Saints blitz happy defense..

[crash]

In a departure from typical preseason decorum, the Saints dialed up an array of blitzes in their 24-3 win over the 49ers at the Louisiana Superdome on Friday.

San Francisco tight end Vernon Davis said he'd never seen such a blitz-happy defense in an exhibition game, but coach Jim Harbaugh noted New Orleans didn't violate any NFL rules en route to collecting six first-half sacks and laying two vicious blindside hits on quarterback Alex Smith.

"They're allowed to do that," Harbaugh said. "We had some errors in protection. And what it really comes down to is when ... they're in man-to-man (coverage) and bring seven (defenders), we need to make them pay for that. And we didn't capitalize on any of those opportunities, and therefore they kept doing it."

Davis and Smith echoed their coach. The Saints' ultra-aggressive preseason scheme was a shocker. But the Niners failed to make them pay.

"They brought pressure and we weren't quite expecting all that for a first preseason game, especially from the first team," Smith said. "But we had to deal with it and we didn't tonight."

Read more: 49ers' offense blindsided in blitz-filled opener

 

[CalamityX11]

I agree it was unexpected but at the same time, this is what will happen on sundays come fall, so we need to get use to it and expect time and be prepared to beat it.

Lots of work ahead on both sides of the ball.

 

[Arete Tzu]

I'm glad Saints did it. It will allow the coaches to go over blitz pick up, so people know their responsibilities. There was clear confusion on some of the plays. It's good that it happened now instead of the regular season.

 

[tomikcon1971]

They might have dusted off their game plan for the NFC Champ game that they never got to use last year.....

 

[MW49ers5]

A couple thoughts regarding the Saints blitzs last night:

Earlier this week several of us discussed how Williams' complex blitz schemes would be a good first test for our o'line. 'Pre-season' is just another term for 'practice' and blitzing is what New Orleans does so of course they are going to blitz; however, I can certainly afford some compassion for the ferocity.

Regardless of how bad it looked, I agree with some of the other posters who noted that this is now our benchmark and that at least we have the crime spree on tape so we can learn from it.

 

[tomikcon1971]

The other point is that blitzing is a feast or famine strategy. If you make a team pay one or two times, they will alter their strategy. The fact is we couldn't. We can say it was the OL or the QB's (or a combo platter), but we better figure it out. Otherwise we'll get a steady dose of it all season.

As for the Saints specifically,what did they really learn? That they could successfully blitz a team with 12 days practice, a rookie QB, a former #1 who's never really delivered, and an OL with a bunch of question marks. I would have mixed it up a little bit to see how my players reacted in different schemes, but maybe that's why I'm not an NFL coach.

I'm recording the replay tonight as I only saw about 10-15 plays before jet lag attacked (and won). I'll be interested to see the game without the "excitement and anticipation of a new season". Maybe all our expectations were too high game 1 of the Harbaugh era.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

You know......Payton was one of the scab QBs that took Harbaugh's job during the 1987 strike, maybe the Bears and Harbaugh made life such hell for him back then he never forgot, and swore revenge on Harbaugh at any point he could get it. Yesterday was his first shot.

 

[deep9er]

I'm glad Saints did it. It will allow the coaches to go over blitz pick up, so people know their responsibilities. There was clear confusion on some of the plays. It's good that it happened now instead of the regular season.

yep, might as well get it straightened out now. its too hard to simulate good blitzing during practice, so now the players can see film.

fortunately, our QB's didn't get seriously hurt.

glad Harbaugh nor players complained or made excuses. its perfectly within the Saints right to play how they want.

 

[threelittleturds]

I'm glad Saints did it. It will allow the coaches to go over blitz pick up, so people know their responsibilities. There was clear confusion on some of the plays. It's good that it happened now instead of the regular season.

You're absolutely right, get the weaknesses exposed as early as possible.

I read that Braylon Edwards made a comment about how Alex Smith "lives" at the facilities. Which I took to meant that he's spending a lot of time in classroom type settings. Hopefully that shellacking will get the rest of the offense to start "living" at the office too, they need the extra work put in.

