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

Play an extremely physical game on both sides of the ball. Make the Saints play the type of ball they don't understand. Hard-hitting, bone-crunching in-the-trenches type of play in all three phases will surely have their psyches and a__holes tight and out of their normal "fastbreak" style of play. And then every now and then, Harbs and Co. will throw in something totally opposite to gain large chunks and really throw the Saints D a curve.

Basically, play a game in which says to the remaining teams, "You DON'T want a piece of us!"

My 2 cents: don't let the Saints WRs have a free release from the LOS; disrupt their timings. Get some early hits on Brees, and keep pressuring him all game long. Watch out for Sproles at all time. We must pick up their blitzes and make them pay for blitzing. And even if we get a 10-point lead on them in the 4th quarter, don't let up. Keep going all out in all 3 phases of the game (yes, even on offense). I think JH tends to go into a shell too early in games where we have a lead, playing conservatively on offense and counting on the defense to hold the lead. Saints can score very quickly. Leads will disappear quickly against a team like that (heck, even the Rams almost made us pay for taking the foot off the pedal too early).

Short passing game, creative running game, ball control. Keep Brees on the sideline. Win the turnover battle. Victory.

Constant pressure on the QB (without the penalties), wear him down.

Originally posted by NinerGold39:
Constant pressure on the QB (without the penalties), wear him down.

everybody wants pressure but how many holes are we gonna be willing to create for brees to pass in to get pressure to him?? i say we sit with 3-4 rushing. we seem to get pressure with just that... and it works.. But as i usually say im not the coach just going off what ive seen.

The saints running game is more key than people give it credit for. Those guys run hard. If we can stop the run and keep the wideouts in front of our DBs then it's up to our LBs to clean up the middle of the field. It sounds simple. It probably is in concept but in practice it is difficult. Bottom line is you can't afford to have your safeties do anything in run support and your LBs have to be able to react and defend the pass. You also don't want drew brees moving alot. He changes the coverage with his feet often. He will force some balls as well. If we don't get burned we might get some picks.

From watching the game last year, the Saints killed the 49ers on the screen. Don't be surprised if they do it again if they ever play the 49ers. Furthermore, Alex Smith threw two interceptions and Baas had a horrible snap that caused the team a safety. I know it is different this year but I would like for the 49ers to watch those screens. Also, minimizing the turnovers is the key in this game. If the 49ers keep it to 0 TO, they have a chance winning this game. I'm not worried about the 49ers defense because they CAN STOP Drew Brees and they proved that last year on MNF. Pressure on Drew Brees and 0 Turnovers = BALL GAME 49ers move on to NFC Championship

Originally posted by letitroll:
From watching the game last year, the Saints killed the 49ers on the screen. Don't be surprised if they do it again if they ever play the 49ers. Furthermore, Alex Smith threw two interceptions and Baas had a horrible snap that caused the team a safety. I know it is different this year but I would like for the 49ers to watch those screens. Also, minimizing the turnovers is the key in this game. If the 49ers keep it to 0 TO, they have a chance winning this game.

The screen game is a huge part of the Saints offense, they run it with everybody, WR, RB and their TE. Our LBs better be ready

Originally posted by SundayTicket:

Originally posted by NinerGold39:
Constant pressure on the QB (without the penalties), wear him down.

everybody wants pressure but how many holes are we gonna be willing to create for brees to pass in to get pressure to him?? i say we sit with 3-4 rushing. we seem to get pressure with just that... and it works.. But as i usually say im not the coach just going off what ive seen.

Thats the trick... can we force Sproles and Graham to stay in and help with pass protection? If not there is no sense in blitzing cuz Brees will dump it to those two all day long and just chew us up... when the safeties start to creep up for the quick pass, boom... he gets a little time and goes over the top for the big play to any one of his very talented and FAST Wr's.

IF we can get pressure with 3 or 4 thats great... but really the best way to beat him is to have him sitting on the sidelines while we eat up clock by running the ball and not turning it over.

Originally posted by foundone:
Ball control is the the only hope we have against Saints, gotta do what we do best no turnovers strong running game and hellish defense. If we can slow the Saints offense down they will panic and make mistakes.

This.

We need long, sustained, clock sucking drives from the offense. This means a balanced mix of running and short passes. But they will take some shots because we need TDs to have a chance. Defense needs to bend but not break (make them settle for field goals) and get pressure on Brees.

Fortunatly, this is how our team operates. We don't turn the ball over. We take our time on offense. We don't give up big plays on defense and force opponents to beat us in the redzone (which we are very good at).

I think if we just play good football and execute well we will beat them handily. Prediction.... 34-27 49ers!

Originally posted by blm7754:
This.

We need long, sustained, clock sucking drives from the offense. This means a balanced mix of running and short passes. But they will take some shots because we need TDs to have a chance. Defense needs to bend but not break (make them settle for field goals) and get pressure on Brees.

Fortunatly, this is how our team operates. We don't turn the ball over. We take our time on offense. We don't give up big plays on defense and force opponents to beat us in the redzone (which we are very good at).

I think if we just play good football and execute well we will beat them handily. Prediction.... 34-27 49ers!

I don't know if they score more than 25 on 49ers' defense. I don't care how good their offense is. Call me crazy but I have a gut feeling this defense can do it all.

Originally posted by Pick6:
Thats the trick... can we force Sproles and Graham to stay in and help with pass protection? If not there is no sense in blitzing cuz Brees will dump it to those two all day long and just chew us up... when the safeties start to creep up for the quick pass, boom... he gets a little time and goes over the top for the big play to any one of his very talented and FAST Wr's.

IF we can get pressure with 3 or 4 thats great... but really the best way to beat him is to have him sitting on the sidelines while we eat up clock by running the ball and not turning it over.

You're right. Stick with 3-4 pressure and they will be fine. Drew Brees seems to not like the pressure. On MNF last year, he was not comfortable in the pocket. Plus, 49ers defense is much better now. Like I said, watch the screens and expect for Drew Brees to be trigger happy.

The 49ers are going to open that play book up in the playoffs, we will see a lot of different formations, more plays designed to get the ball out quickly, a lot of dump off plays, slants, screens etc. This is going to open up the deep ball opportunity's and widen the run game. The game on the 14th will start off slow for us like it always does but we will start see the 49ers passing all over the field.

On defense we wont change much, we will continue to rush 3 to 4. Every team we play in the playoffs will have a strong passing attack and most likely will play the Saints and against the saints you gotta have a lot of DB's on the field, so I don't see the 49ers really changing to much on the defensive side of the ball.

Whateva singletary did last year on Monday night wit out da mistakes. Dis is basically da same aints' we played last year wit da addition of sproles(whateva), which means they're a lil better. Well dis year we have two PWs' & AS, a better secondary win healthy for da most part, & a better DC(I think). Also even better than da D is da fact dat a.smith is protecting da ball better & IS capable of moving da ball jus enough to get da win. On top of all dat you add harbs as da coach, alllllsh!+! I see a win coming, I don't care what anyone says til da game is ova. Ooo harbs also has TWO weeks to game plan! C-Mon! now. W!

Say things like this to the media:


"We will stop Drew Brees."


"We will beat the Saints."