New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - The Advocate Seeing unexpected looks from defenses has made the Saints masters at adjusting on the fly

BY NICK UNDERHILL | nunderhill@theadvocate.com Jan 16, 2019 - 10:56 am

The Saints like to think they get everyone's best effort.

They spend every week watching a team do one thing, only to end up seeing something completely different on Sunday. The only thing that surprises the Saints is when there are no surprises.

“We always think teams do things we’ve never seen before when they come see us,” tight end Benjamin Watson said. “We know they want to take people out of the game, but we’ll get a team, and they play man and all of the sudden they’re playing zone.”

That’s part of football, especially when Sean Payton designs the offense and it is helmed by quarterback Drew Brees. Being static against these guys means having your defense unraveled and shredded one thread at a time. While that might happen anyway, you shouldn’t make it easy for the Saints.

Having this experience of continually adjusting and adapting is invaluable during the playoffs. This is the time of year when everyone tries to bring their best shot and introduces new wrinkles designed explicitly for that week’s game.

For the Saints, there are a couple of things the team has to figure out each week before settling into the flow of the game, and Payton’s scripted plays are designed to help reveal some of these things. The hope is to usually have a set of answers once the script runs out.

“Some teams might treat Taysom (Hill) as a tight end, and some teams might treat him like a receiver,” offensive tackle Terron Armstead said. “What personnel guys are running against these guys, and who is the pressure player of the week. Some teams do things differently against us.”

The thing to know about these adjustments is that they are usually happening on the fly during the game. There are only about seven minutes to talk at halftime. Only so much can be covered during that period.

When something comes up, such as a team playing more man and doubling key players rather than the expected zone coverage, there typically aren’t wholesale changes. Payton doesn’t throw out his call sheet and wing it. The plays still work, it is everything that is happening within them that needs to change.

“It’s not a drastic change relative to how you call the game, but it is a drastic change relative to who might be within the progression of certain plays, what you want to do in the run game,” Payton said. “It’s challenging if Alvin (Kamara’s) a primary (and he gets doubled). It just forces these other guys in the route to have an opportunity to make some plays.”

The other thing that might happen with the play calling is that, as the coaches see how some plays get defended, they might create a catalog of plays they might want to get back to later in the game. This same thing happened during the first meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Maybe if the free safety left the field, maybe it was going to be this,” Payton said. “I think that happens quite a bit.”

This process is typically collaborative, with coaches and players sharing ideas and figuring out the best way to adjust to what is happening on the field. But sometimes it gets testy, and emotions can boil over the way they tend to boil over at times during competitive situations.

And sometimes those suggestions can’t wait until everyone huddles together on the sideline. One of those moments came during a recent game when Mark Ingram when an on-field microphone caught him screaming back to the sideline to “stop calling that” after one of his runs was stuffed.

The running back explained recently that this is a normal thing that happens during football games. Ingram was just the unfortunate person who got caught by a microphone. Most of the time, however, the adjustments and suggestions occur under different circumstances, and the cool, calm demeanor of the team is why the Saints are so good at adjusting on the fly.

“Nobody panics or gets flustered. This is what we have to deal with,” Ingram said. “Everybody just remains calm and confident. We’ve shown that a few times this year.”

The Saints will have to keep showing it. Being calm and confident is the key to winning in the playoffs, and there is probably a good chance the Rams show New Orleans something new this week.