I looked at NO vs GB and vs CAR thanks to friends source. My biggest takeaways from NOR on defense were their defensive lineman and edges were a strength, their safeties are good, their LBs can be exploited, and their corners were also surprisingly good including Adebo the rookie. It’s a solid defensive unit. They run a mixture of looks. A lot of zone but some single high thrown in. Saw Cover 3, quarters, cover 6, variations of cover 2. Sometimes they run cover 3 off-man but also press.
Offensively their line had issues. Lots of false starts. Issues with stunts, loopers, twists, delayed blitzes, shifting fronts, communicating pass pro responsibilities, etc. it’s what you would expect from a line that has had to shuffle their guys around. They weren’t getting much push with run blocking. Center and RG (Ruiz and Throckmorton) in particular looked bad. Their receivers minus Calloway didn’t get much separation. Winston ran around a lot vs GB. Winston seems to have issues checking down. If his first or second read isn’t there he usually bolts. He’s a decent runner too. I’m not worried about the offense. Run game wise they ran a lot of outside zone and wrinkles on it. They like to send a tight end going backside across the formation to kickout the edge for a cutback lane. They run a variety of concepts too, inside zone, duo, some counters (so gap/power stuff).
I expect the Pats to try and confuse their OL as much as possible (so Ameba fronts back in) and also use LB and safety pass rushes whether they be true blitzes or dropping different guys into coverage and sending Dugger, Bentley, Mills, etc on rushes. The Panthers sent Chinn and their LB on back to back to back rushes up the A-gap at one point and the Saints couldn’t block it right.
I think we’re going to see a low scoring game and a lot of field goals. I expect the Pats to play a man heavy game in single high with 8 guys in the box and force Winston to make the right read. I like the matchup on paper with the Pats secondary vs the Saints receivers.
Honestly my biggest takeaway watching NO was that holy shit CAR is good and their play calling and offensive game plan is creative and opens a ton of things up. Joe Brady has really impressed me. Darnold also is so good when his first and second read is open. Someone, I think it was the athletic podcast, was talking about how good Darnold is looking now that he has open first and second reads and it’s true. Kind of his like Goff looked good for a while in McVay’s system when he had the answers pre-snap and they carried over to be right post-snap. Darnold still has issues, like Winston does, when it comes time to check down but he’s not the Sam Darnold I saw last year.
It’s early but I think this one ends up like 16-13 or 19-16. Close and low scoring.
