Game Preview: New York Jets at New Orleans Saints

The only match-up of undefeated teams this weekend features some intriguing plotlines. Drew Brees, who nearly broke the NFL record for yardage and may actually do it this year, will face a defense that ranks second in points allowed. The Jets head coach Rex Ryan features an aggressive, blitzing defense that has frustrated three quarterbacks with a combined twenty-eight years of NFL experience and five Super Bowl appearances. But it hasn’t faced a receiving corps as deep nor a release as quick as the one Brees brings with him into this game.

There are some parallels to 1985, when a tough Chicago defense swaggered into the Orange Bowl for a late regular-season game with Dan Marino’s Miami Dolphins. Rex Ryan’s father, the legendary defensive coordinator Bud Ryan had conceived the 46 defense (named after #46 Doug Plank) for a defense that boasted four Hall-of-Famers and would lead the team through a dominating Super Bowl run. Bud Ryan would be carried off the field along with head coach Mike Ditka.

On December 2, 1985, however, that Chicago team was bested, 38-24, by a third-year quarterback with a fast release. Marino had already broken the yardage record and won league MVP the previous year, his second in the league. The Bears defense, which featured linebackers like Mike Singletary that were ineffective in pass coverage, looked baffled and mediocre that night, but would rally the rest of the way to become perhaps the greatest unit in NFL history.

This parallel might be strained: Brees is not Marino; Rex Ryan’s Jets defense is more athletic; and neither team, as of yet, is guaranteed a long run through the playoffs. Looking back on this game in December, we might see two 7-7 teams or two 12-2 teams. All the same, this game will shape those fortunes more than any other in the first month. Will an improved Saints defense handle the rookie, Mark Sanchez? How will their two aggressive play-callers, Ryan and Saints head coach Sean Payton, attack each other?

I would like to look at the ways Ryan has frustrated the opposing quarterback first, and then examine some of the ways Payton and Brees will try to counteract that defense. In Tom Brady’s second regular-season game since his knee surgery and recovery, Ryan harassed Brady with basic arithmetic and outstanding athleticism. Early in the first quarter, before the snap, Ryan’s defense showed an eight-man front and Brady chose to keep seven blockers in with three receivers running vertical routes. When Ryan chooses to bring seven defenders, four to the offense’s right side, the offensive line fails to slide and pick up the extra blitzers. Brady throws a pass up to Randy Moss (who should probably win against the smaller Darrelle Revis) but the pass is intercepted. The Patriots offensive line usually relies on dual reads: most of their offensive line will read multiple defenders to see if they blitz. If both blitz, then the quarterback should take a shorter pass, rather than risk a sack. At the end of this play, one player (tight end Benjamin Watson) will have two players to block and another (guard Logan Mankins) no one to block.

In the second week of the season, Drew Brees faced a typically aggressive Eagles defense that blitzed about six defenders most of the time. Against the blitz, Brees made accurate downfield throws. On one key third down in the third quarter, needing eleven yards, Brees faced nine men in the middle of the field, with each receiver locked down by a cornerback with no safety help. Before the snap, he looks almost excited about the coverage. Brees takes a seven-step drop, and the line caves in, but he completes a 31 yard wheel route to the left sideline to Devery Henderson, just out of the reach of Sheldon Brown. Importantly, Henderson lined up almost fifteen yards from the sideline, giving the opportunity of “pulling away” to the left, from the defender.

Unlike Brady, who was recovering from surgery and looked skittish in the pocket, Brees will relish the opportunity to throw against single man coverage, even if he takes a few hits while standing in the pocket. However, unlike the Lions defense (week one) and the Bills defense (week three), the Jets will not allow him to slide in the pocket, reload, and throw on the run. Though they have made explosive plays in the first few weeks, the key plays in this game will be the five yard dump-offs that sustain drives.