Saints’ goal: Don’t get gored by Frank Gore
 

Two weeks ago marked the most recent time the Saints felt they needed to stop just one player to give themselves an opportunity to win, no matter what else came their way.

But that day, they let the New York Jets’ Chris Ivory run for 139 yards and a touchdown, and they lost.

The Saints (7-2) don’t plan on letting the San Francisco 49ers (6-3) and running back Frank Gore repeat that trick Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. As far as they’re concerned, if they can clamp down on Gore and force Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick to throw down the field, the Saints believe they’ll be 8-2 when they begin preparing for their visit in just four days to the Atlanta Falcons (2-7).

“They just ... gore you with Gore,” Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan said. “That’s the biggest thing this week.”

Added safety Malcolm Jenkins: “We can’t have the Jets game where we allow them to just run the ball ... keep Drew (Brees) off the field ... and control the clock.”

No, the Saints can’t — not if they want to beat San Francisco after falling to them the past two years.

In their losses this season, the Saints gave up 141 and 198 rushing yards to New England and the Jets — an average of 169.5 yards. They permitted two touchdowns on the ground in each game, and their offense had the ball for about 29 minutes.

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Re: Saints’ goal: Don’t get gored by Frank Gore
 

Ivory wasn't the reason the Saints lost to the Jets.

I put that loss on the offense and the play-calling. Same for the loss in New England; although the refs not calling penalties like this will help!

We know that RBs will have their 'moments' against the Saints; Steven Jackson, for example, had a 44-yd? run and then he got shut down; there have been others.

I am not suggesting that we should just let him run wild this afternoon, but if the Saints can get a 10-14 point lead early that will force the whiners to pass more.