Bernie Bytes: Saints Will Attack Bradford

Bernie Bytes: Saints will attack Bradford

BERNIE MIKLASZ
Thursday, December 9, 2010


* Unless the New Orleans dramatically shift from their normal strategy, the Rams and QB Sam Bradford will be under fire during Sunday's game at the Superdome. The Saints are a blitz-mad team under aggressive defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. It's safe to say that Bradford hasn't faced a team that blitzes as often as the Saints do. Let's take a look at some of the numbers:

-- The Saints blitz on 69% of third-down passes, which is the second-highest percentage in the league, with only the NYJ (73%) getting after it more on 3rd down. The Saints have 8 sacks on third-down blitzes.

-- On 3rd down with 7-10 yards to go, the Saints defense blitzes 75.5% of the time, which is the league's second-highest rate (after the Jets).

-- On 3rd down with 4-6 yards to go, the Saints have the highest blitz percentage in the NFL at 78%.

-- The Saints are aggressive on 2nd down, too. Especially 2nd down and 4-6 yards to go; they blitz 63 percent of the time.

What does this mean? Well, the Rams' offensive line and tight ends/fullback had better buckle up. They're going to have to be alert and effective to get a good read on the blitzes and also get a piece of the incoming blitzers.

The Saints get their share of sacks, but more than that, the objective is to rattle the QB and confuse him. Williams is unpredictable. You are never sure where it's coming from. Sacks and hits are great, but what the Saints want to do is to keep the QB off balance and disrupt the timing of the passing game.

And Bradford will have a chance to make plays. He's been good against the blitz this season, completing 59 percent with six TDs and 1 INT and a passer rating of 86.5 when defenses go after him with extra rushers. But Bradford has completed only 50 percent against the blitz over the last three games, so the protection and his need to sharpen up.

The Saints corners will give up some plays; Jabari Greer, for example, has allowed a completion rate of 57 percent and has been beaten for 4 TDs according to STATS LLC.

Bradford's favorite targets when blitzed are Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson. Against the blitz Bradford has attempted 28 passes each to Amendola and Gibson, completing to to Gibson and 19 to Amendola.

Bradford has exceptional poise.

But his calmness will be tested Sunday in Louisiana.

* Rams WR Danario Alexander could be a large target -- and an important one -- in Sunday's game at NOLA. The blitzes, the one-on-one man coverage, the hot reads. The DX Missile could do some damage.

Thanks for reading ...

-Bernie

Hope Bradford's practice consisted of a heavy dose of Chris Long, James Hall, and Fred Robbins. He'll need to learn to read blitzes more consistently when facing a tough Saints D.

wow, so basically the saints will try to do the same thing that the other 12 teams we've played this season tried to do.

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Originally Posted by Legion

wow, so basically the saints will try to do the same thing that the other 12 teams we've played this season tried to do.

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Exactly what I was thinking. We have a rookie QB, and ever wants to take advantage of it. Do it by blitzing and rattling him, although not many teams have been able to do it so far.

Bradford will see lots of one-on-one coverage on Alexander, I hope we can take advantage of that. I would like to see some shots deep this week, because I think big plays are going to be the only thing that give the Rams a chance. They need to do it early and often, because after the Rams get down by alot, those deep passing opportunities will dissappear.

I'd like to see more no-huddle offense Sunday, and put the Saints D back on their heels. It's our best anti-blitz scheme.

Maybe it's why we've only see it in brief snatches so far...saving it for the blitzmeisters! In fact, I don't recall using it at all last week.?

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Originally Posted by Bernie

Unless the New Orleans dramatically shift from their normal strategy

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I think the Sam and the St. Louis should be fine.

MACD has a really good point. A no-huddle heavy offense could work very well against the blitz heavy Saints. Unlike the Steelers' Dick LeBeau, Gregg Williams favors a man coverage blitz, so if we can consistently run the no-huddle, we should be able to tire the defense out. Without the ability of the defenders to settle into a zone coverage, they'll constantly be running around, and once they start to fatigue, we can exploit mistakes in the coverage. To get there though, means that we need to sustain drives with the dink and dunk method with a lot of Jackson mixed in.

I know I watch OU play too much....107 offensive plays against OSU, geez loueez...but it's hilarious to see the illegal substitution penalties pile up on the D. And I figure it saves the o-line between 700-1,000 yards in walking/trotting back to the huddle/back to the line of scrimmage in a single game. And that's a big reason the O stays fresher than the D line in that scheme. And the running yards pile up in the fourth quarter.

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Originally Posted by Legion

wow, so basically the saints will try to do the same thing that the other 11 teams (minus Denver) we've played this season tried to do.

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Fixed for accuracy

Rams will win, I think the Rams have something up their sleeves for this sunday!

The Aints were a better team last year, and the crappier Rams almost beat them. This year, we have a much better team...and if this game were in the EJD, I would put my money on Sam and the Rams to kick some aint butt.

As it is...I know it is going to be a game....and hopefully a really good one for Rams fans everywhere.:helmet:

One of the Ram recievers really has to step it up, to help Bradford. Hopefully someone does, so Bradford can get the ball out quickly. I doubt the Rams, will come out of their shells, on offense. So it will be a ball control, grind it out type offense for the Rams again.
The linebackers and secondary are a little banged up for this game, which isnt ideal.
But the Rams will try too keep the game close, and pinch it at the end.
GO RAMS

The Saints will no doubt blitz Sam alot thats a given and nothing out of the ordinary for the Saints.Our o-line needs to pick up the blitzes and keep Sam protected.Im expecting SJ39 to get a heavy workload to take some pressure off Sam with this being a big game and all.But with that said i think for us to pull out this game it will most likely be behind Sams arm.He has great poise and is very intelligent,doesnt turn the ball over much (lately especially).Take a couple shots downfield plus run SJ39 effectively and maybe we can keep the saints defense off balance.