Saintaintso

One thought about the World Champs tonight. Nasty.

They play smash-mouth , Deacon Jones , in your face tenacious style football. Something this league hasn't had to deal with for decades. Well , Behold. Their Offense is very Gimmicky , but guess wrong and 6 is on the board. They're routinely used to forcing 3 and outs. Look at the fans faces , Carroll as well. They've grown to accept this as norm. It's nothing to them. No Joy over getting the offense the ball back. Just another day at the office for them.

Cocky sons a guns. But Vulnerable.

Here Is How They Win. In Understanding That , We Find The Way to Beat Them.

1. They Play it safe. Keep Everything in front of them. They let the opposition show their hand first especially when they're at home. ( Unfortunately Opposition Usually Shows Their entire hand far too early trying to make something happen ) Once they know you're hand , they exploit. ( They do nothing out of Character. If For instance Sherman Guesses wrong on a play action fake and got beat , It changes the game. No Letting anything over the top. Even if that means getting Ran Over. Which is why Teams that've beaten them have done it running the Ball. Hmmm Nice analysis huh ?

2. They Run the clock , Making other Teams QB feel Rushed , Claustrophobic even. Almost invites the Opposition to try something risky for the sake of getting something on the board , and boom they've got you under the fence when you do. Now you're playing from behind which is asking for their best shot to the chin. Repeatedly. Not a good Idea.

3. They Let their reputations cut half of the oppositions playbook in half. ( No Screens , No Throwing to Sherman , No Double Moves ( Won't Get Enough Time to make a throw ) By the end of the game plan session , All that you have left in your playbook is to Stand and Trade with Them hoping your guys can win their 1 on 1 Matchup. ( We Call This Living on a Prayer and we Tried it last year in Seattle )


All This supports the Proof that is their record at home. There' s a reason why Brees , Manning , Rodgers don't look themselves when playing Seattle. They are for 1 playing with their hands tied behind their backs so to speak with the Playbook being so cut down. It's almost like they're forcing you to weaken yourself before even playing a single down. So when the Game is being played their are only a certain number of plays that are going to work perhaps 6. Seattle Cut's that down to 4 via adjustments over the game. Being Physically superior to who they are playing most the time makes that just 2 , And You Can't Run the Same 2 Plays over and over again so it's just not enough to compete with.

So How Do You Beat an Opponent Who Has No Weaknesses ?

Rule 1. Attack Their Immediate Strength. Right Into the Teeth of Their Defense. You got a problem with giving your QB Time ? We Can Fix That. My Personal Favorite Technique , Cut blocking. Take the Explosiveness out of the defensive Line. Chop the Blitzing LB , Corner , End , on any and every opportunity and Cut them hard ! Soon enough They Will realize they aren't getting enough pressure on you and send a blitz , BAM !!! Now we've got them showing their hand ! As the game wears on each drive gets easier. There's less pressure , less resistance , their legs just have no bounce after 3 or 4 drives. The Defense starts taking foolish gambles to force pressure , which If you have a Brady , Brees , Manning or Rodgers is a fatal mistake. The Moral of the Defense drops drastically. They start defending themselves from the Cut Technique then trying to make a play , By then The Play is long by them. The Crowd is silenced , They've never seen their Prized Fighter on the ropes like this before. They're scared. And Rightfully So. Pass or Run ? Don't Matter , Cut him.

Rule 2. Add Insult to Injury. Run The Damn Ball. Compound the Issue , No force the issue. Complicate things for them. Once They Do Actually Get to the Ball Carrier , It will be like fighting a Lion to get him down. Ingram and Robinson both have that nasty trait. Think about that , After getting Cut , Getting Up Hustling to make a play they're drained , and they still have to tackle this Beast who seemingly never gets tired. And If They do get him down , they have to get back up and do it all over again with a fresh Back in every time. Sucks , I know it.

