The Washington Redskins are in first place in the NFC East as they prepare for their Monday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints. And while Washington’s defense has played well so far, this Saints matchup is going to be as tough a game as they may face all season.
Saints QB Drew Brees, having passed for 71,740 career yards, is currently in third place behind former Brett Favre (71,838 yards) and Peyton Manning (71,940) in that category. He needs just 201 yards to break Manning’s all-time passing yardage record. Not only will the atmosphere at the Super Dome be electric (it was no mistake the NFL scheduled New Orleans for a MNF game around now), the Saints are an excellent team.
Brees has weapons around him that will make it very difficult for the Redskins defense to stop him putting points on the board. New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara is as much a receiving threat as he is a rushing threat, having put up 112 yards in the air against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 and 124 against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3. Last week against the New York Giants, he logged 134 yards rushing on 19 carries… a whopping 7.05 yards per carry.
While Washington’s defense has been pretty good against the run, rankings this early in the season are not necessarily reliable in terms of how good or bad a unit is. Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Manusky isn’t wearing any rose-colored glasses as he game-plans for a player like Kamara.
“I just think he does a great job catching the ball, running the ball,” Manusky said about Kamara this week. “Great vision, great sight lines in the run game. Overall, he’s a good football player and he’s been showing for the last year and even in the beginning of this year. It’s always a challenge for us as a defensive coaching staff and as players to make sure that we have as many people around him as humanly possible and that’s what we’ve got to try to do.”
The Redskins defense will need to do what they’ve already been doing, only better, tonight against New Orleans. Stopping Kamara goes without saying but everyone knows that Saints coach Sean Payton is going to try and get Brees his record. That means the secondary — safety D.J. Swearinger, CB Josh Norman, and all the young guys — are going to have to execute as well as they ever have.
Manusky preaches all the time about what will allow them to do just that.
“Well, I think the biggest thing is communication,” the DC said, yet again. “As long as we are on the same page and we communicate and play the same coverage, we will be fine. From our standpoint, we do have a couple of young guys in the back end. But from our standpoint, hey it’s the players we have out there and we’re excited to see them perform at a high fashion, so we’ll be ready Monday night.”
Not only does Manusky have to worry about Kamara, he’s got to worry about the return of Saints RB Mark Ingram. Between Kamara and Ingram, the two are threats in the passing game and the ground game; one speedy and shifty, one bruising and downhill.
As for the double jeopardy, on top of the aforementioned offensive munitions, there’s the Saints weird wildcat formation that features New Orleans QB Taysom Hill. Against the Falcons, Hill was lined up behind center on the Saints 40-something yard-line when he faked a handoff to Kamara but kept the ball. He ran 35 yards with it.
Not only does Manusky have to worry about Brees, Kamara, Ingram and WR Ted Ginn, Jr.; he must worry about Hill getting in the mix.
“I think any challenge when you have those two quarterbacks, you don’t know if Brees is going to be in, or No. 7 [Taysom Hill] is going to be there,” Manusky said about the added challenge. “So, from our standpoint we are going to try to put a little package together and see what we can do Monday night.
“He can still throw, so it doesn’t matter,” he continued about defending the wildcat. “He’s still a quarterback that plays in the National Football League. It puts us in a certain bind at times but we’ll have a package for it and take it from there.”