Small potatoes, but

On Sunday the Arizona Cardinals wrapped up a 30-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints after Dominique Rogers-Cromartie returned a Drew Brees interception for a touchdown. The next night the New York Jets sealed a 29-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings after Dwight Lowery picked off Brett Favre and returned it all the way.

Both of these plays were spectacular. But there's something about both of them that bother me a little. In both instances, the scores took place with less then 2 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, and with the opponents being out of timeouts. Ultimately no negative consequences resulted from these plays, but good coaching will remind both of them that in that situation, the best course of action is to take a knee or run out of bounds. Then your offense will take the field, take a few kneel-downs, and get out of there with victory still intact. The fact that nothing bad happened as a result doesn't mean that it should be swept under the rug.

It wasn't as obvious in the Saints-Cards game because DRC's score happened with so little time left. But by scoring, he forced his team to have to kickoff to the Saints again. The chances of a Saints comeback were virtually gone, but my point still stands: take a knee or run out of bounds and get your offense to take the victory formation. Lowery scored with about a minute and a half left, which the Vikings conceivably could have used to get a quick score and try to recover an onside kick.

Remember a few years back when Brian Westbrook broke loose on a run against the Cowboys and took a knee at the 1 instead of scoring? The Cowboys had already burned all of their timeouts at that point. Westbrook's move denied Dallas any chance of getting the ball again. Shorten the game, folks. Try to take the shortest path to victory. Don't just play hard, play smart.