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Film Study - Great Read

Plenty of information nuggets to take away from this piece. Nice work Tripplett.

New Orleans Saints were on their heels against Washington Redskins: Film Study - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

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This week's Film Study showed a glaring contrast between a Redskins defense that was constantly on the attack vs. a Saints defense that spent most of the day sitting back to guard against the threat of mobile quarterback Robert Griffin III and Washington's treacherous run-blocking schemes.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees was under duress throughout the day as he attempted 52 passes and completed less than 50 percent of them for the first time since 2006. The Saints' line actually performed better than expected when breaking down each snap. Individual linemen were only beaten badly five times (Jermon Bushrod and Brian de la Puente twice each, and Zach Strief once), with Bushrod and Ben Grubbs each getting pushed back once on costly plays as well.

The bigger problem for the Saints' offense was that it was constantly flooded by overload blitzes and extra rushers who were never on their heels. And the Redskins' dynamic pass rushers Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo each won a few battles on their own. (Man, could the Saints' defense use either one of those two guys).

Last but not least, Washington's secondary held up extremely well in a lot of single coverage during those blitzes. It was an all-around terrific game by the Jim Haslett-coached unit.

Meanwhile, the Saints' defense was much less aggressive Sunday. Although they blitzed some defensive backs early (to disastrous effects) and late (with much more success), they spent most of the afternoon keeping players in coverage and hanging back to read and react. Even defensive ends were careful not to over-commit to pass rushes.

There were several reasons for that approach: 1. The Redskins started the game with a flurry of quick screen passes. 2. The Redskins used a ton of play-action throughout the day, and Griffin did a great job of selling it. 3. Griffin is a deadly threat to run the ball if he makes a guy miss. 4. The Redskins use the zone-blocking schemes like the Houston Texans that try to tangle up defensive linemen with cut blocks. It's essential for linemen to stay on their feet against that scheme. 5. When they Saints did blitz safety Malcolm Jenkins twice early in the game, it blew up in their face. He hesitated on the first one (that led to an 88-yard touchdown pass) and lost containment on the second one (that led to a 26-yard completion).

The "safer" approach wasn't a bad one, by any means. The Saints' run defense was actually outstanding for most of the day. Left end Cameron Jordan was particularly impressive, both shedding blockers when the play came at him and rushing across the field when the play went the other way. Middle linebacker Curtis Lofton and tackle Brodrick Bunkley also played great against the run and look like terrific new additions in that department.

Eventually, the Saints started mixing in some more blitzes from the secondary that worked in the second half, and they started to get into a much better mix-and-match rhythm. They sacked Griffin once, they almost forced an interception that cornerback Patrick Robinson couldn't reel in, and they should have earned a turnover on downs that was marred by a very shaky pass-interference call against safety Roman Harper.

The Saints clearly won't have a dynamic pass rush this year, but there still is hope that the defense can be a solid unit overall - especially against offenses that are less frustrating to defend. Of course, the Saints are facing another dual-threat quarterback in the Carolina Panthers' Cam Newton this week. So it will be interesting to see how aggressive Saints defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo decides to be.

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There were a lot of game-changing moments Sunday -- that questionable pass interference call against Harper, a 12-men on the field call against Saints cornerback Robinson, Griffin's throw to Davis and Saints end Martez Wilson's blocked punt among them. But the 88-yard touchdown pass from Griffin to receiver Pierre Garcon on Washington's second possession was the biggest killer of them all.

First of all, the context. Although many analysts raved about the way Washington allowed Griffin to "ease his way" into his first start with a ton of screen passes on the Redskins' opening drive, the Redskins still had to settle for a field goal on that drive. And the Saints' offense quickly responded with a touchdown to take a 7-3 lead -- as if to suggest that dinking and dunking wouldn't work.

So on the very next play, Washington made a huge statement by torching the Saints deep.

Jenkins came in on a delayed blitz, and he probably would have gotten to Griffin, but he hesitated. He bit on the play-action fake and looked inside to see if the tailback had the ball. Jenkins did knock Griffin to the turf, but it was a second too late. Griffin delivered a perfect pass to Garcon, who was coming across the field about 15 yards in front of the line of scrimmage. Garcon was sprung free by a block from receiver Josh Morgan against Harper, then Garcon was just fast enough to stay ahead of Robinson for the final 60 yards to the end zone.

Morgan's block was awfully close to a block in the back, but a close look at the replay showed that he shoved Harper with a hand on the front side of the chest/ribs area. Ideally, Harper would have avoided the block by closing in on Garcon one or two steps faster when the ball was in the air. Or else Harper could've taken a better angle behind Morgan. But in truth, there's probably not much Harper could've done to avoid the contact on such a bang-bang play.

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I won't give the replacement officials too much of a hard time. Obviously, the sheer volume of penalties called is disturbing (12 for each side), so I'd assume the regular referees might have let a few of those calls go. But at least it was balanced for both sides.

However, the shakiest call of the night was also the costliest -- the pass interference against Harper in the end zone on a fourth-and-1 Hail Mary pass in the third quarter. Although it was a judgment call because Harper did make some contact with his right arm on receiver Aldrick Robinson's shoulder before the ball arrived, Harper didn't use that arm to push off and he turned back to make his own play on the ball, which was up for grabs. All of the FOX analysts agreed it was the wrong call -- as did former NFL head of officials Mike Pereira on Twitter.

I'm not sure what to make of the 12-men-on-the-field penalty against Robinson. He was definitely at fault for jogging off the field too slowly before a punt. But I wonder if that happens a lot and doesn't get called or if his penalty was egregious.