WhoDat!656

Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has unfairly been made the scapegoat but a loss of this magnitude cannot simply be reduced to one bad decision, no matter how egregious it was.

Yes, Williams' decision to blitz the 49ers in the final minute leading to a back-breaking 47-yard reception by Vernon Davis will long live in infamy for Saints fans. But that ill-advised decision was just one of several factors that conspired against the Saints and led to San Francisco's dramatic 36-32 victory.



Gregg Williams shouldn't be the scapegoat in New Orleans Saints loss: film study - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

CharityMike

What a croc!! He can spin it anyway he wants to. If he wants to be in denial, so be it. He called the blitz of all lb's leaving the middle open to have harper/jenkins covering the te. Williams fault right there. He don't call that OR someone,who is suppose to be the "leader" of the defense, calls a time out or changes the defensive call, that 47 yard reception don't happen. End of story.

Euphoria

He needs to leave town with Greg Williams and I just told him so...

neugey

I don't really disagree with anything Duncan wrote. The GW defense that let us down at the end of the game kept us in the game earlier. I'm not a fan of scapegoats either. That being said, since hindsight is 20-20 it would indicate that some changes would need to be considered.

Williams needed to adjust his defense to the fact that Davis was the only real receiving threat on the 49ers. Ginn wasn't doing much and Crabtree was dropping balls and playing inconsistently. Blitzing your strong safety 17 games in a game where their TE is the only weapon is kind of insane. We should've treated Davis like he was Megatron and doubled and triple-teamed him and let Greer play Crabtree solo.

spkb25

Right, but the drive before this one we got burned by Davis- I mean like fool me once shame on, shame on you, fool me, can't get fooled again. Hold on, let me clarify that.

Agree

W. Kovacs

THIS.

Did our Offense and Special Teams let us down with the turnovers? Yes, absolutely. And the D did a good job keeping us in the game (I thought they let up 17 off of the turnovers) but then they made virtually ZERO adjustments at the end of the game.

TWICE we were burned by the blitz in the last 4 minutes because it was so daggone predictable. The reason they tried that Alex Smith run was because they knew the blitz was coming. They let all the defenders into the backfield and Smith just bootlegged around from them. With no one in the secondary there was no one to stop him when he broke contain it gained more than the niners probably even thought possible.

Then we all know what happened on the last series.

You can't play D in the last 5 minutes like you do the first 55. Especially if that includes making no changes to keep them on their toes.

I just hope Spags has us hide our scheme a little bit better and jam guys off the line no matter what the scheme is. Watching Davis just take off with NO attempt to interrupt his route has me screaming at the TV even now.

QBREES9

Jeff did you watch the game ?

Danno

It was a team effort. Both sides of the ball contributed to the loss.

But one side has played poorly in nearly every game this season, and it isn't the offense.

While this one game doesn't justify condemning the defense, the previous 17 certainly do.

WHO_DAT_CAT

I watched the game. What I saw is the defense keeping us in the game, after the offense and special teams turned the ball over repeatedly.

Not saying the defense doesn't need work. But, I do believe in giving credit where it is due. So, here's the credit: Had it not been for the defense in that game, Vernon Davis' catch would not have mattered. And, frankly, it shouldn't have mattered.

Turning the ball over as many times as we did in a playoff game is just embarrassing. Roby looked like a keystone cop out there. The defense may need to be overhauled (won't argue there), but if it is true, then it was true when the team took the field that day. But, that loss was not mostly on the defense.

I will have to say that I'm glad Williams is gone, though. Since 2009, he has not proved that his scheme could work with the players we have.

papz

I agree with most of what you're saying WDC, expect the part you're glad GW is gone. Our D is what kept us in the game. Our D let us down with a minute left to go... but our turnovers is what cost us the game. You lose the turnover battle by our margain, 90% chance plus you lose the game.

Fact.