What happened in the game last night? (2 Viewers)

[dankdouglas]

Thanks Dan for you insight.

Who is making the protection calls?

It seems that the line is not necessarily getting physically outplayed or over matched. It seems like they aren't sure who to block. Reminded me of last year when, was it the Panthers?, who used the same blitz 3 times in a row and was never corrected. I feel like that would never happen with Drew behind center. Having a coach on the field is invaluable. But having JW's arm strength can sure help when you need quick points.

 

[limeyjohn]

Would just like to add that Sean Payton said when on radio earlier that O-line play across the league was terrible yesterday
Hopefully we can get better as the season goes on

 

[Judge_Smails]

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.

To me you don’t have to go shotgun, you just need more effort to spread their back 7 out to more easily make the right pre-snap read and force them to defend more of the field even if protection breaks down and the QB get pressure early.

You can put JW under center and run 12 personnel and still spread the formation out and still run the ball or attack the whole field quickly.

 

[Mamba]

Gotta say. I just re-watched the game carefully, replaying numerous plays. If there was any weak link on the line, it was Cesar Ruiz. Hurst did just fine. We certainly helped him a decent amount. But Ruiz whiffed in pass-blocking badly twice which contributed to the ending of two drives.

 

[Que Que 6]

Oline communication seemed really bad but situational awareness seemed really awful as well.

It is as though the Oline was only aware of their own responsibilities and had no idea what backfield protection they were getting. On one play Hurst gives up a sack because he leaves his man to pickup a late outside pressure that Kamara can easily chip and as Hurst kicks out he runs over Kamara. The guy he tried to hand off to Peat (who was already busy) got the easy sack.

Sadly, this is accurate.

 

[VPCajun]

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.
...

What's your take on how well the Honey Badger played?

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I would caution anyone about reading too much into this performance.

1) Most hated division rival
2) On the road
3) First game of the season.

I think we'll see improvement on both sides of the ball b/w weeks one and two, though I expect the game to be another nail-biter.

No no
It’s our god given right to have amnesia about the way all teams start a season
And specifically the way the saints struggle out of the gate the last decade or so

 

[sfidc3]

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.

Hey coach, thanks for all the great info and analysis, it is most appreciated. Above kind of echoes what I posted in an earlier thread (a Jameis thread to be exact)….

I think Jameis deserves some credit here for protecting the ball, sometimes it’s not the plays they don’t make when things are going bad, it’s the mistakes they don’t make that can make a real difference. A INT or fumble in the 1st half could have very well led to a Falcons blowout….as poorly as JW and the offense played in the 1st half it could have been way, way worse….

 

[TCUDan]

What's your take on how well the Honey Badger played?

I thought he came up big on a few plays but much like the offense, the entire defense struggled in the first 3 quarters. I'll have to see after I watch the film.

 

[Usmfan84]

He was awful. He let a free rusher through because he decided to block a guy who was already getting double teamed…

Watch the game winning kick highlight. We’re lucky it wasn’t blocked the guy blew right through Peat.

I know of one play where he doubled up a rusher. He had no idea about that blitz. I thought that was AK's job to get that 5th rusher. So I watched a few more highlights then went and checked PFF out of curiosity. Peat did struggle some. He had a few series where he has fine but overall a pretty subpar game. Not awful and not good.

PFF Grades:
Hurst- 75.7
Peat- 50.5
McCoy- 72.1
Ruiz- 46.3
Ram- 77.2

So in true fashion, Ruiz is the weakest link..again.

 

[JackDiesel]

I know of one play where he doubled up a rusher. He had no idea about that blitz. I thought that was AK's job to get that 5th rusher. So I watched a few more highlights then went and checked PFF out of curiosity. Peat did struggle some. He had a few series where he has fine but overall a pretty subpar game. Not awful and not good.

PFF Grades:
Hurst- 75.7
Peat- 50.5
McCoy- 72.1
Ruiz- 46.3
Ram- 77.2

So in true fashion, Ruiz is the weakest link..again.

There's about one play a game where Peat is looking back at the QB as the guy he's supposed to be blocking sacks him. Ruiz had that same play with Jarrett.

 

[saintmike23]

I find it funny that the Falcons signed 33 year old Casey Hayward in the off-season to bolster their maligned secondary and he’s the player who got torched by Jarvis Landry for big gains at the end of the game. Hayward had a good career with one season leading the league in interceptions but yesterday he just gifted catches to Landry with bad technique. So bad that I thought he was playing zone but the Falcons were in cover 2 man on Landry’s big catch.