What happened in the game last night? (1 Viewer)

[Taker597]

I definitely want to see more 4 wide shotgun on 1st down. It's another way to snuff out these disguised blitzes and force to defense to spread out.

Run a copycat Mahomes offense and give Jameis the whole field to read more often, but not 100% of the time.

 

[TCUDan]

I think it has more to do with Ramczyk. He's our best run blocker right now so that's who we want to run behind when we need yards (when penning is back that may change or at least balance out). Ruiz is plenty athletic to pull around on power (we ran the QB sweep to the right too. And the Ingram 2pt play).

I think their success in the running game had less to do with our DTs and more with the home crowd + read option threat + solid gameplan. They were definitely winning the matchups up front but they basically ran 2 runs all game (inside and outside zone... You could even call that 1 run). They were just extremely sound.

Again, the saints made mistakes. But the falcons played VERY well. I think the tendency to boil everything down to personnel and play calling issues misses like 90% of what happened. It was really a gameplan that worked from the beginning vs a gameplan that didn't.

Maybe not 90%... But an overwhelming chunk of the circumstances that led to the early outcomes.

 

[TCUDan]

Ruiz is the R guard...


Taysom always runs right... It's weird

Yeah but the guard pulls on power. I think the implication was that Ruiz isn't reliable in that role.

 

[Taker597]

Yeah but the guard pulls on power. I think the implication was that Ruiz isn't reliable in that role.

Lol, I'm definitely still waking up.

 

[sammymvpknight]

I think that the Saints were thoroughly outcoached through 3 quarters. The Falcons went into the game with an identity on offense, and the Saints just didn’t. It honestly looked like the Saints we’re playing a preseason game. The Falcons are a bad team and it took a lot to go right to win that game. A win is a win…but the Saints cannot allow what happened yesterday to ever happen again, because they will lose that game 95% of the time again just about any other team. Have to get better at coaching and in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

 

[DomePatrol2005]

Ruiz is the R guard...


Taysom always runs right... It's weird

Does he

 

[TCUDan]

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

 

[efil4stnias]

But what I loved about the game was the grit the Saints showed at the end. I have been in games like this (I'll post a link to the highlights of one at the end), and this is 100% coaches preparing their teams for adversity. It comes from making practice hard, consistent messaging, and accountability. It comes from having players with the right character, who even when all is lost continue to play their butts off. No championship caliber team executes perfectly every game, but EVERY ONE OF THEM have this grit.

Outside of the Xs and Os you provide ( which i love ) i really like to focus on the "psychological" ( mental ) aspect and how a win like this starts to create a "belief" within a team that nothing cant be overcome. More importantly, as you pointed out, the PLAYERS and CHARACTER.

A win like this holds much more importance than a complete domination imo. Doesnt allow for complacency and starts to build on the mythos of "we are never out of it until 0:00"

I loved that win more than had it been a blow out ( then having to defend against "eating the cheese ). I think it woke Lattimore up as well seeing as his 15 yd PF could have cost us a win.

Good stuff Dan.

 

[2024InjuryApocalypse]

Hey guys.

I'm working through the film and will provide a more thorough analysis in the next few days, but I just wanted to offer my coach's perspective on what happened last night.

For starters, it's important to understand the environment that the Saints walked into. This was a very hostile away game, where the crowd was insanely loud (to me, at least, it seemed louder than usual). When it comes to pressure (both the defense applying it and the offense mitigating it), that already heavily favors the home team. So any issues the away team is having will be compounded by this factor.

In terms of the pressure Winston was facing, the Falcons were bringing it from guys who were not in the count. A lot of times this comes from a safety or a corner, particularly if they're apexed (aligned outside the box) or a little deeper than the LBs. There were a couple of occasions where I saw the OL slide and get 4 on 3, but a 5th defender would show away from the slide (which means he was unaccounted for) and often on a delay. He'd get through untouched. Again, this is exacerbated by the crowd noise and nature of being the away team in a hostile environment, which makes communication very difficult.

