Saints-Chargers film review: Despite allowing 34 points, here's where New Orleans defense impressed in 2nd half (2 Viewers)

[guillermo]

From the article:

"-- Only one snap from linebacker Stephone Anthony, and none from rookie cornerback De’Vante Harris on Sunday. Both of those guys have slipped down the depth chart. On the flip side, the other rookie cornerback, Crawley, has been pretty solid. With B.W. Webb and Sterling Moore playing well, it might be hard for Harris to find snaps on defense. He was also only logged four snaps on special teams."

I know Allen and Payton brought Laurinitis to put the players in position, but he really is not the player he was two years ago. We really don't know how able is Anthony to communicate, but if he is surrounded by both Robertson and Ellerbe, then I think we can hide some of his liabilities.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Ellerbe returns, I think Robertson will be moving to the SAM and Laurinitis and Anthony may share time at the MIKE.

I still hope that Anthony is the MIKE of the future, I think he can be a good one, but he need athletic linebackers to play next to him.

 

[crosswatt]

I've been saying this since preseason. We do not have guys that can play zone defense in the secondary. For whatever reason, DA should be running strictly man and mixing up coverages based on man assignments. I know secondaries like to run zones as there is less running, but we just can't let a QB sit in the pocket and wait for a receiver to sit underneath in an open zone. Please please please continue to be aggressive playing man defense.

I think Payton's "take the gloves off of them" comment coming out of half time in San Diego was the point where the zone died for the foreseeable future. You're sitting at 1-3, and need to go on a very impressive run through some quality teams to even entertain the idea of reaching the playoffs.

Its 40/Love in the seventh set. They need to answer the bell and grip it and rip it and let the chips fall where they may. They need to go for the home run from the three point line in a two minute drill style scrum of a face-off in extra time.


(excessive and unrelated sports cliche's ftw)

 

[football]

I thought Nate Stupar did a fine job too. He has been very quick to ball. His plays have been impressive.

 

[bobad]

I would fear for his safety.

Nick better watch out for kettle bells.

Agree on Ellerbe. We need him. If he can play the rest of the games, this defense will have extra pop.

 

[bobad]

I thought Nate Stupar did a fine job too. He has been very quick to ball. His plays have been impressive.

I saw Stupar flying around like a mad dog, so I checked his stats. He had 8 tackles. He brings a touch of nastiness reminiscent of Bill Romanowski.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

From the article:

"-- Only one snap from linebacker Stephone Anthony, and none from rookie cornerback De’Vante Harris on Sunday. Both of those guys have slipped down the depth chart. On the flip side, the other rookie cornerback, Crawley, has been pretty solid. With B.W. Webb and Sterling Moore playing well, it might be hard for Harris to find snaps on defense. He was also only logged four snaps on special teams."

I know Allen and Payton brought Laurinitis to put the players in position, but he really is not the player he was two years ago. We really don't know how able is Anthony to communicate, but if he is surrounded by both Robertson and Ellerbe, then I think we can hide some of his liabilities.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Ellerbe returns, I think Robertson will be moving to the SAM and Laurinitis and Anthony may share time at the MIKE.

I still hope that Anthony is the MIKE of the future, I think he can be a good one, but he need athletic linebackers to play next to him.

I hope Anthony Stays at Sam and continues to cross-train at Mike. When Ellerbe returns I hope he's the will and I hope that Robertson continues to play at Mike and Laurinitis continues to work behind the scenes with Anthony.

Likely Laurinitis gets his starting spot back and Robertson goes back to taking Snaps on ST's and WLB where he and Ellerbe will probably rotate until Ellerbe is all the way back (or hurt again)

I like Stupar

 

[football]

I saw Stupar flying around like a mad dog, so I checked his stats. He had 8 tackles. He brings a touch of nastiness reminiscent of Bill Romanowski.

This is the reseason why I am against signing high price free agent. I like players like him and Robertson, who aren't big name players but good enough that can actually contribute to the team. They just needed the opportunity.

 

[Wheelo]

I think Payton's "take the gloves off of them" comment coming out of half time in San Diego was the point where the zone died for the foreseeable future. You're sitting at 1-3, and need to go on a very impressive run through some quality teams to even entertain the idea of reaching the playoffs.

Its 40/Love in the seventh set. They need to answer the bell and grip it and rip it and let the chips fall where they may. They need to go for the home run from the three point line in a two minute drill style scrum of a face-off in extra time.


(excessive and unrelated sports cliche's ftw)

I hope you're right. I think they were trying to play soft to cover up some weaknesses on the back end and realized they were hurting themselves more than helping. They'll definitely need to look for an aggressive approach shot on 18 for possible eagle.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

One correction that I'm not sure who is wrong on. Robertson was listed as the starter on the weakside and Stupar in middle.

They technically were both in the middle as the starting formation was a nickel package with three corners, so the designation may be moot. But just something I noticed.

Nabbed a screenshot. It's Robertson in the Middle playing as the Mike in base sets.


