Strategy and Matchups - NO

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Who dat? Who dat? Who dat, gonna beat dem Saints?

Kevin freaking Kolb, that's who.

Listen up, my bayou brethren. You think having McNabb on the sidelines is a good thing. Au contraire. Kolb is a lethal weapon, poised to explode on the NFL scene and announce his mega-awesomeness. He's been pulling the rope-a-dope in his backup appearances to this point. He's lulled you to sleep and now you're about to get a face full of corn on the Kolb. Game time is pain time and your beloved Saints will be hurting all day long on Sunday.

How's that for early season smack talk?

Offense

The center of attention is going to be Kevin Kolb. How will he do in his first career start? All joking aside, we have no idea. I do think the situation sets up nicely for him. The Saints D isn't on par with the Giants, Ravens, or anyone like that.

We need to protect him first and foremost. I re-watched the Saints opener and they didn't get a ton of pressure on Matt Stafford. Their only sack came from MLB Jonathan Vilma on a blitz. The Saints didn't blitz DBs very much from what I saw. They mainly brought LBs. Our OL should be able to handle their OL. We should be able to mostly control their blitz. The Saints LBs are solid players, but none of them are dynamic rushers.

Big Red better let us run the ball this week. We need to feed the ball to Westy, McCoy, and Weaver. A good running game is crucial to success for a backup QB. Our OL did a good job on run plays last week, especially as the day wore on. I expect that to continue this week.

Regular readers know I love the play called Flip 90. It works well against the Saints. Detroit ran it twice in the first 18 minutes of the game and it got them a good gain and a TD. We ran it the last time we played New Orleans in '07 and it worked well. I hope we run that to Shady this week. He's got the speed to get outside and turn that into a big play. The New Orleans LBs are N-S guys. They can attack downhill, but lack the speed to get outside as quickly as most teams would prefer.

We must stretch the field in the passing game. Kolb was 7 of 11 for 23 yards last week. That kind of attack won't cut it. Wouldn't surprise me to see us go deep in the first series. Even if we don't hit on a homerun ball, we need to complete passes in the intermediate area (11-20 yds). If we play small ball the Saints will just load 8 men into the box and stifle us. DeSean Jackson tweaked his groin the other day (don't try that at home). We need his vertical speed. We need him to give us a big play, whether a long pass or a short one where he uses his RAC skills. We need D-Jax to get loose.

Defense

Pressure. We must bring the heat if we want to slow down Brees and the Saints. We need this to come from the starting DL, the pass rush specialists, and any blitzers who attack.

You can't have a standard gameplan. Brees is a master at short passes. He can 3-step drop you to death. We'll need to play a lot of D-linemen to keep the guys fresh. We need Bunk and Patt to push the pocket. We need the ends to get pressure off the edge.

Trent Cole vs Jermon Bushrod is a matchup that definitely tilts our way. Bushrod also is battling an ankle injury. I'm sure New Orleans will give him plenty of help when they do want to throw downfield. That means the other guys will have 1-on-1 battles a lot of the time. Those players must win and hit Brees.

I don't care how many sacks we get. The point is to bring pressure to keep him from getting in a rhythm and finding his comfort zone. Drew doesn't have a great arm. If he has guys at his feet that could affect some of his passes.

Drew will force some downfield throws. He did this several times against the Lions. They picked one pass. Others were unchallenged. We need the corners to cover tightly and play the ball when it comes their way. This could be Asante Samuel's week to shine.

Macho Harris will have a lot of pressure on him. The Saints will test us vertically. They have some fast receivers. Macho has to stay deep and play the ball when he gets the chance. The last time we beat NO Dawk was hurt early in the game and JR Reed was the FS. We did a solid job on them. Macho can handle this.

Who were the linebackers the last time we played the Saints? Chris Gocong, Omar Gaither, and Akeem Jordan were the starting trio. These guys know how hard it is to play against the Saints offense. If you go back to the two losses we had to them in 2006 it was lack of speed at linebacker that really killed us (Trotter was brutal). That was better in the 2007 game and is good now. Gaither didn’t face a lot of running plays up the middle last week since Carolina likes to run to the edges so much. This week will be different. The Saints will attack the middle. Patterson and Bunkley need to control the blockers and clog the lanes. Gaither needs to get to the ball and tackle well. The most pleasant surprise last week was Jordan becoming more of a playmaker. He got his first career interception and sack. I’d love to see him build off of that. Make more plays.

Sean McDermott was masterful in the season opener. He'll have his hands full with Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Those guys are a supreme challenge. I trust that McDermott will stay aggressive. I think he'll have a couple of new wrinkles to show the Saints. The big key is execution. Guys have to make plays when they get a chance.

Overall

This game won't be won by scheme. This game will be about controlling the LOS and protecting the QB. We can win those battles. Kolb doesn't have to outplay Brees. We've got a strong enough team to carry a young QB making his first start. It would help if Kevin made some plays.

We started slow last week and then started to play with an edge. I hope the blowout didn't cause us to lose that edge. The goal line stand at the end was good. You never know if momentum can carry from one week to the next. I guess we'll see on Sunday. Getting off to a 2-0 start would be huge. Both teams are NFC opponents, as well as probably solid teams.

This is only a Week 2 matchup, but the game could tell us a lot about each team. Can the Eagles win without McNabb? Can the defense shut down a great offense? Is this finally a team that will play at a high level each week? The Saints need to show their defense has improved and that they can win on the road against a good team. Last year's signature road win came at KC. Not good.
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