Why the Saints offense does not scare me

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

Make ni mistake about it. Virtually any NFL offense should concern me as a fan (I mus admit facing Detroit likely would not even concern me but that is another post). To some degree, I hope that the players have a sense of urgency that fear can inspire for every team they face, and if they do not have that sense of urgency with any opponent they may well lose.

 

However, as a fan, there are certain opponents (like NE in the old days before Brady got tentative with his injury that simply raised a sense of fear when we faced them that we almost certainly were gonna get blown away.

 

Maybe its just me and my sense of the Aints in the old days when they were a laughing stock that does not raise my radar above the concern level to fear, but a look at the stats (which were nicely provided by OC in Philly in an earlier post) that made me feel that when one looks at it on paper (with a reminder the game is not played on paper so stats are an indicator but not definitive and NO despite being easily the highest scoring team in the first two games this season does not create fear in my heart on facing them.

 

If anything, NO strikes me from looking at the team and this game as a great opportunity which we can quite reasonably take advantage of to get a win which draws national attention.

 

Consider:

 

1. Their offense clearly is productive this year and Brees when you look at his career stats for NO is an effective QB. However, the starting point for assessing any teams record is to look at their opponents. NO stcked up their high scoring result against a Detroit team that behind their rookie QB may be one of the worst in the NFL. Their second game was against a Philly team which looked like one of the class of the NFL in pre-season, but the loss of McNabb has this team. Its too early to write Kolb off but one can already see the analysis that the Saints were not as good as they appeared after their 2-0 start.

 

2. The analysis by OC also points out the great average drive starts NO earned in their first two games which was just above the 40. No prob as they earned it. However, the Bills every season under April have been one of the best ST teams in the league despite being mediocre at best in other facets. It is simply difficult to see the Saints profiting from a lot of good drive starts against the Bills.

 

3. The other part of drive starts is the great benny that turnovers give you. One thing that looks good on this team after too few games to establish a trend is that they look pretty careful with the ball. They need to avoid bad luck like the fumble amidst some tough running by Jackson and again get lucky with the bounce of this oddly shaped ball and they need to have been taught the proper lesson by the idiocy of mcKelvin against NE (thinking aggressively and trying to stick a fork in them was good trying to do this though with no blocking and your hands team in front of you with NE having no choice but to make a desperation strip was just dumb. If TE shows the same care with passing the ball he usually shows (you are allowed one foolish pass per game but only one) the Bills may well be able to avoid the fate of Detroit and Philly where OC noted none of them came from tight coverage by the Aints but the QB airmailed the ball each time.

 

4. This raises the question of whether their QBs were so bad due to the Saints D. The good news for us is that the Saints stats do not look like it. As undeniably productive as their O is (with the benefit of good field position a solid Bills ST and a careful TE should not help create) their D looks pretty bad even playing goshawful Detroit and a wounded Iggles team. Their D is in the bottom third of the league in almost every defensive category.

 

They can be attacked successfully, in fact two teams playing with a hand tied behind their back with a rookie QB making his first pro start ever and a back-up also making a surprise start were badly outscored by NO but their offenses drew some blood also.

 

Fears that it was the Saints pass rush which caused these problems are not reflected in the stats as even with each game locked up they only registered 2 sacks and only 1 by their DL.

 

The conventional wisdom may be do not no huddle to keep Brees on the bencg, but at least at the start of the game they should in fact no huddle as this will make it harder for them to run exotic blitz packages to get their LBs run blitzing. I would say go no huddle until you are forced to make the clock run because your D is exhausted or you are so far ahead you want to burn clock.

 

5. The good news is that we are at home and this historically provides an advantage that is worth points. ST needs to play as well as they have in the past. Edwards needs to avoid turnovers as he has in the past, and the Bills need to run (as the first two games showed you can do on the Saints) and to stop the run (Stroud needs to play as he has done so far as a Bill).

 

All in all, I look forward to this game.

[SouthernMan]

Here's why they don't scare me.........they don't even know I exist!

So it goes.

