Mason Tipton touched the football only once Sunday in the New Orleans Saints’ game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But what he did in those nine brief seconds he had the ball in his hand set the tone for the Saints’ best win of what has been a trying season.

The speedy Tipton returned the opening kickoff 54 yards, allowing Tyler Shough and the Saint’s offense to take the first snap at the Bucs’ 45-yard line. The Saints scored six plays later on their way to a surprising 24-20 victory over the NFC South leading Bucs.

“It’s really just read, see the hole and hit it with speed and make it happen,” Tipton said.

It was just the 12th time the undrafted second-year receiver has returned a kickoff. He never did it in high school in Akron, Ohio and he never did it in college at Yale. He retur

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