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

[DJ1BigTymer]

I'll also add that the 1st 2pt play was brilliant. The 2nd was very questionable.

No need to be too nice here, that 2nd one was horrendous!!! At least run an option play, that was a straight off tackle run.

 

[DSnfla]

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.

Even Deuce said it was AK's fault on that

 

[Lazarus]

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

Dan Thanks again I understand the Falcons Defense self scouting and attacking in a way we weren't ready for our pass pro and our play calls on offense were woefully inadequate until we went up tempo.

The Defense bothers me I didn't see anything in the Falcons game plan I wouldn't expect from an Arthur Smith team Heavy on the run utilizing some RPO and attacking with play action. We're we on a bad scheme or did the players fail to execute?

Thanks

 

[Lazarus]

Again, a lot people trying to point out that Peat was bad or Ruiz was bad or Jameis was bad... Guys, the entire offense was struggling. The defense was very effectively using the crowd noise, their own alignment, and just sound disciplined play to expose the offense and prevent them from doing what they wanted to do. Jameis did take some of those sacks and probably prevented turnovers in the process. As much as it was frustrating at times, it probably kept the game from getting away from the saints and gave them a chance to come back and win.

A lot for pontificating about Winston's past turnover issues without acknowledging that he is playing very, very smart and protecting the ball in situations where he would've previously tried to do too much.

In terms of communication errors, it is nearly impossible to determine from the outside who was doing what. All i can tell you is that communication was definitely an issue. Both units struggled and were being outplayed by the units across from them.

Can't Help Dan the haters gonna hate people here got it in for some of the players and there's no reasoning with them

 

[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.