 

 

 

Seriously though, they're just a bunch of guys. We have a bunch of guys too. If Fewell can get his DBs to quit playing 10 yards off the wideouts, and quit leaving the middle seam wide open for receiver/LB mismatches, we'll be fine. But really, the best defense maybe a ball controll offense. Time of possession hasn't exactlly been the Bills fórte so far.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

Here's why they don't scare me.........they don't even know I exist!

So it goes.

 

 

 

Seriously though, they're just a bunch of guys. We have a bunch of guys too. If Fewell can get his DBs to quit playing 10 yards off the wideouts, and quit leaving the middle seam wide open for receiver/LB mismatches, we'll be fine. But really, the best defense maybe a ball controll offense. Time of possession hasn't exactlly been the Bills fórte so far.

The Tampa 2 style D we run is designed for the WR to be covered by the LB in the deep seam in the middle of the field. London Fletcher actually could do this quite well as he always was a sideline kind of player. He also had great open field ball skills such that we could use him as the short return guy on KOs and he actually led all LBs in the league in INTs his last year here.

 

What we never had though were the quality of safety of the Polamalu or Sanders type who would allow our CBs to play the in your face coverage you want because when they get beat (as will always happen some when you are taking on the best WRs in the world) it is the safeties closing with a vengeance (or scaring the WR they might be coming) which allows the CB to lock, load and play tight.

 

The Bills braintrust was never pleased with Fletch so they let him go and got the fleet footed Poz as their speedy MLB who was a big hitter. Unfortunately his arms appear to be brittle so we have ended up with Marcus Buggs playing this key role.

 

Is he up to it?

 

NO!

 

Thats why you had Ellison playing the role in the first game but unfortunately he is not up to it either.

 

I do no think you will get your wish as long as we are running our modified Tampa 2 with the personnel we have available to Fewell and our team

[Alaska Darin]

The Tampa 2 style D we run is designed for the WR to be covered by the LB in the deep seam in the middle of the field. London Fletcher actually could do this quite well as he always was a sideline kind of player. He also had great open field ball skills such that we could use him as the short return guy on KOs and he actually led all LBs in the league in INTs his last year here.

 

What we never had though were the quality of safety of the Polamalu or Sanders type who would allow our CBs to play the in your face coverage you want because when they get beat (as will always happen some when you are taking on the best WRs in the world) it is the safeties closing with a vengeance (or scaring the WR they might be coming) which allows the CB to lock, load and play tight.

 

The Bills braintrust was never pleased with Fletch so they let him go and got the fleet footed Poz as their speedy MLB who was a big hitter. Unfortunately his arms appear to be brittle so we have ended up with Marcus Buggs playing this key role.

 

Is he up to it?

 

NO!

 

Thats why you had Ellison playing the role in the first game but unfortunately he is not up to it either.

 

I do no think you will get your wish as long as we are running our modified Tampa 2 with the personnel we have available to Fewell and our team

Safety quality isn't the reason we don't play tight coverage (though Scott is at times woeful). It's all about pass rush.

[truth on hold]

Safety quality isn't the reason we don't play tight coverage (though Scott is at times woeful). It's all about pass rush.

true, it relies on good edge rushing, thats why colts need freeney. its why we need schoebel & co to have a good game (its too early to pin it on maybin.) brees can get rattled and cough up a lot of turnovers when pressured too, because a) hes small and lacks great vision when the pocket collapses and b) he tries to make things happen on busted plays rather than throw it away.

[FreakPop]

true, it relies on good edge rushing, thats why colts need freeney. its why we need schoebel & co to have a good game (its too early to pin it on maybin.) brees can get rattled and cough up a lot of turnovers when pressured too, because a) hes small and lacks great vision when the pocket collapses and b) he tries to make things happen on busted plays rather than throw it away.

 

 

Brees will not get rattled and force turnovers. Brees is a damn good QB. You blitz him and he finds the hot route or not blitz him and he picks you apart like a surgeon. Pick your poison he is that good! Bills get housed in this one!

