The first New Orleans Saints touchdown last week against the Buffalo Bills was a sign of things to come.
The Saints lined up under center with two tight ends to the left of their formation. Rookie Moliki Matavao motioned across the formation and performed a kick-out block to the right after the snap. The other tight end, Jack Stoll, followed him after the snap, only to curl the block back through the middle where the run was intended to go.
Every offensive lineman got his hands on a player and turned him away from the play. It was up to Kendre Miller to do the rest.
Miller made defensive back Taron Johnson miss in the hole and got to the second level. He slipped out of an ankle tackle by safety Cole Bishop and busted through a tackle attempt by corner Tre’Davious White, rumbling into the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown.
The play featured heavy personnel, misdirection, solid blocking across the board and some spectacular playmaking in the open field — all elements of a good rushing offense. And, for the most part, those were all things the Saints did frequently against Buffalo.
New Orleans used heavy personnel — with two or more tight ends on the field — on 12 of their 34 rushing attempts. In 12 personnel (one running back and two tight ends), the Saints averaged 9.1 yards per carry, with six of their nine attempts gaining at least 5 yards.
The Saints were under center on 55.9% of their run plays, easily their highest rate of the season (previous high: 27.6%), a pivot coach Kellen Moore said was intentional in order to allow New Orleans to use cadence to its advantage.
Notably, New Orleans also used motion on a season-high 79.4% of its run plays, averaging 6.1 yards per carry on such plays.
“With the motion, it felt like a little bit of a game-plan opportunity that we felt very good about,” Moore said. “Felt like it was productive for us.”
When the game was done, the Saints had racked up a season-best 189 yards on the ground. It was what the Saints running game was supposed to look like when Moore and the assistant coaching staff designed it this offseason.
“This should look like basketball on grass,” run-game coordinator T.J. Paganetti said about the rush offense this summer. “It’s not, 'We’re going to go out there and do calculus on the field and try and come up with the perfect play.' The plays kind of need to solve themselves on the run, and players also have to have tools in their toolbox to solve things on the run.”
Yes, but: Miller said the Saints made a bit of a philosophical change in the lead-up to the Bills game.
“We switched up our run scheme because we weren’t (getting results) in the first three games,” Miller said. “We went to more zone runs. I feel like that’s what we’re good at; zone, outside zone. … You could definitely see it on display Sunday.”
Under offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak last season, the Saints almost exclusively used zone running schemes, where the offensive line moves in sync along a “track” after the snap, blocking an area rather than a specific player or gap. The idea was to be more multiple this year, according to offensive line coach Brendan Nugent, utilizing both gap and zone schemes.
But because the offense skewed so heavily toward zone schemes last season, much of the early offensive install in training camp focused on gap-scheme runs.
“We put a heavy emphasis on gap schemes since we’ve gotten in pads, because they didn’t really do it last year,” Nugent said early in training camp.
The shift toward more zone runs last week isn’t necessarily permanent. The Saints intend to tailor their rushing attack to the opponent they play in a given week. The right way to attack the Bills won’t be the true against this week’s opponent, the New York Giants.
“From an outside zone perspective, we probably had a higher percentage last week, and there were obviously some positives there, so we recognize that,” Moore said. “But at the same time, (the Giants present) some really big challenges as well.”
New York has one of the best defensive fronts in football, anchored by three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. He is bookended by the NFL’s sack leader, Brian Burns, as well as this year’s No. 3 pick, Abdul Carter, and 2022 No. 5 overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Despite that talent up front, the Giants have had a tough time against the run this season. They have allowed an NFL-worst +.18 Expected Points Added (EPA) per rush while yielding the third-most yards before contact per attempt (2.04).
Last week, Chargers rookie running back Omarion Hampton racked up 128 rushing yards on just 12 carries against New York, including a 54-yard touchdown run.
The Saints are tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the NFL’s 10th-best rushing attack. This week should show whether the arrow is pointing up.