NEW ORLEANS -- It’s debatable whether the New Orleans Saints were simply rubbing it in. While holding a 21-point lead, they called for receiver Willie Snead’s 50-yard touchdown pass to running back Tim Hightower with 10 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in their 49-21 victory over the Los Angeles Rams and former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams on Sunday.

But one thing is not debatable -- the play was a thing of beauty.

“Man, that was pretty impressive,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who doesn’t have to worry about his job security since he threw four TD passes of his own on Sunday. “It’s funny because we probably practiced that three times during the week. And every ball he threw looked just like that.”

It was the Saints’ first TD pass by someone other than the quarterback since running back Deuce McAllister threw one against the Atlanta Falcons in 2001.

But Saints coach Sean Payton revealed that the play has been in the Saints’ playbook for about eight or nine years. They just never found the right “QB” until Snead, who was a star dual-threat quarterback in high school.

“Every time we wanted to run it at practice, (former Saints receiver Marques) Colston would go to the restroom. He wasn’t real excited about it,” Payton said. “He had a good arm, he just wasn’t fired up about it. And then Lance (Moore) tried it one year, and shoot, about three different guys intercepted it (in practice).

“We cleared up some of the things we were doing, and we got the right look.”

Snead was the Michigan high school player of the year in Division 5-6 as a senior, when he threw for more than 2,000 yards and ran for more than 1,000 at Muskegon Heights High School.

So he has been waiting three years to flash his passing ability. And he didn’t disappoint after catching a lateral from Brees, then flinging the ball 30 yards in the air to hit Hightower in stride.

Hightower then did the rest by making safety Maurice Alexander whiff in the open field to score the touchdown.

“It felt really good,” Snead said. “It was just the right call at the right time. And Tim made a great catch, just to put the sauce on it. I’m glad he scored the touchdown, it makes it look a little better.

“Throughout the week we practiced it, and it felt really good. And I just wanted to make a great first impression with Coach, and you know, he trusts me. We went 3-for-3 during the week, and he told me, ‘We’re gonna call it sometime during the game.’ And when I heard the play call come in, I was like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ Looked off the safety, put a dime out there, Tim made the rest.”

Snead said he planned to give the ball to his mother, according to NOLA.com, since she was the one who “told me not to lose my throwing arm.”

Brees also revealed that it was actually running back Mark Ingram who caught the pass most often during practice; Hightower only caught it once during a walk-through. But Hightower happened to be the one on the field when Payton decided the timing was ripe on the third-and-3 play.

Hightower said it was the first time he had ever caught a TD pass from a receiver, but he refused to take any of the credit himself.

“He put it right there on the money. That was a heck of a throw. I don’t know if I could tell it was a receiver throwing it,” said Hightower, who was worried for a second when he lost track of the ball.

“I was trying to find it, man. Those dome lights,” Hightower said. “He threw it up there, and for about a second, I lost it in those lights. I just kept running, man. And by the time I found it, it was right in my hands.”

It felt like Payton might be rubbing it in with the play, since he was so animated on the sideline while reveling in the victory over Williams in their first time facing each other since their 2012 divorce and the Bountygate scandal that followed.

However, Rams players didn’t accuse the Saints of doing so. And it’s hard to say for sure if it was overkill since there was still ample time left in the game (and the Saints have blown double-digit leads before this season).

Either way, the play had an energizing effect on the Saints (5-6) that they hope to carry forward with zero margin for error remaining this season.

“You get excited for plays like that,” Hightower said. “You get little wrinkles like that in the offense, guys get excited. I know Willie’s excited. You want to make it work, so that way you can keep having success and keep throwing some wrinkles in there.

“As soon as that play came in, I think everyone kind of looked at each other like, ‘All right, let’s make this work.’”