[Jerry Christ]

While watching shortcuts of saints vs eagles. I was like, THIS THE THING WE SUPPOSE TO BE SCARED OF?

 

Seriously, the eagles were bad, and I mean bad, the ints, the fumbles, the PENALTIES, ETC. They wanted to lose that game.

 

 

 

Gameplan, give him a rush, don't hurry him, give him time to think he is picking you apart and make sure you got guys in the middle and double coverage mode to lure him in.

 

The end, he made mistakes in the game but the eagles didn't try to benefit off them in the second half........they just quit trying to win

[Thurman#1]

Here's why they don't scare me.........they don't even know I exist!

So it goes.

 

 

 

Seriously though, they're just a bunch of guys. We have a bunch of guys too. If Fewell can get his DBs to quit playing 10 yards off the wideouts, and quit leaving the middle seam wide open for receiver/LB mismatches, we'll be fine. But really, the best defense maybe a ball controll offense. Time of possession hasn't exactlly been the Bills fórte so far.

 

 

 

The Dolphins in the 70s were just a bunch of guys too, but they beat us 20 straight times.

[truth on hold]

Brees will not get rattled and force turnovers. Brees is a damn good QB. You blitz him and he finds the hot route or not blitz him and he picks you apart like a surgeon. Pick your poison he is that good! Bills get housed in this one!

right, which is why he's already been picked twice this year against a couple of cup cakes! 17X last year while leading his star studded cast to a 7 & 9 record! LOL not to mention his smallish hands = fumble-itis. theres a reason Chargers showed him the door

[bbillsfan87]

true, it relies on good edge rushing, thats why colts need freeney. its why we need schoebel & co to have a good game (its too early to pin it on maybin.) brees can get rattled and cough up a lot of turnovers when pressured too, because a) hes small and lacks great vision when the pocket collapses and b) he tries to make things happen on busted plays rather than throw it away.

forgot where i read it but i read an article saying that brees' completion percentage was higher when the pressure is on but lower when there is only a 3 or 4 man rush. and we really dont have to worry about their running game that much to worry about dropping 7 or 8 back. the saints can be beat.

[SouthernMan]

The Dolphins in the 70s were just a bunch of guys too, but they beat us 20 straight times.

 

 

Little history lesson for you:

Shula and the 'fins had good teams, to be sure, but they also had the officiating crews in their back pockets - I have no doubt about that. None. Shula was on the rules commitee at the time, and I'm sure he was quite cozy with a number of the officiating brass in NY, and in the course of meetings or comferences, may even have thrown back a martini or two with members of various officiating crews. Wink wink.

 

I'm not paranoid or a conspiracy theorist nut, but if you were around to witness those 70s games, it was soooo obvious that any marginal calls always went in favor of the Dolphins. There were at least 2 Bills/Dolphins games during that 20 game streak that the refs decided in favor of the Dolphins. And I don't thing it was because of incompetance on their part - it was outright game fixing.

 

BTW - In case you don't know it, the much revered Don Shula is a bit of a dick.

 

If anyone has the tape of the HOF ceremony for Marv, just take note of the shittty look on Shula's face throughout the whole speech. That's right a-hole - Marv owned your ass for 10+ years. The last time you walked off the field as a head coach was in a playoff loss to Marv & Co.

 

I guess that bitter taste will forever linger in his mouth.

 

 

Back to the Saints.

Why be scared?

Maybe playing scared is contributing factor to losses. Winning teams usually have swagger. There, I said it.

[djcalvin79]

penalties. we have to watch out for boneheaded penalties.

 

the last thing we need is to give them short fields and yards that they will have no problem gaining anyways.

