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Saints makin' 'em dizzy
One of the real problems defending the Saints? Look at the huddle above. And count the players who, when it breaks, are liable to line up anywhere in the formation.
You got Reggie Bush. You got Jeremy Shockey. You got the tight-end-sized Marques Colton. You got problems everywhere.
When Bill Belichick talks about how the Saints create matchups, it's the malleable parts that allow New Orleans to find the ones they want.
"Everybody is going to be matched up on everybody, I’m telling you," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, with emphasis. "Shockey’s at the tight end, he’s flexed out, he’s out there on the outside. Bush is in the backfield and he’s in the slot, he’s outside. [Robert] Meachem, Colston – those guys are inside [and] outside – [Devery] Henderson.
"Everybody’s everywhere, so unless you just play match up and go out and find a guy, but even then they have so many different personnel groups you would have a different matchup because it’s not always the same five skill players on the field. Everybody’s going to be matched up against everybody at some point in this game. I don’t know how it’s going to unfold, but they move them around so much — that’s just what they do."
A couple interesting number you can dig up in this regard.
The Saints offense doesn't get credit for being as versatile as it is, across the board. Would you believe New Orleans is 21st in the league in pass attempts? Or that they've run the ball more times than the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans, and rank fourth in the league in rush attempts?
And one thing that makes the match-up game the Saints even more effective is the fact that the ball really can go anywhere. Despite how well New Orleans slings it, their leader in receptions -- Colston -- ranks just 35th in the league. They have eight players with at least 10 catches, and the four they have with 29-plus are the two receivers (Colston, Henderson), a tight end (Shockey) and a back (Bush).
Here's the way the personnel man I talked to for this week's Mid-week Report defined all this ...
“They beat you with (all the skill players) as a group, because those guys do it different way," he said. "You got speed with (Devery) Henderson and Meacham. You got the big guy, Colston. (Lance) Moore’s crafty, the tight ends. And they use them to beat you by doing things based off personnel groups, getting the ball to the matchup they want. They use (Reggie) Bush that way. They use the tight ends that way."
And that's without even talking about the fifth-ranked running game, which has shown such improvement over last year, when the Saints were 28th running the ball.
What does it mean for your defense? The players are going to have to be similarly flexible. They'll have to be able to cover different types of players, doing different types of things from play-to-play.
A headache, indeed.
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