Tyler Shough believes the New Orleans Saints already have something that works. When the offense gets to the line quickly and everyone is in sync, the second-year quarterback says it is tough to slow down, even after Kellen Moore’s group went ice cold again against Minnesota. Through five games, New Orleans has run no-huddle on 16.5% of its snaps, the highest rate in the NFL, according to Giants On SI.
“I feel like when we are on the ball, we’ve got good tempo, when we’re all on the same page, we’re hard to stop,” Shough said in comments posted by the team this week. He added, “We’re a really, really good offense and right now we’re stopping ourselves.”
Long yardage keeps stalling the tempo
Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
Tempo only helps if the Saints stay ahead of the chains, and that has been the hard part. New Orleans ranks 29th in rushing at 81.8 yards per game, per Pro Football Reference. The Saints have converted 3 of 19 third downs needing 10 or more yards and are 9 of 33 on third-and-7 or longer.
“And when you get put in those long-yardage situations, you’re going to get taken advantage of,” Shough said. Defenses have been happy to do it. The Giants blitzed on 56.6% of dropbacks over their last two games, second only to the Vikings, according to the Saints’ team website.
Center Erik McCoy doesn’t expect that to change soon. “I think blitzing is one of those things that doesn’t stop until you show that you have the answers for it in protection and you can gash in the run game,” McCoy said. “So, I expect it to continue until we execute the answers.” Getting set and snapping quickly is one way to limit how much a defense can disguise, and it is a different lever than the play-action rate we flagged earlier.
The Saints wrap up their week in Metairie before heading to MetLife Stadium for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff Sunday against the 3-1-1 Giants. If Shough can keep the offense out of third-and-long early, the Week 6 matchup with New York becomes a real test of whether the league’s most frequent no-huddle team can make the Giants pay for sending extra rushers.
More on the New Orleans Saints
- Will Jameis Winston Beat His Old Team? The Saints Pass Rush Gets Its Chance Sunday
- Saints’ Tyler Shough Admits the Mistake He Keeps Making, So When Will It Stop?
- Tyler Shough Responds to Gayle Benson’s ‘Not Acceptable’ Message as the Saints Sit at 1-4
- New Orleans Saints’ 12.3% Play-Action Rate Raises Kellen Moore Questions