It also comes down to gameplanning. When you prepare for teams, you don't have time to prepare for every single possibility. So you look at tendenceis and situationals. How do they usually match up vs. different formations and personnel? Where does the pressure come from? Which players are better at what? From what I could see--on BOTH SIDES of the ball--the Saints got something they didn't gameplan for.

This. Happens. Usually because a team is methodical when it comes to self-scouting. Part of gameplanning is trying to assess how your opponent will gameplan--what they will expect--and giving them something else.

I do have criticisms. I felt like the playcalling in the first half--really the first 3 quarters--wasn't intentional enough. There are a few ways to slow pressure. One is to run the ball well, and the other is the screen game. I would have liked to see a couple of screens mixed in (there was one but it was poorly executed). And in general, I just felt that what the Saints were doing out of their base, on both offense and defense, was a little flaky and not intentional enough.

Again, this happens. It doesn't mean that DA or Carmichael or anyone else is in over thier head.

But what I loved about the game was the grit the Saints showed at the end. I have been in games like this (I'll post a link to the highlights of one at the end), and this is 100% coaches preparing their teams for adversity. It comes from making practice hard, consistent messaging, and accountability. It comes from having players with the right character, who even when all is lost continue to play their butts off. No championship caliber team executes perfectly every game, but EVERY ONE OF THEM have this grit.

Personal anecdote: In 2017, my team had the #1 offense and #1 defense in the league. We went undefeated. In the semi-final game, a game we were expected to win handedly, we played 3.5 terrible quarters of football. Were shut out. It was raining, it was messy. We had too many penalties. Everything just seemed to go wrong for us while everything they did seemed to work out.

The whole time, we stayed calm on the sidelines, and I told my guys to be ready when the opportunity to win arrived. Down 2 scores, we came alive with less than 7 minutes left in the game and won.

Watching the Saints last night, I was reminded of that game. And when we won it, I knew there was no way we'd lose in the championship (and we didn't). Now this is just game 1 for the Saints and it is certainly unsustainable to dig yourself out of a hole, every week, and expect to win... so they will have to clean up their mistakes. But if nothing else, last night convinced me of the character of this team.

Here's the game, in case anyone was curious. It was the national semi-finals in Brazil.

Do you feel playing out of the shotgun is a better fit for Jameis' skillset as well as to cover up the weaknesses in our OL (I get your points about gaps and crowd noise, but it sure seems like Ruiz gets beat a lot in passing situations regardless of where he is playing)?

 

[TCUDan]

Do you feel playing out of the shotgun is a better fit for Jameis' skillset as well as to cover up the weaknesses in our OL (I get your points about gaps and crowd noise, but it sure seems like Ruiz gets beat a lot in passing situations regardless of where he is playing)?

No I think that it's a bit of an overblown take. The reason why he looked better out of gun was they were going up tempo. If Jameis had serious issues under center they would have been identified long ago. They aren't just suddenly going to pop up in his 8th year.

 

[platinumvinnyv]

I think it has more to do with Ramczyk. He's our best run blocker right now so that's who we want to run behind when we need yards (when penning is back that may change or at least balance out). Ruiz is plenty athletic to pull around on power (we ran the QB sweep to the right too. And the Ingram 2pt play).

I think their success in the running game had less to do with our DTs and more with the home crowd + read option threat + solid gameplan. They were definitely winning the matchups up front but they basically ran 2 runs all game (inside and outside zone... You could even call that 1 run). They were just extremely sound.

Again, the saints made mistakes. But the falcons played VERY well. I think the tendency to boil everything down to personnel and play calling issues misses like 90% of what happened. It was really a gameplan that worked from the beginning vs a gameplan that didn't.

100% agree. The one thing that was frustrating reading through many of the comments is that most were trying find faults in saints players, and not give credit to falcons. Falcons really had an amazing plan through most of the game. Their biggest flaw to me and with many of their games is I feel they celebrate too early where they appear to lose focus.

