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Because of the New Orleans Saints' prolific offense and penchant for scoring this season, their kickoff coverage team has been unusually busy.
That was never more evident than Sunday against the New York Giants, when quarterback Drew Brees led the Saints to seven touchdowns in their 48-27 victory at the Superdome. In that game, New York return specialist Domenik Hixon set up a touchdown and a field goal with kick returns of 45 and 68 yards, giving the Giants excellent field position at midfield and the Saints' 37-yard line.
Hixon also set up another Giants' touchdown with a 27-yard punt return to midfield.
Consequently, Saints Coach Sean Payton and special teams coordinator Greg McMahon are devoting extra time this week to try to fix the problem in preparation for Sunday's road game against the Miami Dolphins.
"It really comes down to base fundamentals, " McMahon said Thursday. "On the kick return to the 50-yard line, we kind of ran around and got undisciplined, and we didn't get our proper safety rotation. On the second one (to the 37), we just had the wrong wedge fit.
"The guys have got to understand that on this team we're going to cover a lot of kicks. We might cover eight kickoffs in a game like we did against the Giants, and six of them are real good, but two of them are real bad. We have got to be 100 percent. That's our freaking job, to cover kicks. Period."
Hixon averaged 32.9 yards on seven kickoff returns and 25.5 yards on two punt returns.
Of the nine touchdowns allowed by the Saints' defense this season, four of the scoring drives have started at midfield or in Saints' territory.
"We've got it fixed, " McMahon said. "When there's a problem around here, we're going to address it and these guys buy into that. All you do all day as a coach and player is fix problems. That's what we do."

New Orleans Saints seek improved kick coverage | New Orleans Saints Central - - NOLA.com

jn671

Nice article, I'm sure they will fix it.