Taysom Hill Sends Saints/Chargers To Overtime With Game-Tying TD Run
Oct 12, 2020, 9:42 PM | Updated: 9:51 pm
Taysom Hill #7 of the New Orleans Saints celebrates his nine-yard touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers with Marquez Callaway #12 during their NFL game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on October 12, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – If you listened to social media during Monday’s New Orleans Saints-Los Angeles Chargers game, you would think Taysom Hill should never play football again. Luckily for Hill, hot-take artists on social media don’t determine when Hill plays.
Saints head coach Sean Payton has a little bit different viewpoint of Hill than those on social media.
The Saints were down by seven with less than a minute to go and were on the Chargers nine-yard line. Payton took Brees out of the game and sent the former BYU star Taysom Hill at quarterback.
Taysom Hill scores critical TD sending MNF game to Overtime
On 3rd & 4, Payton dialed up a Taysom Hill keeper call, and Taysom ran it in for a touchdown, his first score of the 2020 season. A big moment for Hill, who has had two fumbles in recent weeks that have left people wondering if the Taysom Hill era in New Orleans was nearing the end. That’s not the case.
Taysom Hill takes it himself! The #Saints tie it with 52 seconds remaining!
📺: #LACvsNO on ESPN
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/DQbEOUQ3Cv pic.twitter.com/lPWTYhEklA— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2020
“That’s the versatility that Taysom Hill gives you,” said ESPN’s Louis Riddick during the Monday Night Football broadcast. “You see all the second-level defenders turn and try to find their coverage responsibility and Hill goes, ‘Bingo! I know what to do. Now I’m a running back; I’m just going to take off.’ That’s exactly what Sean Payton wants when he puts Hill into the game.”
Play-by-play voice Steve Levy marveled at the fact the Saints, who were seeing their season on the brink, pulled the future Hall of Famer in Brees for Taysom.
Sean Payton has never wavered on Taysom
“It shows you the faith that Sean Payton has in Taysom Hill,” said ESPN’s Brian Griese. “A guy that has fumbled in back-to-back games in that exact situation where he gets the ball, and he has to do the zone read and he’s fumbled it twice. But Sean Payton doesn’t give up on guys that work like Taysom Hill and he put him in the most important play of the game, and it paid off for him.”
“He’s never wavered,” replied Riddick. “Every time you ask Sean Payton about Taysom Hill, it’s always the same, I believe in this man, I believe in this man, I believe in this man.”
In Overtime, Hill and the Saints defeated Justin Herbert’s Los Angeles Chargers by a field goal, 30-27. The Saints moved to 3-2 on the 2020 season.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
