The National Football Post’s Matt Bowen analyzes his notes from the Monday night matchup in New Orleans from a scheme perspective.
Big-play New Orleans offense
The two big plays the Saints had in the first half were a direct reflection of poor secondary play by the Patriots. On Devery Henderson’s 75-yard TD catch, we could all see that New England busted a coverage — and busting a coverage against Drew Brees always results in points. But what did the Pats do that left Henderson open down the middle of the field?
APDevery Henderson had a huge night for the Saints.
The Patriots were running a Nickel Fire Blitz — a common zone blitz run in passing situations. The nickel corner blitzes off the edge, and a linebacker or defensive end will carry No. 2 vertical to the deep middle of the field safety. But in this case, no one carried Henderson on the vertical, the outside corner sat on a deep curl, and the middle-of-the-field safety jumped an underneath route. A classic example of a busted zone blitz and a standard result — six points.
On the 38-yard TD pass to Robert Meachem, the Saints used max protection and ran the two-man “speedo” route, which consists of a deep crossing route with a deep post route over the top. This route, with the protection now to wait for it to develop, forces the free safety to choose — stay on the post or jump the deep crosser. Brandon Meriweather of the Patriots chose to jump the crosser, and left the post exposed — with the corner playing man coverage from an outside leverage position with no help in the middle of the field.
Two huge plays that could have been prevented if the Patriots’ secondary played its responsibilities and didn’t take gambles against one of the league’s best QBs in Brees.
Gregg Williams’ game plan
New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is known as a pressure coach, but he called this game with coverage principles in mind — often rushing only three and dropping eight into coverage when the Pats put Brady in the shotgun on passing situations. And that’s a standard against Tom Brady and the Patriots, but what Williams played on the back end usually isn’t. Instead of dropping eight and playing Cover 2 — which most teams do against New England to play a safety over the top of Randy Moss on the numbers — Williams used man coverage principles. Most often, the Saints played a version of “Cover 1 Robber,” where FS Darren Sharper played the deep middle of the field, and either a linebacker or an extra defensive back played a “rover” position — sitting 10 yards deep in between the hashes. What this did was allow the Saints to play man coverage with outside leverage — forcing everything to the middle of the field — and allowing Mike McKenzie to pick off Brady by jumping the underneath route. Because he had the help to do it with the “rover” sitting 10 yards off of the ball.
The New England variety
I’ve always thought that New England was tough to prepare for because of its ability to produce points and yardage from a variety of formations. Last night, we saw the Pats in Tank (2 TE, 2 RB, 1 WR), Kings (4 WR, 1 TE), Empty (3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB removed from formation) and, earlier in the game, Jumbo (1 WR, 3 TE, 1 RB) with an unbalanced line to go along with their standard pro sets. By doing this, it requires the defense to sub in and out multiple personnel packages of their own and study hours of tape, because you never know what you’re going to get, as the Pats change personnel on almost every snap of the game.
Brees’ production
APBrees tossed five touchdown passes on Monday night.
What is so special about Brees as a quarterback is his ability to put the ball where he wants it to go versus man coverage. Unlike the two big plays the Saints had in the first half, guys are covered at this level when they run routes, and only the best QBs can still complete passes versus that type of coverage. Watching Brees last night, it’s amazing how he can constantly throw the ball away from the defender, who has his back turned to the ball. Yes, give some credit to his receivers, who are taught to expect the ball to be thrown to their back shoulder versus man coverage, but is there a QB in the league that does this better than Brees right now? He owned that New England secondary, and finished 18 of 23 for 371 and 5 TDs — completing over 78 percent of his passes.
Combo coverage on Welker
Stopping Wes Welker on third downs has been as issue for every defense this season, and I wasn’t surprised to see the Saints play Cover 7 against him when he aligned in the slot on third-and-medium situations. Cover 7 is a combo — or double — coverage on the inside slot receiver. The nickel corner plays man coverage with heavy outside leverage, knowing that the strong safety will drive on any inside breaking route. And that’s exactly what Welker is known for on third downs. It is a classic option route. Welker sees outside man, breaks his route off inside, but the Saints had a safety to drive down and make the tackle on the catch — leading to fourth down. On the night, the Pats went 4 for 12 on third downs. Good preparation and film study by New Orleans.
McKenzie’s night
APBrady and the Pats have now dropped two big games in three weeks.
Mike McKenzie was basically signed off the street this week, and I was impressed with his ability to come in and play man coverage — especially off man coverage in Williams defense — which requires corners to sit at seven yards and flat-foot read any three-step route. None was bigger than McKenzie breaking on the out thrown to Randy Moss on fourth down in the red zone. He made plays all night.
Brady’s performance
From my perspective, Tom Brady looked confused most of the night — and I was surprised that the Saints secondary could shut down his playmakers. He didn’t have windows to throw to, he missed on deep ball opportunities, the Saints were able to take away his third down option in Welker, and even against the three man rush, Brady looked hesitant in the pocket. He finished the night going 21-36 for 231 and 2 INTs. The last pick he threw to Sharper looked to be out of frustration more than anything. Not what you’d expect from Brady — or the Patriots for that matter — in a game on a big stage.
Follow me on Twitter: MattBowen41
Very cool. I was shocked that the Saints could play man coverage against the Pats with only a three man rush. Thanks for breaking it down.
Anyone else think that the fact of Joey Galloway being a bust has hurt this team? They have no No.3 WR. Isiah Stanbuck?
I'll second what Greg said above. I learned more from reading this 5 minute article than from any halftime, postgame, or other TV analysis of last night's game. I enjoy reading and understanding the X's and O's of the game, and this type of article is spot on for me.
