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Saints' defensive ends not to be taken lightly

Smith, Grant & Co. reveal keys to succeed
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 By Mike Triplett

Offense is the marquee attraction in Thursday night's showdown between the Saints and Colts, and as usual the quarterbacks will get top billing.
But the Saints' defensive ends believe it's in their job description to be the biggest difference-makers on the field.
Before what might be their stiffest test all season, they offered a glimpse inside their world:
"Defensive end is a dominant position. You can change the game just by having a good defensive end."
-- Rob Ninkovich
"Any time you see a quarterback get sacked, for that series he's kind of rattled a little bit. So the more you can hit him, the more you can affect him, the better. And then if you can force a turnover, that's a huge momentum shift."
-- Will Smith
"Playing defensive end is about getting the other guy to think, 'What's he going to do this play? Is he going to power me? Is he going to use some speed? Is he going to spin on me? Is he going to come inside?' It all affects how he sets, how he plays. So it's definitely a position where you can work on somebody the whole game."
-- Ninkovich
"Going into each game, you know where a guy is vulnerable and you know what he's good at. So you kind of set your pass rush up from that. If you've got a lighter guy, you may want to attack him earlier and put a little bit more pressure on him, like bull him a lot and be a more physical rusher. If you've got a heavy guy that's kind of slow off the ball, you probably want to hit him with a little bit more speed and kind of keep changing it up on him.
"Either way, the goal is to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible."
-- Smith
"You're not going to win every play in the National Football League. You want to, but you set up 20 percent of the time to win 80 percent. . . . It's like a pitcher."
-- Charles Grant
"You have to keep him guessing. You do something like bull rush him a couple times, then you fake bull him and go around the corner or something like that. But you definitely have to set him up."
-- Josh Cooper
"Sometimes the first few passing plays, I get up field as hard as I can, just to show him that I'm fast enough to get around him. And then once he sees that, he'll start opening up to try and stop the speed. And then I come with the power. So then he's thinking, 'OK he's got a little speed, he's got some power,' and then I'll throw a counter. Then when he thinks I'm power, I'll speed. Or he thinks I'll power, I'll counter."
-- Ninkovich
"I got a lot of moves. It all depends on the guy you're going up against. Some moves won't work against certain guys, some moves work even better against certain guys. And then some moves will just work against anybody."
-- Smith
"I'm a power rusher. I've got speed and power. That's me, speed and power, and my swipe, that's it."
-- Grant
"I think it's about 50-50 (film study and feel). You've got to be able to know what style of offense they have, what are they trying to achieve every down, whether or not they're trying to hurry up on you, whether or not they're trying to sit back and they like to get deeper in pass rush, whether they're an aggressive team or power team. There's a bunch of different stuff you can look at. Then you try to read the player."
-- Smith
"I read my guy. The tackle's foot, if he's heavy or light. I read through the tackle to the backfield, see the sets, the formations and all that stuff."
-- Grant
"Looking at the backs, if it's near far, I-backs, split-backs. Look at the guards. Then I'll look at my tackle's eyes, if he's looking down or if he's looking out at the linebacker."
-- Ninkovich
"Then you get in your stance and you line up and you kind of watch the ball out of one eye, and the other eye is on the guy in front of you."
-- Smith
"You really don't even hear the crowd. I'm just listening for my 'backers telling me what I've got to do, or if they audible, reload."
-- Ninkovich
"You just zone out. The only thing I see is that ball and my opponent. Like, 'Boom,' like you're in your own little world or in a tunnel."
-- Grant
"To me, it seems like it's forever. Because you're going through a lot of stuff in your head. So it's not as fast as it seems on film. It takes a while."
-- Cooper
"It's actually pretty fast to me. I'm just worried about whenever he does snap the ball, me being prepared to get off the ball and attack the guy in front of me or get even with him on a pass rush and then be able to pass him."
-- Smith
"You know right away if you're winning or losing. If you hit him and you knock him back, you're thinking, 'OK, I got this guy. I'm making this play.' But you've got to definitely handle your blocker before you think about making the tackle."
-- Cooper

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins