If you were JH what would be you strategy to defeat saints?

ball control offense and take your shots--need to score TDs---then hope the defense can somehow stop the Saints enough times LOL

jcashen had some interesting thots. Mine are:

alex: no more than 2 second passes. That means snap it and sling it. N.O. is going to go with a box 8 initially, and until we get them to back off the LOS , bust their noses with
1 step passes, or no step passes. The point is get the ball gone ASAP, and have the WRs and TEs looking for the ball the minute they leave the LOS. Too often our receivers are NOT looking for the ball. Then, if N.O. backs off the LOS, run frank at them, go to 3 step drops, maybe 15-25 yd passes. The minute they crowd the LOS go back to 2 second passes, and no huddle 2 minute drill.

D: let Brees have time and he will kill us. use our 3+3 plus ALL DONE, and line the kid up anywhere and everywhere. I would play him every down except for punts,and would have him rush, bullrush, stunt with his DT nearby, and put a load of hurt on brees. Let the LBs cover for aldon, but get him in on every play. Also assign a sproles guy, or spy if you will and shadow that guy to death. IF he runs, the spy is in on tackle. IF he goes out for a pass, hold him up at LOS and shadow him like no one ever has.
Finally, don't just bump the WRs and TEs, hold them at LOS(legally) for 2-3 seconds, more if possible, and watch brees try and find his receivers.

Remember this team killed us with blitzes of 6, 7, and 8 guys, and they will try it again. Alex has to have ball gone the moment it touches his hands.

coaching: much as i admire Coach Harbaugh, Sean Payton is a better coach with more yrs in pros, and a SB to boot. He is probably the best coach in football. Beating him is going to take a monumental effort and a game plan that puts payton back on his heels. Then in second half, change tactics, because payton will have made changes according to first half. Our ST will surprise payton, assuming sproles doesn't run any back, and our change of possessions should gain us 20-25 yd per possession change.

Finally, if someone gets a good clean shot on brees, take it. Nothing illegal or nothing to hurt him, but a good rock 'em sock 'em type of hit. Rams figured out a way to do it, so we can too.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
jcashen had some interesting thots. Mine are:

alex: no more than 2 second passes. That means snap it and sling it. N.O. is going to go with a box 8 initially, and until we get them to back off the LOS , bust their noses with
1 step passes, or no step passes. The point is get the ball gone ASAP, and have the WRs and TEs looking for the ball the minute they leave the LOS. Too often our receivers are NOT looking for the ball. Then, if N.O. backs off the LOS, run frank at them, go to 3 step drops, maybe 15-25 yd passes. The minute they crowd the LOS go back to 2 second passes, and no huddle 2 minute drill.

D: let Brees have time and he will kill us. use our 3+3 plus ALL DONE, and line the kid up anywhere and everywhere. I would play him every down except for punts,and would have him rush, bullrush, stunt with his DT nearby, and put a load of hurt on brees. Let the LBs cover for aldon, but get him in on every play. Also assign a sproles guy, or spy if you will and shadow that guy to death. IF he runs, the spy is in on tackle. IF he goes out for a pass, hold him up at LOS and shadow him like no one ever has.
Finally, don't just bump the WRs and TEs, hold them at LOS(legally) for 2-3 seconds, more if possible, and watch brees try and find his receivers.

Remember this team killed us with blitzes of 6, 7, and 8 guys, and they will try it again. Alex has to have ball gone the moment it touches his hands.

coaching: much as i admire Coach Harbaugh, Sean Payton is a better coach with more yrs in pros, and a SB to boot. He is probably the best coach in football. Beating him is going to take a monumental effort and a game plan that puts payton back on his heels. Then in second half, change tactics, because payton will have made changes according to first half. Our ST will surprise payton, assuming sproles doesn't run any back, and our change of possessions should gain us 20-25 yd per possession change.

Finally, if someone gets a good clean shot on brees, take it. Nothing illegal or nothing to hurt him, but a good rock 'em sock 'em type of hit. Rams figured out a way to do it, so we can too.

Way too many times have I seen our WRs running long routes when we were getting blitzed and not looking for the ball or not coming back to the ball to help alex when scrambling. That needs to change. No need to be running all deep routes on 3rd and 4-5.... slants, screen, quick throws, jet sweeps, shotgun at times... pass out of jumbo and run playaction... too many times we ran when it was obvious...

You are right though... I expect them to come out stacking the box and forcing alex to complete passes. So then if he starts they will back off and then you run frank at them. They will be blitzing a ton and stacking the box a lot so the offense has to do what is appropriate to combat what is happening. Sounds like common knowledge but too many times we were stubborn this year by running when it was obvious or not calling appropriate plays/schemes when the blitz was getting us.

Originally posted by PROSE617:
After looking at the stats of that NO VS StL game I noticed the TOP....The Rams only had 3 minutes more of the ball than the SAINTS had...but then again....S.Jackson had 159yds rushing and TWO TD's....Brees was sacked 6 times in that game and threw 2 interceptions...he clearly does not like being touched....I would say our DEF is definitely better than the Lambs..dont you think??

This - Fangio has to take some unexpected blitz shots to hit Brees hard. Standard rushes do not phase him, he moves around in the pocket and buys time for deep throws too well. We also have to study the heck out of film to try and scheme some picks. That's a high stakes game though, because Sean Payton does a good job of self scouting their own tendencies and game planning some change ups to their offense.

Don't take unnecessary risks. Play the field position game. Take your points whenever you can.

Basically, what we've been doing all year. Don't turn the ballover, rely on our transcendent special teams, and get enough out of the offense.

