On its face, there wasn’t much to say about rookie kicker Blake Grupe’s late field goal try against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Sure, it was frustrating that the New Orleans offense couldn’t come away with a touchdown to pad their numbers — and it was disheartening to see the jumbo Taysom Hill-centric run package stopped for a loss of yards in the red zone on the final play.
And, yeah, it was just a chip shot from 27 yards out. But Grupe had tried field goals from even shorter distances of 26, 23, and 25 yards earlier this season; his head coach Dennis Allen has a bad habit of settling for “safe” kicks in scoring position when he could get aggressive instead, which has cost him a couple of wins.
But that’s all neither here nor there. What’s worth acknowledging is that the three points Grupe scored on that late field goal (to be exact, it was kicked with 24 seconds left in regulation) were the first points the Saints have scored all season inside the two-minute warning. That’s with the Saints rallying late in multiple games this year, ultimately coming up short.
So good on Grupe and his teammates for finally checking that off their to-do list. It’s a small thing, and to be frank, it’s something that should have happened much sooner than Week 8. But wins have been hard to come by for this Saints team as of late. We’ll take them where we can find them, and hope we don’t have to wait long for more.
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