Black & Gold Xs & Os: The New Orleans Saints' Defensive Gameplan vs. Buffalo

When Dick Jauron fired Dick Schonert a week prior to the beginning of the season for having too many formations and too many plays, we all were thinking Buffalo was in trouble. Since then, Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt has simplified the offense greatly while keeping the no-huddle aspect.

The thing nobody saw coming was this move resulting a more productive offense. In this day and age, the most successful offenses are the ones with the most sophistication (but of course they must be well-executed).

The truth is the Bills are about as complicated offensively as a modern high school team, yet they are moving the football and scoring points.

The main reason for this is that with two stud receivers outside, the running game is opened up. But likely that will change. After last week's 167 yard performance, teams must focus on RB Fred Jackson.

Let's investigate further what the Bills do offensively, and then figure out what Gregg Williams is going to try to do stop this suddenly potent offense. 

Personnel

The Bills have three stars on offense: Terrell Owens, Lee Evans, and Fred Jackson. After them, Josh Reed and Roscoe Parrish are good slot receivers who provide versatility and speed to stretch the defense.

The Bills are thin at the tight-end position. They may be down to third-stringer Derek Fine and former practice squad member Stupar (not sure of his first name). They also lost one of their starting linemen in Sunday's game, so they are really stretched thin on the line.

At quarterback, Trent Edwards has shown some improvement from the past few years, although he is still a relatively slow decision-maker who has a propensity to force some passes into coverage. He is a good athlete and likes to get to the outside and make things happen. But he never steps up into the pocket to scramble.

It is also notable that the Bills are starting two rookies on the offensive line, and although they are very physical, it is an inexperienced group in general who lacks any significant continuity (in my opinion the most important element to successful line play).

Formations

As I noted above, the Bills are relatively simple in what they do. They showed only 13 different formations in the game against Tampa Bay, although that doesn't count flipping the formation to the opposite side.

They do not have a true fullback, and, in fact, never line anyone up in such a formation. Occasionally they will put a tight end back there when they're lined up in the shotgun, and that's the closest thing they get to a two-back formation.

They like to run two-tight end sets, but they may be limited in that this week due to their difficulty to keep players at that position healthy. When they go with this personnel grouping, they generally use a wing formation (line them both up on the same side of the formation next to each other with one about a yard back and to the side) and keep a receiver on the side of the wing making it a 3x1 look.

In their other base personnel group—three receivers, one tight end, and one running back—they are a little more diverse. From this, they'll go under center and in the gun.

They'll use 3x1 and 2x2 formations with the tight end lined up on the line. They are still a threat to run from these setups. They also like to use slot motion into the backfield from the three-receiver side (generally it is Roscoe Parrish, although it could be Reed as well). 

Finally, they'll stay with the 11 personnel (three receivers, tight end, and running back) but go empty. From this, they have two formations—one where the tight end lines up inline, the other he becomes a slot receiver. They have not shown any kind of QB run yet from this formation, or any version of the wildcat, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

Play Concepts

From their two-tight end formations, they really like to run a toss sweep to the strong side (the side with the two tight ends). They pull the playside guard to get up into the hole in an effort to get the running back to the second level. They ran this several times to both sides against Tampa Bay.

Also from this formation they like to run the inside zone, where they slant the line to the side of the handoff. Jackson, or whoever is running the ball, has the option to find a hole in the direction the linemen are slanting or can cutback against the flow, which against a crashing aggressive defense like the Saints is generally going to be wide open.

They bring the winged tight end across the play to cut off the backside defensive end to create that cutback lane.

From this play they set up a bootleg rollout where that tight end becomes Edwards's main option, although they'd love to throw that ball deep as well.

Their really isn't a lot to their passing game in general. The outside receivers vertical routes about 60 percent of the time. Sometimes they will have their slots and tight ends run vertical routes, and bring T.O. or Evans back under on crossing routes to get those guys the ball in space.

On most pass plays, the slots have an option route where they can run inside or outside. They basically read the safety nearest them and run away from them.

One interesting trend (perhaps) is that they try to be unpredictable by throwing on seemingly obvious running situations, and running in what seem to be passing situations.

What the Saints Must Do Defensively to Stop This Offense

In many ways this will be the simplest defensive gameplan Gregg Williams puts together all year. It should be a gameplan rooted in fundamentals. My theory is that the Saints defense is more talented man-for-man than the Bills offense. And since the Bills are a fundamentals team, the key is execution.

Therefore keep it fairly simple and the day should go pretty well.

The Bills tend to keep the same personnel in for an entire series, meaning the Saints can commit to defensive personnel immediately and ride that group for an entire series.

The biggest question is how to match up with the Bills 11 personnel grouping (three receivers). Frankly, there is nobody on the Saints starting defense who can match up man-to-man with Josh Reed or Roscoe Parrish in the slot.

However, Randall Gay certainly could do at least an adequate job. Therefore, I would expect to see a lot of nickel package being used this weekend. The only issue is that this weakens the run defense.

Therefore, I move Roman Harper up in the box to play almost as a third linebacker. Then I would play One man and Cover Three in the secondary primarily. That way I always have an equal number to defend in the run game and a man advantage to defend in the passing game.

My linebackers can easily play the tight ends in coverage, so I allow them to man up with those guys.

From a pressure standpoint, I'm not going to worry too much about blitzing (starting to sound like a broken record, which is funny since I love to blitz). Tampa Bay got ample pressure, and you could even say more pressure, when they simply rushed their four down linemen.

They were able to do this by using stunts, twists, and games. That being said, I would mix in some zone blitzes, especially on 3rd-and-short.

As far as playing the inside zone, I would really preach staying in lanes and playing gap-assignment football this week. Stay in your lane, don't try to do someone else's job. That way you are ready for the cutback run. The backside must stay at home and play contain, including the weakside linebacker (Scott Shanle).

This is also important when playing the inside zone against the three-receiver set when they'll bring that receiver across to make it look like a reverse.

Summary

Buffalo is a simple offense. If we out-execute them, we should win. The key objective really is to make a wall around them, both versus the run and the pass. Do not allow Edwards to scramble outside; keep him in the pocket. Against the inside zone, same thing. Keep him inside where Roman Harper can come up and make the play.

Even if Buffalo shows something new this week, it likely will stay the same throughout the game, so it will not be hard to adjust to. Gregg Williams should be able to adjust in time to fix things for the rest of the game.

And oh yeah, their passing game is a vertical game, so at all cost, don't get beat deep. The prevent-style defense can actually be very effective against these guys.