Rule 3. Didn't I Say Force The Issue ? Misdirection, Counters , Reverses , Play actions Play actions Play actions Play actions By This time , they have nothing left in the tank to give on a straight up situation , let alone being fooled. Weaken the Body , Frustrate them. Then fool them in their aggression , Cooks 80yd TD.

Law 17: Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability.
Total Annihilation

You Can't Say Impossible without first saying Im Possible ...

TheOak

Beating their defense is a little simpler than that. Sherman doesn't follow your #1 receiver, he stays on his side of the field. Jordy Nelson was having a whole lot of luck on the left side. I would over load the right side heavily and fight the battle on the left side man to man, if you do not overload Sherman's side you will leave a lof of traffic on the side you want to go to. If you put Colston and Graham on the right side, your taking their 3 best defenders out of the play.

The catch is that they can tackle and tackle well so you can't dink and dunk hoping for gains after the catch, you need to chunk your yardage out in the air.

As far as for their offense, Dont try to sack Wilson, he is too elusive and they will pound you with Lynch, just keep then contained, do not over pursuit. You have to reply on your secondary to cover and force coverage in-completes. Defenses are always at a disadvantage for the first few weeks into the season, lets see how their offense is fairing a few weeks in.

They are not as gimmicky as you think, they are good, and they can run. That young offensive line is powerful.

Saintaintso

I respect you a great deal , however I don't think chunking yardage by throwing is a good strategy against them. Your facing their strength head up.

Nah , let's work the body a bit before we go head. Slow them down , tire them out. Then take that shot at a chunk of yardage.

lee909

That defense tire pretty quickly imo, You saw that when the Packers put on a long drive,the same happened in the playoff loss. If you can keep a long grinding drive they wear down quicker than others. The are all pass rushers on that line and if you can stop the initial burst off the line they give up yards on the run.

TheOak

See your Rule 1 in your original posting.

You want to beat on the body? Lacey averages 2.8 YPC.

If Nelson doesn't tip that ball into an interception he ends the game with 10 Rec for 100 yards on 14 targets.

Maxwell gave up 9 catches when thrown at 11 times for 80 yards, Wright gave up 4 for 4 for 53 yards.

So if you like you are more than welcome to play into their strength.. attacking the ball carrier at the line of scrimmage, they flock and wrap better than most teams in the league. We have elusive RBs but no big tackle breakers. I am going to overload the R hand side with Coleston, Stills and Graham and see if Maxwell can keep up with Cooks and PT screens left.

Papa Voodoo

Be physical. Don't get safeties. Don't run into punters.

|Mitch|

I wonder if Earl Thomas continues to return punts?

Papa Voodoo

Harvin should be returning punts.

SaintsBro

I think they will use Percy Harvin in other games but since he is made entirely of ornate, finely cut glass, they won't use him to return punts in games when they have the lead safely in hand, and when they don't need the field position or points versus the risk of inevitable fumbling when Percy is eventually knocked unconscious or his arms fall off or his migraines kick in.

It looked to me last night like in theory they wanted to use Earl Thomas on punts the way the Saints would occasionally stick Lance Moore back there instead of Sproles in certain situations. Where mainly 90% of the time Lance's job is to just be there and catch the thing inside the 20 yard line for the fair catch, 10% permission to run if you see something really good developing. But I think in their case Thomas kind of did some extremely stupid stuff. Twice.

The Seahawks are a highly egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic team; and that in turn could also become part of their downfall, if you can get them to unravel. When hot-headed or belligerent teams become flustered, they can actually be pretty easy to rattle and make them self-destruct. But it's not easy to do it to the Seahawks in that stadium, where every mistake the visiting team makes is so magnified and distorted. But hot-headed, 'roided out, unnecessary penalties were a big part of at least one of the games they lost out there at home (against AZ last year).

Papa Voodoo

Harvin is injury prone for sure, but Thomas could have lost a knee on that goofiness. Seattle loses him and the LoB goes down the toilet. Turbin?