The Saints looked shook and unprepared trailing 14-0 to the Eagles in the first quarter of Sunday’s divisional round game. They might have been shook, but unprepared they were not.
New Orleans ran a risky fake punt which finally got their offense moving, leading to 20 unanswered points. Turns out, it was film study which was integral to the play’s success.
New Orleans recognized on tape that Eagles’ star defensive tackle Fletcher Cox had a tendency to take punt plays off by standing up out of his stance and not pressuring the line. The Saints recognized this, and crafted a play to bullrush Cox with lineman, who would be unlikely to be able to hold his ground standing up straight.
The rest is history…
Never take plays off.
👀 Incredible video:
On one of the biggest plays of the game, the Saints WANTED to run a fake punt into the Eagles *regular defense* because they knew Fletcher Cox was going to play passively from film study. They ran right at him & converted the 1st down. pic.twitter.com/DhlWD8Yt9Q
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 17, 2019