Breaking down the key plays from New Orleans Saints vs Indianapolis Colts

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints offense had another amazing performance, this time against the Colts.

Unlike last season when the New Orleans Saints got hot too early, they are coming into form at the perfect time, and in hindsight, it probably helped their chances that Brees got injured early in the season as they’ll likely save their best for last.

Even though Brees got all of the attention, Sean Payton and the offensive staff were the keys to their success. That said, let’s breakdown some plays from the team’s dominant Monday night victory.

Play 1

The Saints run four verticals out of a 3X1 formation.

The Colts show a cover 2 look pre-snap but the free safety rotates down to cover the hook-curl section of the field, while the strong safety in this instance, Malik Hooker, shifts to the center of the field, while the two cornerbacks drop back to cover their respective 1/3 of the deep part of the field.

This coverage is known as cover 3 sky.

I’m not sure whether it was by chance or if they knew the Colts would rotate to a cover 3, but the Saints had the perfect play called four verticals is a great cover 3 beater as it puts a horizontal stretch on the three deep defenders.

Brees does a great job of looking off Malik Hooker, the center field defender.

Also, the post/seam route from Tre’Quan Smith helps decoy Hooker away from Thomas. As mentioned in my preview of the game, Hooker is a very instinctive player, and thus is likely to jump routes; the Saints used that tendency against him on this play.

The effective play design and look-off from Brees make it a pretty easy throw and catch for Brees and Thomas.