Keep of the great work, Matt!
Maybe we can bring Gregg up to Halas Hall to give Lovie some pointers on how to actually game plan instead of sitting in Cover 2 with a four man rush that couldn't stop a high school team.
No one is going to be beat Brees in the Superdome.
I haven't seen Belichick get out coached in a while. Sean Payton owned him last night. He had no answer for Brees and his secondary is awful.
Love these articles! It'samazing how little there is out there about the xs and os. Thanks for this Matt.
Looks like the University of Iowa education is paying off for Matt. GO HAWKS!!!!
Awesome stuff Matt! Thanks for the perspective.
Watching Sean Payton call a game is a work of art. It's almost like he was in the mind of the Patriots defense at every turn. A play that stood out to me was one where both Saints RBs split out to the flats, and Brees pumped right, then pumped left. Each pump took a linebacker in that direction, then the blocking TE released in the seam for a 17 yard gain. At that point, the Patriots defenders just shook their heads. Nothing they could do on this night.
If you are going to beat the Saints you have to basically force them to go on long drives, or least as long as possible. Concede the run, concede short passes but keep everything in front of you and avoid the big plays like that bomb to Henderson. The Warren Sapp version Bucs played the Greatest Show on Turf Rams this way in their famous cover 2 and had success. You have to have a good front four that can get pressure without help and basically hope that somewhere during a long drive Brees makes a mistake.
Bowen, good article. Thanks for the awesome scheme analysis.
Kevin - The Pats 3rd receiver is Sam Aiken, and he had a very productive night. 7 catches, 90 yards, and he was open on several deep balls that Brady missed on. I guess if you didn't watch the game, didn't look at the box score, and only heard about the game second hand from someone with a limited understanding of football, I could see how you'd think the lack of a 3rd receiver was a problem.
To continue the education, Matt, could you explain what flat-foot read on the three-step route means? Love the articles; keep 'em coming.
As a Pats lifer, I tip my hat to the Saints. They out-coached, and out executed the Pats. If this isn't the Pats' year (and since they haven't been able to win a statement game yet, I'm not overly optimistic) I will be rooting for the Saints to keep it up. That team plays football the right way.
To continue the education, Matt, could you explain what flat-foot read on the three-step route means? Love the articles; keep 'em coming.
Mike,
I will have more on the man-to-man techniques this week here at the NFP, and post a new scheme session as well.
But, as a corner, you don't get into your backpedal until you flat-foot read the three step game (out, hitch, slant) so you can drive down hill on the route from 7 yards in depth. If you get into your pedal at the snap then you cannot make a play on the 3-step game.
It takes a lot of confidence to do that against Randy Moss.
Matt-
Another excellent column - I really appreciate the perspective you bring to your analysis. A quick comment followed by a request for a future analysis:
To me, it seems that right now the Saints are an ideal combination of scheme, game-planning and play calling that plays to the strengths & covers the weaknesses of their personnel against a given opponent - something you would think is common place but is not.
As for the request, I'm neither a Jets nor Pats fan, but I consider Revis the best all-around DB in the league & Moss a top-5 receiver. As such, I'd love to see your analysis of the battle between them (and the public back-and-forth over), specifically the issue of Revis receiving coverage help.
Thanks for all you do!
Jack you're obviously a wannabe athlete but an absolute d-bag. Glad to know we have such experts in the NFP audience. Enjoy your life.
Kevin, sorry my reply was a little harsher than it needed to be, but it was honestly a bizarrely ignorant question. You're asking about the Pats 3rd receiver problem, the day after their 3rd receiver had a career game, and seemed to be the only guy getting open downfield.
I do enjoy my life as a casual athlete, though. Thanks for the well wishes. I hope you and yours have a happy healthy holiday season.
"I do enjoy my life as a casual athlete, though. Thanks for the well wishes. I hope you and yours have a happy healthy holiday season."
.......
Jack:
Careful to be politically correct even in an attempted insult. Happy Holidays? You just proved me right the first time...you are a TOTAL D-BAG.
PS...thanks for the apology anyway. Passive aggressive p*ssy.
Not PC, just inclusive. I don't live with a christ-centric world view, and I could give a flying turd what you celebrate so long as you celebrate something meaningful to you. Save the personal attacks for someone who cares.
Not to stray too far from football, Its worth noting that last night was one of the first times that both Moss and Welker were shut down, and while the loss was pretty painful, It was heartening to see that Aiken does have it in him to be a solid contributor in big games. The one 3rd down conversion after the half where Sam caught the ball 4 yards short of the sticks, broke a head on tackle and got clear for the first down was the type of play that will get him more and more targets in the future.
You don't live in a Christ-centric world view, huh? Aren't you "enlightened." If only everyone could go thru the same drug induced haze while taking multiple philosophy courses in college, we'd all be better off, right?
I'll pray for you Jack...obviously your d-bag'esque ways go far beyond what you write on a stupid football blog. Hopefully you haven't and won't reproduce.
PS...Merry Christmas to you, as*hole.
I'll take that as a final concession that your point about the Pats having no 3rd receiving option was completely incorrect.
Love it! Was it just me, or did Merriweather also bite on the long Colston catch?
And how much of this is on Merriweather and how much of it is credited to Brees for recognizing Cover 1?
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Dec 01, 2009
07:32 AM
I might have learned more in the past 4 minutes than in the last 4 weeks of reading other sites. Matt, if I could bottle this up, it would be my reading drug of choice each day, and well worth the addiction.