[Canadian Bills Fan]

right, which is why he's already been picked twice this year against a couple of cup cakes! 17X last year while leading his star studded cast to a 7 & 9 record! LOL not to mention his smallish hands = fumble-itis. theres a reason Chargers showed him the door

 

 

Right,

 

And those pics and few fumbles will over shadow his 5,000+ passing yards this year along with his 40+ TD's

[truth on hold]

Right,

 

And those pics and few fumbles will over shadow his 5,000+ passing yards this year along with his 40+ TD's

went over 5,000 for 1st time in his career last year ... record 7 & 9

[SteamRoller67]

Brees will not get rattled and force turnovers. Brees is a damn good QB. You blitz him and he finds the hot route or not blitz him and he picks you apart like a surgeon. Pick your poison he is that good! Bills get housed in this one!

 

Great analysis....

Did you realize there are three phases to football?

Drew Brees is awesome...top 3 QB in the game today. Does he play defense? Does he return kicks?

N'orlins might put 35 on the board, but the Bills offense, special teams and defense might put a combined 38 up......

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

Here's why they don't scare me.........they don't even know I exist!

So it goes.

 

 

 

Seriously though, they're just a bunch of guys. We have a bunch of guys too. If Fewell can get his DBs to quit playing 10 yards off the wideouts, and quit leaving the middle seam wide open for receiver/LB mismatches, we'll be fine. But really, the best defense maybe a ball controll offense. Time of possession hasn't exactlly been the Bills fórte so far.

 

I just want to point out that we finished the game against the Bucs with more TOP than the Bucs. It was only lopsided against Brady and company due to the a) heavy-footed 455 kicking they were receiving, and b) the fact that Tom Brady could not really get anything deep and had to dink and dunk all the way down the field.

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

Brees will not get rattled and force turnovers. Brees is a damn good QB. You blitz him and he finds the hot route or not blitz him and he picks you apart like a surgeon. Pick your poison he is that good! Bills get housed in this one!

 

Nobody has stated that Brees isn't good. It's all the other Saints players that aren't very good.

[manbeast]

true, it relies on good edge rushing, thats why colts need freeney. its why we need schoebel & co to have a good game (its too early to pin it on maybin.) brees can get rattled and cough up a lot of turnovers when pressured too, because a) hes small and lacks great vision when the pocket collapses and b) he tries to make things happen on busted plays rather than throw it away.

Sorry Philly blitzed the hell out of the guy and he ripped them to shreds. Although their secondary is not thet great. It's over rated.

[manbeast]

Nobody has stated that Brees isn't good. It's all the other Saints players that aren't very good.

We don't get crushed I do have us losing this one but we can win it will all be on the shoulders of our ST to win. We can't shut them down but they can't stop us either.

[FreakPop]

right, which is why he's already been picked twice this year against a couple of cup cakes! 17X last year while leading his star studded cast to a 7 & 9 record! LOL not to mention his smallish hands = fumble-itis. theres a reason Chargers showed him the door

 

 

and the Chargers were what? 8-8 last year. Please! Smallish hands, really, you know this? How? Nice try!

[K-9]

Little history lesson for you:

Shula and the 'fins had good teams, to be sure, but they also had the officiating crews in their back pockets - I have no doubt about that. None. Shula was on the rules commitee at the time, and I'm sure he was quite cozy with a number of the officiating brass in NY, and in the course of meetings or comferences, may even have thrown back a martini or two with members of various officiating crews. Wink wink.

 

I'm not paranoid or a conspiracy theorist nut, but if you were around to witness those 70s games, it was soooo obvious that any marginal calls always went in favor of the Dolphins. There were at least 2 Bills/Dolphins games during that 20 game streak that the refs decided in favor of the Dolphins. And I don't thing it was because of incompetance on their part - it was outright game fixing.

 

BTW - In case you don't know it, the much revered Don Shula is a bit of a dick.

 

If anyone has the tape of the HOF ceremony for Marv, just take note of the shittty look on Shula's face throughout the whole speech. That's right a-hole - Marv owned your ass for 10+ years. The last time you walked off the field as a head coach was in a playoff loss to Marv & Co.

 

I guess that bitter taste will forever linger in his mouth.

 

 

Back to the Saints.

Why be scared?

Maybe playing scared is contributing factor to losses. Winning teams usually have swagger. There, I said it.

 

Jerry Bergman says hello.

 

GO BILLS!!!