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Saints' goal for Marcus Williams: 'Let the natural ability and instincts take over'



By Luke Johnson, NOLA.com
The Times-Picayune

Marcus Williams wants to make every play on the field.

"That's Marcus," said New Orleans Saints defensive backs coach Aaron Glenn with a chuckle. "That's who he is."

The trade off with that is that not every play can be made. Sometimes early in this season, it meant the Saints second-year safety was trying to do too much.

Those were the words New Orleans defensive coordinator Dennis Allen chose when assessing Williams' play last week before the Saints traveled to face the Giants.

"I think at times he's trying to do a little bit too much," Allen said. "We're trying to put him in a position to let him really use his skill set and go find the ball and go get the ball. ... We have to eliminate some of the thought processes and just let the natural ability and instincts take over."

It appears the Saints have done just that.

New Orleans coach Sean Payton praised Williams for his performance in New York last week. Though Williams barely registered on the box score -- his lone statistic was a solo tackle -- he contributed to a Saints defense that finally kept the lid on the opponent's big-play passing game.

"I think he is one of our better defensive players," Payton said. "He's smart and he's someone naturally the ball comes to."

The difference between last week and the games where he tried to do too much, in Williams' opinion, was the Saints' commitment to simplifying the defensive scheme.

"We're just playing faster," Williams said. "Simplifying things, condensing things down and making things easier for us to read and play faster."

And, to be clear, the Saints do not want to tone down Williams' aggressiveness when it comes to play-making.

He recorded New Orleans' lone interception this season when he perfectly timed his break on a Tyrod Taylor pass against Cleveland, jumping the route and getting to the ball at the exact right moment for a momentum-swinging pick.

That defines him as a player. What the Saints are trying to do is make sure he picks the right spots to do it.

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“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill