There are 26 days standing between us and the start of the New Orleans Saints’ regular season, which makes this 26-yard touchdown run by Ricky Williams our choice for the Saints Play of the Day.
It was a pivotal play back in 2000’s rivalry game with the Atlanta Falcons, which you can find here. Williams took the handoff facing a 13-7 deficit and quickly erased it. Good blocking on the edge gave him plenty of room to work and Williams cut upfield and into the Atlanta defense. He dove into the end zone from four yards out, evading a couple of Falcons defenders, for the equalizer. An extra point try from Doug Brien gave New Orleans the lead and the Saints held on for a 21-19 win at the Georgia Dome.
And it was almost all thanks to Williams, who scored all three of the Saints’ touchdowns in this game. He totaled 156 rushing yards on the afternoon (also tacking on 37 receiving yards) and looked exactly like the player former Saints head coach Mike Ditka had traded a king’s ransom to acquire. Ditka had since been replaced by Jim Haslett, who guided the team to a 10-6 record and their first playoff win later that season.
Williams played a big part in their success while accounting for 1,000 of the team’s 2,068 rushing yards. His Saints career didn’t meet the lofty expectations it had been saddled with, but he still came through and made some big plays in big moments like this one.
