Hey guys, without replying to every post I'll just jot down some things that are often overlooked in these post mortems.
- focusing on formations, play calling, and "this players fault" at a macro level usually misses the issues. Putting Olave in motion doesn't really bring that much to his play, and having him do it even 50% of the time (or 25%) is going to gas him. He is great off the line and runs terrific routes. He's not a Harty who you are using on specific plays and want to keep him clean off the line. All overusing motion does is slow down tempo, and especially in a hostile environment, when you're going on a silent count, it is not the advantage it seems like (very hard to time that up when you're on a silent count).
- we think of scheme as this overt, visible thing, but a lot of times, on defense especially, it's just gaps. So when blitz pressure comes, it's less about "this guy comes from this direction and wins this battle" and more about gap alignment. OL rules are typically based on box count and gaps. Personnel can play in, but the thing the falcons did was attack the saints gap rules. Throw in a loud situation and communication issues, + a defense being very disciplined and sound in their pressures, and it becomes very difficult to pick it all up.
Overarching point is the "Jameis needs to work on his slants" / "Kamara needs to run fewer option routes" etc. generally miss the point. Kamara has busted big plays on option routes for years bc they work. One team gameplanning for them, or the situation/matchups dictating that they weren't working on a select number of plays, doesn't change that