"In that situation," longtime Vikings defensive end Brian Robison said, "it's hard to have hope."īut miracles can only happen in the moments that seem the most hopeless, right?Īnd if you're looking to exorcise a lifetime's worth of demons - from four lost Super Bowls to Gary Anderson's wide left to Brett Favre's interception to Blair Walsh's chunked field goal - a hopeless situation like seems a fine place to start. Three plays later, they sat at their own 39-yard line, now 10 seconds on the clock and with no more timeouts. Sure, young Marcus Williams is the scapegoat and yes, he absolutely choked, but Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen put his team in a bad spot.MINNEAPOLIS - In the moment, all hope seemed lost.ĭown a point with 25 seconds left and 75 yards from the end zone, the Minnesota Vikings were on the cusp of doing what the Minnesota Vikings always do: Lose the big game, and lose it the most painful way possible. New Orleans played it way to aggressively and will now have an entire summer to think about this exact play. Why keep the sixth DB so low and so out-of-play alongside the middle linebacker when the situation dictates he needs to be involved with the deep sideline play? This is what the Saints lineup should have looked like: He would basically shade towards the strong sideline side and act as a safety net-immediately paying attention to the wide/strong side, his left. And no, that third deep guy won’t have to worry about the middle of the field-thanks to no timeouts. Instead, have that MLB on the running back and place the extra DB (who’s currently responsible for the running back as the third deep safety). The other area the Saints screwed up is by not going three-deep. If each guy is deeper, Diggs won’t have that room and it wouldn’t have set up that one-on-one with deep safety Marcus Williams. He needs to provide a 10-yard cushion here which, in turn, would allow the defensive back on the deeper out to also have more cushion: In fact, let him catch it and try tackling him in-bounds to end the game. Why? For what? A five-yard catch and out-of-bounds does nothing. The highlighted corner above screws up royally by clinging on to the short five-yard out. Here’s when New Orleans finds itself in trouble: The weak side has the other receiver either going post (for the rare home run) or with a deep out. The bunch features a short out, a deeper out, and a deep corner. It’s literally the only thing Minny can do.Īt this point, everything is playing out to plan. The play is a classic flood route and the Saints know it’s coming. There isn’t enough attention given to the strong side bunch look and the closest corner to us on the strong side is way too close to the line of scrimmage. The area they mess up comes in playing too aggressively across the board. The personnel is solid in a dime (six defensive backs, one linebacker, four defensive linemen). Pat Shurmur had Case Keenum and his offense come out in a classic bunch set (strong side to the wide side of the field):Ī four-man rush is fine. In fact, 17 yards was needed to attempt a 62-yard field goal. Case Keenum needed at least 15 yards for a legitimate shot at a desperation field goal. On a 3rd-and-10 with 10 seconds left and no timeouts, the Minnesota Vikings literally needed a miracle. The Stefon Diggs miracle touchdown revealed a classic “overplay-the-situation” call. The problem for the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night in Minnesota is that they remained aggressive at the wrong time. When a defense actually showcases an aggressive defense in a prevent situation, it becomes refreshing.
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