Saints vs. Raiders: Can New Orleans Improve the Run Defense in Preseason Week 3?

Last weekend in Houston, the New Orleans Saints defense looked a lot like the unit fans had become accustomed to in the first three years of Sean Payton's tenure as head coach. And even if that is a slight exaggeration, one cannot deny that they at least looked like they had little idea how to stop Houston's zone running scheme.

Of course, in recent seasons Carolina had run that scheme effectively versus the Saints defense. Any true Saints fan remembers DeAngelo Williams breaking free on the backside cutback past an over-pursuing defensive end—usually Will Smith.

Well, Arian Foster reprised Williams' role on that exact run play early in the first quarter for a 28-yard score. Much like those Williams runs, Foster ended up walking into the end zone practically untouched.

We must be careful to assume that one run–in the preseason of all times—is the end of any Saints championship aspirations. But it is clearly a concern for a defense that talent-wise is better than any unit the Saints have fielded since the Dome Patrol flew around the astroturf in the good ol' days.

It's because it wasn't just one run the Saints gave up. No they were ridiculed and made to look like a high school defense in trying to stop—heck even slow down—the Texans zone running game.

And that's why this weekend is so exciting for the Saints. They get another shot at it. No, Arian Foster and Ben Tate won't be the guys they're trying to tackle. Instead, it will be another pretty formidable duo—Darren McFadden and Michael Bush.

The Raiders have been one of the top running teams in the league the last few years—which has coincided with Hue Jackson running the offense. Sure the Raiders no longer have the offensive line expert who was responsible for producing those large running lanes, but it seems even the Raiders can't mess up a formula that has caused their offense to put genuine fear in defensive coordinators' minds.

I'm making a large assumption that Jackson has not canned the zone scheme, but if I'm correct then Gregg Williams and his unit really do get a second shot at figuring out the offense known for its cut blocks and cutback runs.

There's no doubt it's a challenging scheme to stop, especially when you're not game-planning for it (nobody game-plans in the preseason). But if the Saints are going to be a great defense, they're going to need to learn to stop the zone game.

Though no team in the division currently runs the zone scheme exclusively, all will use it enough so the defense will get shredded if it has no answer for it.

A few quick observations about what caused the struggles last week versus Houston:

- Defensive tackles Shaun Rogers and Sedrick Ellis were doing right in trying to get up the field in an effort to blow up holes. But on a number of occasions they found themselves overextending with their arms, thus losing their balance, and falling down. Therefore cutback lanes were opening up.

- Cutback lanes are to be expected with an inside zone play. That's where assignment responsibility comes into play. The backside defensive end must stay home and keep the runner inside so a linebacker can come up to make the tackle. But Smith and Co. were chasing too quickly, allowing the running back to cross their face. As good a player as Smith is, he's always struggled with this, which makes sense given that he's an aggressive player. As a veteran he needs to show discipline and know it's not necessarily his job to make the tackle on an inside zone play run away from him.

- Even with all this said, there should still be a linebacker, safety, or worst-case scenario a corner there ready to make a tackle. Well worst-case scenario is what played out all too often against Houston as Jabari Greer was the leading tackler. This cannot happen versus Oakland.

And now a few quick observations from Thursday's practice in Oxnard, CA which I had the pleasure of attending:

- In one-on-ones between the receivers and DBs, the two recovering starters—Marques Colston and Tracy Porter—were going head-to-head. Colston was routinely winning that battle. Some of that could be a testament to Colston's overall stature and natural ability. But to me it looked like Colston was healthy. I keep hearing rumors that he is not, but my two eyes saw a guy with little difficulty coming in and out of breaks and bursting past quick defenders.

- During a run-period, a skirmish developed. Both sides joined in making it a relatively calm mosh pit. For a team known for being classy—but sometimes soft—it was good to see that both offense and defense had some fire. 

- Two offensive starters—Carl Nicks and Lance Moore—were out of practice. Nicks was found doing conditioning drills off to the side, but Lance Moore was nowhere to be found. My guess is that Nicks will be held back this weekend, while I have no clue what to say about Moore.

- Once practice concluded, the whole tight end group came over to sign autographs, and all were very cordial and in fact extremely outgoing. Some of them were actually initiating conversations with the fans. Jimmy Graham was the least outgoing but still very friendly. It seemed he was more interested though in getting some extra work in with coach Terry Malone.