Yet in nickel Sets it makes sense to have him at the weakside spot due to his size. He isn't the greatest matchup against TE's so having Stupar line up on the strong side(technically the Mike) is Ideal. So yeah technically because its a nickel set he gets called the WLB but he really replaced Laurinitis as the Mike in base and Stupar replaced Laurinitis as the Mike in Nickel.


Interestingly enough on the 1st score I keep rewinding because I saw one of our Dlineman drop into coverage. This makes Robertsons error even more egregious becasue the Dlineman is dropping to the short middle. It was 2nd and 8 and the run fake froze him but he was obviously supposed to drop deep middle and the Dlineman rotated to the short middle. It was a designed 3man rush because 2nd and 8 is a definite/likely passing down. The run action shouldn't have frozen Robertson and he definitely should have been following his assignment 1st. He's got to trust that his teammates will make the play if its a run and pursuit to the ball will help negate the yardage. I added the 2nd image and circled the dlineman(red) dropping to where Robertson originally was at the snap.

Down/Distance intelligence keeps this from being a TD and if it was a run still sets us up for a 3rd and short at the very least. They are still meshing and will have to learn to play as a cohesive unit as the weeks get going and those mistakes should drop. Have to play within the defense and here Robertson was attempting to play Run & Pass and it bit him while everyone else played Pass. Prime example of 10 men doing the right thing and 1 not.



Edit: This gives me hope that Anthony is still in the plans. Thats why you want a 6'3 245 guy at mike because when he slides over in the nickel he can still matchup against TE's and its the reason why Stupar was there and not anyone else. Were waiting on the game to slow down for Anthony because that could have easily been him giving up that TD for the same reason. For now keep him at Sam.

 

[Domeination]

I've been saying this since preseason. We do not have guys that can play zone defense in the secondary. For whatever reason, DA should be running strictly man and mixing up coverages based on man assignments. I know secondaries like to run zones as there is less running, but we just can't let a QB sit in the pocket and wait for a receiver to sit underneath in an open zone. Please please please continue to be aggressive playing man defense.

It was a bad game plan by DA. Payton changed the scheme from cover two zone to man during halftime. Excellent adjustment, but going forward the defensive game plans need to be sounder. This team needs all the advantages it can get.

 

[meily]

From the article:

"-- Only one snap from linebacker Stephone Anthony, and none from rookie cornerback De’Vante Harris on Sunday. Both of those guys have slipped down the depth chart. On the flip side, the other rookie cornerback, Crawley, has been pretty solid. With B.W. Webb and Sterling Moore playing well, it might be hard for Harris to find snaps on defense. He was also only logged four snaps on special teams."

I know Allen and Payton brought Laurinitis to put the players in position, but he really is not the player he was two years ago. We really don't know how able is Anthony to communicate, but if he is surrounded by both Robertson and Ellerbe, then I think we can hide some of his liabilities.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Ellerbe returns, I think Robertson will be moving to the SAM and Laurinitis and Anthony may share time at the MIKE.
.
I still hope that Anthony is the MIKE of the future, I think he can be a good one, but he need athletic linebackers to play next to him.

They are wasting this kids talent by benching him for not producing at a position he was not drafted to play or played in college, for whatever JL brings with his experience I think Anthony is more valuable with his abilties and like you mention with Robertson and Ellerbe aside Anthony whatever he lacks in communication and checks, which he should be learning week in and week out in practice and didnt stop him from posting 100tkls as a rookie i think Ellerbe and Robertson can assist with that

 

[saintsmarchin]

See how soft we play when big daddy rankins and baby face breaux come back.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

It was a bad game plan by DA. Payton changed the scheme from cover two zone to man during halftime. Excellent adjustment, but going forward the defensive game plans need to be sounder. This team needs all the advantages it can get.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to play zone. Again as noted in my above post the 1st TD against C2 was the direct result of Robertson not doing his job.

If we play man on man and a guy can't do his job well against his man the same results would happen.

The other point is that the Chargers receivers are very inept. Nothing special at all...we played/switched to man and it worked because we were able to match up against them. Had we decided to do that against a better WR corps the outcome would have been no different.


Robertson doesn't get frozen from the PA and does his job that's at least a contested ball.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

They are wasting this kids talent by benching him for not producing at a position he was not drafted to play or played in college,

Not understanding your logic. He played MLB in college. He played MLB for us and was moved to SAM because he wasn't a good MLB. So how did we bench him for not producing at a position he wasn't asked to play?


If you meant he took fewer snaps them Mauti that doesn't count as a bench. That happend the 1st week as well then he came out against the Falcons and topped all the eligible SLB.


What you are seeing is guys that are better than him in coverage when playing teams that can spread you out getting the edge in snaps. When we go against a Run oriented team...he'll be right there in the thick of things. He's also still cross-training at Mike. Just not good enough to get guys aligned yet. Relax. Neither Anthony nor the Team deserves to be bashed at the moment.

 

[Zztop]

Only one snap for Anthony? What is up with that?