Payton and Brees, стр. 40
And that includes his own coaches and players. No idea is too crazy for Payton. He tells his staff he’s in the “buying business” when it comes to play ideas. This inclusive approach also fosters buy-in from the staff.
“Sean always wants thoughts and ideas and input,” Marrone said. “The mindset is always about being open-minded about trying to get better. There’s really no limit to where we want to go. Sometimes the crazier the idea was, the better chance you had of getting it called in a game. The thought process was: Are we good enough to get this done?”
The answer for Payton, Brees, and the Saints offensive staff is always yes.
13. The Supercomputer
The play on which Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning’s all-time passing record is called Hop to Gun King Trips Right Tear 52 Sway All Go Special X Shallow Cross Halfback Wide. It’s a derivative of one of the Saints’ most popular route concepts, the All Go Special, one of their favorite zone beaters. It’s designed to beat zone coverage by flooding one side of the field with four receivers. The route concept on the strong side of the offensive formation stresses the deep safety and flat defenders by running three receivers through the coverage on vertical routes and sending the running back into the flat on the same side. The defenders in coverage on that side of the field are forced to make split-second decisions on who to cover.
Precise spacing and route running are keys to the play. The receivers aligned wide—in this case, Tre’Quan Smith and Cameron Meredith—are positioned on each side of the numbers and run vertical go routes straight downfield. Smith is assigned to release outside his defender and fade his route toward the sideline. Inside of Smith, Meredith maintains his route down the numbers. And inside of them, Arnold, aligned in the slot just outside the right tackle, runs a post route designed to carry the safety in the middle of the field. Michael Thomas, the only receiver aligned to the left side of the formation, runs a shallow crossing route underneath the zone coverage to the right. Kamara provides the checkdown outlet by running a flat route to the right.
Brees’ progression, known as a triangle read, is to the two inside receivers on the right—in this case, Meredith and Arnold—and then to Thomas, cutting across the field underneath from left to right.
The play stresses the zone coverage by sending three receivers deep on vertical routes—Smith, Meredith, and Arnold—and two receivers shallow on horizontal routes—Thomas and Kamara. If defenders don’t communicate well and maintain proper discipline in their assignments, it can often produce a big play. Against the Redskins, the Saints ran this same play with the same personnel on the previous series to the left side of their formation. Brees hit his primary read, Meredith, down the numbers for a 46-yard gain to convert a second-and-17 play.
Now, on first-and-10 with Brees needing 35 yards to break the record and a national television audience watching, the Saints were calling it again, this time flipped to the opposite side of the formation.
During their week of preparation, the Saints noticed on film that the Redskins made an adjustment in their Cover 2 defense when the opponent aligned four skill players to one side of the field. The Redskins walked up their free safety—in this case, D.J. Swearinger—to cover the running back’s route out of the backfield and rolled strong safety Montae Nicholson into a single safety alignment in the middle of the field. When this happened, the cornerbacks aligned on the boundary were responsible for deep coverage on their third of the field.
The Saints knew exactly how to attack this vulnerability. And they were going to try to make history while doing it.
When Brees motioned Kamara from the left side of the backfield to the right side before the snap, the Redskins responded accordingly. Swearinger immediately repositioned toward the line of scrimmage and Nicholson rolled left to the middle of the field. After motioning Kamara, Brees immediately called for the snap. The Saints were blitzing the defense, forcing the Redskins to adjust on the fly. And it worked.
As Brees backpedaled into his five-step drop and surveyed the field, he immediately noticed something awry. Josh Norman, the Redskins cornerback on the strong side of the field, was in the wrong place. Instead of retreating to cover the deep third of the secondary, he instead squatted in coverage near the line of scrimmage, eyes glued to Brees and Kamara.
“I’m turning and looking, I see that the corner, who’s supposed to be deep third is not deep third, so immediately I know there’s nobody in the deep third and that’s where Tra’quan is,” Brees said. “Look, throw. I didn’t even look, throw. It was just…feel, throw.”
Smith was wide open. Sixty-two yards later, he was in the end zone with the record-breaking catch.
Smith was as shocked as anyone that the ball came his way. As the outside receiver on the strong side of the play, his role is essentially to occupy the attention of the boundary cornerback and pull him away from Meredith and Arnold. In other words, he’s the clear-out guy. In Saints jargon, this is known as a “bus ticket” route.
“We call it a bus ticket because if you don’t have an outside release and carry the corner and mess up the play, then they’re going to find you a bus ticket home,” Taysom Hill said. “That gives you an idea of where [Smith’s] route is in the progression on that play.”
The play is one of the most popular in the Saints playbook. They’ve run it countless times over the years. Brees’ first option is to Arnold