xan

I read somewhere on this forum that quoted Payton as giving justification for his call of "Superdome Special."

He basically said that the factors he considered important aligned themselves such that the call was appropriate. And he went further by listing the 4 key variables for that call.

Now. How many other nuanced calls have we noticed that might make us rethink the potential of this team going forward? And don't use the overworked "Bush as Decoy" ruse that seems to be on every play....

Are we, and by we I mean opponents of the Saints, not giving Payton and his staff credit for his ability to understand the complexities of the game and strategize appropriately??? How many of us can actually break such a thing down?

Calvin: "I wish I was a Tiger."
Hobbes: "Common lament."

GoldRush26

I don't think any of us, even the "smart" fans, have the expertise to identify plays which are the result of several different variables as the "Superdome Special" was. Basically, this is why he's getting paid this kind of money, and why he's the man in charge. I think it's the sign of a great coach that can make the job seem difficult, because I'm sure most people on this forum normally think they could do a better job of decision making and coaching than, say, a Jim Haslett. Honestly I think I could have done a better job than Haz. I don't think he impressed my with his coaching prowess at any point in his career. In contrast there's no way I would have been able to game plan as effectively as Payton did for the ATL game.

hagan714

Now, Now there are a few of us that can :P

Payton called a perfect first half and an almost perfect second half. Drew executed that game plan almost perfectly and the team responded. What a breath of fresh air. After Haz and AB stunk up the place, Maybe the strom was need to wash their stinch away. Funny how the Steelers always get credit for tick plays as the perfect call at the perfect time and we get nothing. opps that is this theme. maybe that should be the saints defensive moto this year. Do a Rodney Dangerfield spoof on that. RESPECT

Cassady37

The only thing I wish that Payton would spend more time game-planning is the red-zone offense. We seem to lack in that area so if we can't beat a team straight-up to score we might possibly need more "Superdome Specials" to keep other teams off-balanced in the redzone. And where is our tight end in the play-calls??? A tight end pass would've been pretty sweet in the redzone.

Euphoria

I got a feeling we are going to see an onside kickoff in the first quarter REALLY SOON.

saintswhodi

I look at it like this, Payton and the Saints in the early part of the season are playing with "house money." Basically, no one predicted us to do anything or make any noise, so at least for the early going, we will prob see some things we may not normally see. As things get closer to the playoffs and we have a shot, we may not see it as much, cause the more we win, the more expectations will be raised. I hope we don't change much though. I like what I have seen. Payton's game planning has been spot on.

jdiggy

What I find interesting is how forthcoming Payton has been with their rationale in the play calling.

The team is even talking about the inner workings of the game. I read J. Brown talking about how they had a long pass called for the 1st play of the game, but Brees checked down.

I don't recall these ever being topics of discussion w/ the old coaching staff.

neugey

The thing that impresses me with me Payton is not necessarily his playcalling, although it is top-notch. What we are doing that many other teams are not doing is mixing offensive personnel effectively.

Here's how I see it. The starting QB and the 5 OL are fixtures on the field. Look at last year. Assuming no injuries, on most plays the defense knew they'd see Deuce, Karney, Horn, Stallworth and Conwell (or Hilton if you like). Maybe on a few plays we'd go 2TE and replace Karney w/ a blocking TE. Big deal. Then on third it was a 4 or 5 wide set. Yawn.

With Payton, it's not just match-ups that are the important factor. It's keeping the D off-balance by subbing personnel in an unpredictable fashion and constantly changing packages and personnel groupings. A perfect example is Stecker's insertion into the ATL game in the first few series - sometimes at RB and split out wide once or twice if I'm not mistaken. Now, is Stecker a better RB than Reggie/Deuce or a better WR than Horn? Certainly not, but I'd bet that the Atlanta defenders spent no time studying how to defend Stecker or knew what his strengths/weaknesses are. Defenses are already on their toes because they don't know whether we'll have Reggie or Deuce or both in the game at any given time. Then we throw in Stecker and nobody knows anything about him. No one knows what kind of a look Payton will show. Over the course of a game, that is a huge advantage. If the defenders don't know who they're going to be defending, they can't anticipate. When defenses successfully anticipate, bad things usually happend(turnovers and 4th downs). That's why our offense has such great momentum. My saving grace on the XBox playing football is that I always change up what I'm doing, because I don't want the CPU catching on to my patterns and calling the right defense on me. Why should real football be that much different?

You'd think with so much personnel swapping, we'd make more mistakes. But we don't and that is because Payton focuses on execution and getting first downs, not touchdowns. The plays don't need to be over-complicated because we'll keep the D off-balance by changing personnel. We don't need to go for 50-yard passes very often at all. So we'll get our fair share of field goal attempts. If touchdowns happen, they happen. We just want to move the frickin ball and keep our D rested. Brilliant.