Very nice ideas in this thread.....man, some of you sound like you could be OCs. :D

Defensively, I like to remind everyone that 15-20 years ago, WE WERE the very teams we are trying to stop now......the Montana, Young battleship teams that Brees & Rodgers are aspiring to be...

Anyways, a lot of similarities:

Great QB
Great WRs
Great TE
Great catching RBs

But also

Lackluster/average running game

So what did the New York Football Giants of 1990 and Green Bay Packers of the late '90s do to stop us?

A lot of nickel & dime defenses. From what I can recall, the 3-4 Giants went 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 and we couldn't run s*** on them. As far as the Packers in '95 or '96 I think it was either nickel/dime or effective zone defense.

We have the best run defense in football. Is it worth sacrificing a little bit of that run defense to have more DBs on the field? I'm not sure but if you run a 3-3-5, you could have Bowman & Willis in, with Aldon pass rushing, and an extra corner or safety.

There has to be pressure of course, which with Aldon makes it more of a 4-2-5.

If you want to shut down the run, you bring an 8 or 9 man front. If you want to shut down the pass you just need more DBs than LBs.

This formula I think would work better for the Packers & Patriots than the Saints since the Saints can run better and they have the advantage of Sproles.

Will be interesting to see what Harbaugh does.

BTW, about the comment about Payton vs. Harbaugh:

Payton might be more experienced, but I have no doubt in my mind that Harbaugh will want to win the game more and will go the extra mile. Harbaugh must have let out a big smile as the clock ran down in St. Louis knowing he no longer has to HOLD BACK.

:)

i have to masturbate first

The one where you score at least one more point than the Saints.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
jcashen had some interesting thots. Mine are:

alex: no more than 2 second passes. That means snap it and sling it. N.O. is going to go with a box 8 initially, and until we get them to back off the LOS , bust their noses with
1 step passes, or no step passes. The point is get the ball gone ASAP, and have the WRs and TEs looking for the ball the minute they leave the LOS. Too often our receivers are NOT looking for the ball. Then, if N.O. backs off the LOS, run frank at them, go to 3 step drops, maybe 15-25 yd passes. The minute they crowd the LOS go back to 2 second passes, and no huddle 2 minute drill.

D: let Brees have time and he will kill us. use our 3+3 plus ALL DONE, and line the kid up anywhere and everywhere. I would play him every down except for punts,and would have him rush, bullrush, stunt with his DT nearby, and put a load of hurt on brees. Let the LBs cover for aldon, but get him in on every play. Also assign a sproles guy, or spy if you will and shadow that guy to death. IF he runs, the spy is in on tackle. IF he goes out for a pass, hold him up at LOS and shadow him like no one ever has.
Finally, don't just bump the WRs and TEs, hold them at LOS(legally) for 2-3 seconds, more if possible, and watch brees try and find his receivers.

Remember this team killed us with blitzes of 6, 7, and 8 guys, and they will try it again. Alex has to have ball gone the moment it touches his hands.

coaching: much as i admire Coach Harbaugh, Sean Payton is a better coach with more yrs in pros, and a SB to boot. He is probably the best coach in football. Beating him is going to take a monumental effort and a game plan that puts payton back on his heels. Then in second half, change tactics, because payton will have made changes according to first half. Our ST will surprise payton, assuming sproles doesn't run any back, and our change of possessions should gain us 20-25 yd per possession change.

Finally, if someone gets a good clean shot on brees, take it. Nothing illegal or nothing to hurt him, but a good rock 'em sock 'em type of hit. Rams figured out a way to do it, so we can too.

I agree, especially on the part of being aggressive with the receivers. I'm still gonna pray for torrential rain though.

Originally posted by 49ercrusher:
Some zoners amazed me sometimes......

Yeah, I know.

Originally posted by SnakePlissken:
The Annexation of Puerto Rico...

Set difficulty to Rookie -> Field Goal Block -> Sacks -> Profit

I do it all the time in madden, its easy.

against offensive teams we have adapted to throw the ball more. im sure we'll be in pass mode against the saints just like we were with the giants this year.

I think you gotta play coverage. Having a good pass rush doesn't do as much as it normally does when Brees gets rid of the ball as quickly as he does. The Saints have only allowed 24 sacks in 686 dropbacks. Therefore I'm not even sure Aldon Smith gets a ton of PT. I'd run a 2-2-7 on obvious passing downs, even though that's unorthodox. Though the Packers a lot of the time had just Raji and Jenkins at d-line during the 2010 season when they won the Super Bowl, and Bill Belichick used to have all sorts of crazy formations. RayMac and J. Smith on d-line, Bowman and Willis at LB, and then in the secondary you got Rogers/Brown/Culliver/Goldson/Whitner/R. Smith/Spencer or Brock. As good as Jimmy Graham is, hopefully Pat will be feeling like himself again and we can just stick him on Graham all game. Bowman has to be responsible for Sproles or Thomas coming out of the backfield at all times. They combined for 1135 receiving yards and 8 TD's. I'd double Colston, assigning both Culliver and Whitner to him, while the other 5 DB's play a 2 deep, 3 under zone. Since the Saints oftentimes line Colston up isolated on the other side of the field than where Moore/Henderson/Meachem are lined up, we can often shift the strength of the zone and role the coverage to that side since we don't really have to have any zones covered with Colston with 2 guys playing man coverage on him. I just think the absolute key is Willis containing Graham...allowing fewer than 70 yards would be great. Maybe do some base, but plenty of our standard 4-2-5 on most 2nd downs as well as some 1st and 3rd, depending on the situation.

Aldon Smith....