The Saints are 0-3 on the road this year and have done nothing to quiet the narrative that they can’t get a win away from the Superdome. That narrative was loud and clear last year for much of the season but my hopes were it would die with that incredible playoff win in Philadelphia. Instead, playoffs combined, the Saints have lost four straight on the road since that memorable performance. It got me thinking – what did the Saints do so well in that game that they’ve been unable to do since? It made me realize the Saints were insanely fortunate to survive that game in Philly because they were -2 in the turnover battle. It was a statistical fluke. That’s been a common refrain lately with the Saints on the road, they’re turning the football over and they’re not creating any turnovers. It’s even worse on the road. So what do you do when you’re not getting takeaways? Easy, you run the ball.
The Saints are a passing team and have been since 2006. I’m saying it’s time they embrace power running for the road games like they did in Philadelphia. I’m not saying they need to stop throwing the ball at home, but when the go on the road I’d like to see the balance skew heavily in favor of the ground game. Part of the reason the Saints survived that bad turnover ratio in Philly is they rushed for 185 yards at 5.1 a carry. You’ll remember Khiry Robinson and Mark Ingram both taking turns having their way with the Eagles’ run defense and you’ll remember Drew Brees sneaking for first downs in short yardage situations at will.
If this early season is any indication, running the ball is not a problem for the Saints this year either. The Saints are 9th in the NFL with 133 yards rushing per game and they’re 2nd in the entire league in average yards per carry at 5.2. That kind of production is numbers we never expected to see from a Sean Payton coached offense with Drew Brees at quarterback, but the offensive line and the backs are playing at an extremely high level right now. So why not ride this train? Despite the running success the Saints have 129 rushes and 218 passing attempts this season (not including sacks). There still isn’t enough balance.
Running the football does a couple things. First, it gives you better ball security. Because these turnovers have an even larger impact on the road, the Saints need to reduce them as drastically as possible. A fumble is still a possibility, of course, and that’s something the Saints would need to focus on avoiding. But running the ball effectively also tightens the game, keeps your defense off the field and shrinks the margins. Right now the Saints need to grind these games out by playing efficiently. We know the defense is this team’s weakness so this gameplan makes life a little easier on them. I know it’s in this team’s nature to be aggressive and go for it, but that clearly has been incredibly effective at home and a disaster on the road. I’m advocating for shrinking the clock, giving the defense better field position to work with when you punt, and reducing turnovers. And it makes even more sense because of how well the Saints are running the ball (and how poorly the receivers are playing).
I realize matchups and how you stack up on tape with an opponent has a lot to do with any one given offensive gameplan, but you also can’t ignore what your team is doing on the road. They’re losing the turnover battle EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Sometimes you have to factor in the lack of turnovers your defense is producing in your offensive gameplan. We know the percentages all too well by now, you lose the turnover battle and it’s close to automatic that you’ll lose the game. It’s also easier to survive a turnover at home when your defense can lean on the crowd noise to make a play. Look at all the pre-snap penalties by Tampa when the game got tight this past Sunday. Or Logan Mankins missing a switch on Galette near the end zone that caused the safety. Crowd noise plays a huge part. Odds are, the Saints wouldn’t have gotten that same benefit on the road. So regardless of the opponent and regardless of how you stack up against them on paper, let’s see the Saints attack this next road game with the purpose of establishing the line of scrimmage and pound the rock all day long.
Can it really hurt to try at this point?
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