2020 offensive strategy hypothesis (1 Viewer)

[Champ8]

For this thread, let’s not argue over whether Brees can “throw” a long pass or not, that’s been discussed in other threads and can be argued there.

I have a hypothesis that the Saints 2020 offensive strategy is setting up the defense for a championship run.

Here’s what I observe:

We all liked seeing those deep passes to Devery Henderson and Meachem back in the days. Those were quick strike offense days, upside is we scored and scored fast. Downside is we sent the defense out there fast and left them gassed.

This year it’s possible Sean Payton is purposely creating an offensive to methodically move down the field versus going for splash plays.

Take for example our time of possession I manually calculated:

• Saints 2020 TOP 265:22
• Opponents 2020 TOP 228:55
• *If you remove our 2 losses, Saints are 213:20 versus 161:37. That is huge!

So the offense is focused on:

1. You take Drew’s strength of accuracy and keep it at a high level by throwing more short passes that have a higher probability of completion and get yardage to help move the chains.

2 You take your chances on Kamara with screen passes to get a few yards here and there while moving the clock.

3. You use your run game and hope they pick up an average of 5 yards per carry (Kamara at 4.9), so a couple runs can hypothetically get you a first down each time. All while moving the clock.

Now suddenly you see stats like:

• Saints offensive plays 73 versus Bucs’ 46
• Saints offensive plays 67 versus Panther’s 43

You listen to that Brees interview on the Rich Eisen show and when asked about the long ball, you hear him say “If the opportunity is there, and that’s what it takes to win, then that’s what we’ll do”.

The long ball may be in the game plan for a game this year, but in general I see a trend developing with us “wanting” to methodically move down the field.

This points to the Saints 2020 offensive philosophy asking Drew and the running game to keep things short for the long game. We may not score 40+ points, but we don’t need to if we keep the opponent’s offense off the field along with our defense off the field.

Let’s finish strong on the second half and win!

 

[St.Dan]

In general, this has been the strategy since 2017. More complimentary football while still being one of the league's best offenses.

 

[AARPSaint]

Take for example our time of possession I manually calculated:

• Saints 2020 TOP 265:22
• Opponents 2020 TOP 228:55
• *If you remove our 2 losses, Saints are 213:20 versus 161:37. That is huge!

So the offense is focused on:



Now suddenly you see stats like:

• Saints offensive plays 73 versus Bucs’ 46
• Saints offensive plays 67 versus Panther’s 43

The parts of this post that present the argument are solid in my view. But I left them out of my response so that the raw numbers can really stand out.

So long as the Saints don't fall behind an opponent by a lot of points, this kind of methodical offense will work. Even so, if the Saints do fall behind by a big margin early enough in the game, and the defense can hold on, the strategy can STILL work. A two or three score deficit in the fourth quarter would present a problem-- but then again, that scenario would pose a problem for any team.

 

[St4ever]

You make great points here.

I would like to add that with Drew’s uncanny accuracy percentages you have a higher chance of moving the ball down the field throwing, than running. We’re all familiar with the term, run to set up the pass, but under SP and Drew we have been a pass to set up the run offense.
I agree that this offense allows our defense time to rest. While it’s great to see long fast scores it’s also great to see long, time consuming drives. This is why I have never said one thing about Drew’s arm strength. We have a 70+% chance of running the clock when Drew throws the ball, that’s more then any other QB in the league!

im still of the mind that Drew still plays 1-3 more years.