There's nothing Chase Young would do differently.
"If I get another chance like that, I'm gonna tackle him the same way," Young said, laughing.
After he laughed, Young he let out a jovial "Whoo" — suggesting he wanted to make sure he properly described the play without crossing any boundaries.
The New Orleans Saints edge rusher on Monday didn't feel significantly better about the ruling he triggered — sack, forced fumble, touchdown return that was overturned — in the second quarter of the Saints' 31-30, overtime loss to the Lions at Ford Field in Detroit in the season opener.
The game's official play-by-play read this way, with Detroit facing third-and-16 from its own 32-yard line:
(9:34) (Shotgun) J. Goff sacked at DET 23 for -9 yards (C. Young). FUMBLES (C. Young) [C. Young], touched at DET 12, RECOVERED by NO-J. Sanker at DET 7. J. Sanker 7 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
The Replay Official reviewed the fumble ruling, and the play was REVERSED.
(Shotgun) J. Goff pass incomplete short right to S. LaPorta [C. Young]
Young's hit on Goff helped force the pass attempt to go backward, behind the line of scrimmage, and triggered a flood of opinion on whether it should have been ruled a forced fumble or an incomplete pass.
"Initially, I thought I got the ball out," Young said. "And then I looked at it, I guess the forward motion...just got to go back and look at the rule, I guess. But, 24-hour rule, it's over."
Not really over, because the play neither was out of sight nor out of mind on Monday for the people who flooded Young's phone with text messages.
"It was blowing up a little bit," said Young, whose official stat line read one quarterback hit and one pass defended. "But, it is what it is. It just shows our defense and just still is a play that everybody knows, that we can play."
Another bright spot for Young?
"A viral video of great defense by the Saints," he said.
It was among a bevy of good feelings produced by New Orleans despite the loss. The Saints held the Lions to a touchdown in the first half, trailed 21-0 in the third quarter after a couple of turnovers helped position Detroit for 41- and 25-yard touchdown drives, then stormed back with four straight scoring drives (three touchdowns and a field goal) and forced punts on three of Detroit's final four possessions in regulation to force overtime.
"I understand (positive feelings after the game), but I feel like this year, we want to win," Young said. "This year, we're not going to take moral victories. We want to get the W. Our job is to go back to the drawing board, look over our mistakes and correct them.
"I feel as a defense, we try to talk about ourselves like strong, tough, thorough dudes. I feel like when you talk about it, you got to play like it and I feel like we do. I feel like that's just who we are, a defense that's gonna keep the gas pedal down."