 

[TCUDan]

No I think that it's a bit of an overblown take. The reason why he looked better out of gun was they were going up tempo. If Jameis had serious issues under center they would have been identified long ago. They aren't just suddenly going to pop up in his 8th year.

Like there are certainly advantages to going shotgun vs under center and vise versa. But that's not something specific to Jameis. There are very few QBs who make it in the NFL if they cannot play under center. It literally is goes into their draft evaluation.

Going shotgun is being miscredited as the answer for the offense coming alive (as is the personnel, going 11 the entire time). The answer was they went up tempo and that leveled the the field a bit vs the pressure. The defense didn't have time to get in pressure calls, put in substitutions, etc. They went into reactive audibles.

Naturally the response to that is gonna be "why dont the saints go 2-minute, no huddle all the time then". It's a better argument than only going shotgun or only playing with one personnel grouping because no-huddle base offenses are pretty common in high school and college. But there are answers for them too, especially at the NFL level, and honestly... Play calls are simply too long and verbose to call everything at the line.

The saints will have games where they go lighter personnel with 3 or 4 WRs for more snaps. And there will be games where they run a lot of 12 and 22 and tight end/back heavy personnel. This is a necessity in the NFL. Offenses have to multiple, so narrowing it down like that almost becomes cherry picking with "I want to see more Chris Olave and MT and Juice" = only that works.

 

[Belfast Saint]

Just to note, had a look at Ruiz quickly this morning before work. Not sure I understand the criticism of Ruiz in respect of the blitz. He played well for the most part I thought, the exception being a sack/half sack given up against Grady Jarrett when he was lined up in a 3 tech. Simply put, he got beat - good play by Jarrett. Ruiz got his hands on Jarrett ok, but perhaps placement could have been better. Jarrett got a paw on the back of Ruiz's shoulder pad and pull/swam. Ruiz needed to extend left arm (but required the right placement) and failing that, drop left leg, redirect hips, right arm on Jarrett's hip and drive and hope for the best.

The only other negative I saw (without doing a lot more analysis) was on a late blitz. There was a OLB stacked over DE, and a 1 tech. Looked like the protection was rolled to the 1 tech, but he rushed hard over the center and Ruiz adjusted late to the blitzer coming from his right after moving to his left for the 1 tech. He just about got enough on him. Without knowing fully what was called and what expectations are, it felt like he made a really good adjustment to a situation where the protection call could have been better.

We didn't deal with the blitzes well at all - that's partially down to OL. As Dan references, play calling as well as having quick options/ Hot reads helps, calling protections the right way, RB's blocking, and QB pulling the trigger quickly all plays into managing the blitz. As a case in point, one of those free blitzers coming from the left, Kamara went out on a route, saw the blitzer and tried to re-direct, but it was too late by then.

 

[TCUDan]

100% agree. The one thing that was frustrating reading through many of the comments is that most were trying find faults in saints players, and not give credit to falcons. Falcons really had an amazing plan through most of the game. Their biggest flaw to me and with many of their games is I feel they celebrate too early where they appear to lose focus.

The falcons played extremely well and then finished poorly. They didn't have an answer ready for the Saints juicing up the tempo. If I could give the saints some credit in the first 3 quarters, it was that they kept the score relatively low despite really getting dominated between the 20s.

 

[Usmfan84]

Great post from the OP

My concerns: Ruiz and Peat struggled when the defense blitzed yesterday. They looked confused at times. The trajectory of the football from Lutz on a few FG's was low. I'm surprised they didn't get blocked.

Good things: The signing on Jarvis Landry in the offseason paid off.

Did Peat struggle? I could be wrong but I thought he had a great day. I thought it was Hurst and Ruiz that struggled. From what I saw, Peat was having himself a game. I could be wrong because it's hard to identify who is at fault during some blitzes.