The Saints explosive offense sits at the very top of the league in passing plays of 20+ yards and has the 3rd most rushing plays of 20+ yards. The Saints make their living on the big play. On the opposite side is the Colts defense runs the Tampa-2 scheme that is built to prevent big plays. It is living up to the schemes ideal, thus far, allowing both the fewest passes of over 20 yards in the league and the fewest runs for 20+ in the league (including holding big play specialist Chris Johnson to 34 yards with a longest run of 8 yards in the Colts and Titans first meeting this year). The deep drop and long pass that the Saints have abused defenses with all year plays into the hands of a Colts D that will pursue the deep drop with elite edge rushers in Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis and sits 2 safeties deep waiting on a long ball. The big run is also rare against a team that loves speed in the front 7 and places a premium on a DB’s tackling skills. The numbers bear out the schemes’ intent as the Colts have rarely allowed a team to move the ball in large chunks.
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