 

[MW49ers5]

I'm glad Saints did it. It will allow the coaches to go over blitz pick up, so people know their responsibilities. There was clear confusion on some of the plays. It's good that it happened now instead of the regular season.

Completely Agree.

 

[maniax]

Congratulations Gregg Williams. Thanks for pointing out our big weakness.

I don't think Gregg Williams really proved anything by blitzing so much other than the 49ers offensive line was in complete disarray.

I don't understand why he blitzed so much he didn't get to see how his secondary was playing.

 

[MW49ers5]

Congratulations Gregg Williams. Thanks for pointing out our big weakness.

I don't think Gregg Williams really proved anything by blitzing so much other than the 49ers offensive line was in complete disarray.

I don't understand why he blitzed so much he didn't get to see how his secondary was playing.

Pre-season is not about proving anything. I'm glad he did it. We gained valuable information.

 

[Jikkle]

It was a bit on the bush league side but I'm in agreement that I'm glad he did it since it does let your guys know there is a lot of work to still be done and in what areas that it needs to be done.

I'm not in the camp that thinks what happened Friday spells doom and gloom for us though as if it was a week one match up we would've been further along with the install and we would've been gameplanning for the blitzing and pressure.

 

[BallsOfFury]

All I know is that the O-line and backs need to be able to pick up different blitzes and the QB needs to be able to react and burn the blitz with quick tosses to uncovered receivers. The Niners have some work to do. You can bet that the other NFCW defenses are watching the game film and taking notes.

 

[maniax]

Pre-season is not about proving anything. I'm glad he did it. We gained valuable information.

I guess I'm questioning more what did Gregg Williams gain by doing this?

I think he proved that our O-line sucked and was not prepared, more than he's got the best pass rush.

 

[MW49ers5]

I guess I'm questioning more what did Gregg Williams gain by doing this?

I think he proved that our O-line sucked and was not prepared, more than he's got the best pass rush.

Well, if our protection had neutralized his blitz's and/or Smith & Co. were able to exploit the holes for big gains then he would have gained quite a bit. Even as it is, he still gained film showing how well his defense executed the play and why the plays worked; there is always something gained.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

Well, if our protection had neutralized his blitz's and/or Smith & Co. were able to exploit the holes for big gains then he would have gained quite a bit. Even as it is, he still gained film showing how well his defense executed the play and why the plays worked; there is always something gained.

I would also question the practical value to the Saints, because they were doing it against a team that hadn't practiced blitz pickups yet with their new center, and the largely new WRs didn't even have any hot routes to run. He was running it against a mostly defenseless offense. They might as well do this stuff against their practice squad.

My guess was that it maybe was a bit of red meat for the defensive players, get them some big hits to feast on.

 

[MW49ers5]

I would also question the practical value to the Saints, because they were doing it against a team that hadn't practiced blitz pickups yet with their new center, and the largely new WRs didn't even have any hot routes to run. He was running it against a mostly defenseless offense. They might as well do this stuff against their practice squad.

My guess was that it maybe was a bit of red meat for the defensive players, get them some big hits to feast on.

I couldn't disagree more. Fangio has been running blitz's in camp on a regular basis so we have definitely practiced our protections with Snyder at center. We were far from defenseless, we simply were unable to counterpunch.

Williams & Co. committed no crime, and as I and others have said repeatedly, we are the one's who will benefit the most from him doing it, so I am glad he did.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

Oh, Saints did nothing "wrong".......and maybe I shouldn't have used such definitive terms and just quoted Sando: "They're worried more about lining up right and executing center exchanges cleanly than game-planning for blitzes.", which is probably closer to what I meant.

 

[MW49ers5]

Oh, Saints did nothing "wrong".......and maybe I shouldn't have used such definitive terms and just quoted Sando: "They're worried more about lining up right and executing center exchanges cleanly than game-planning for blitzes.", which is probably closer to what I meant.

Your comments are fine and I did see that blurb from Sando. Clearly, there is a divide in the general opinions about Williams' blitz's; I agree more with what I have read from Harbaugh than Sando.