved. But the plays will be rapid. We had a period yesterday, and I was seated right on the front lines. Everyone is waiting for the ball to be caught, almost as if they were tagging up on a deep flyball. It’s captured, and you can leave. They are quite rapid to develop, so I believe it will be fun. “It’s certainly new.”
Because the teams will be so close to each other and the kicker, the coach may deploy offensive linemen to defend returners. He anticipates the approach and manner of these kicks to swiftly expand across the NFL, considering that it is a copycat league. The kicks and returns we witness in the preseason are quite likely to differ from those we see ten weeks into the season.
“He’ll mix it up. “You try to anticipate—the perfect kick goes inside the box and into the endzone,” Payton remarked about his kicker. “If the kick does not land inside the box, it travels to the 30-yard line. If it falls out of bounds, it goes to 40. If it enters the endzone, it moves to the 30. To go to the 20-yard line, it must enter the box and cross the end zone. You must then make a prediction: you are two-deep, as will everyone else.
Those players will have to respond to knuckleballs in a way that infielders must. As you start to change your kicks, there’s a bit of, ‘All right, what’s your confidence in accuracy?’ You don’t want to hit someone in the back of your own team, especially since the ball is right there.
As for the surprise onside kick, Payton tried one last year—starting his Broncos stint with the play to begin the 2023 season, which didn’t go so well.
