The New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons will have similar challenges this week: Protect the not-so-mobile veteran QB with shuffled pieces, most notably at center, along the offensive line.
The Saints placed Erik McCoy on IR with a groin injury, while the Falcons sent Drew Dalman to their IR list with a high ankle sprain. The Saints have also been without Cesar Ruiz at practice, while the Falcons are without Kaleb McGary.
Both teams will certainly look to scheme up pressure to take advantage of those absences, but Kirk Cousins' limited mobility should be viewed as a massive red light for the Saints, as WWL Radio's Deuce McAllister broke down this week.
"I don’t care," McAllister said. "I am sending the kitchen sink at him and really, you know, it’s not really from the outside."
Listen to the full breakdown from Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Deuce wants the Saints to walk a pair of linebackers up into the A gaps (each side of the center) and show blitz all game. There could also be pressure sent from the outside with Alontae Taylor, who's already logged 3.5 sacks. But New Orleans should be testing backup Falcons center Ryan Neuzil early and often, and they should be taking advantage of Cousins' lack of mobility, which seems even more pronounced since his Achilles injury last year.
Cousins has been sacked five times on the year, while the Saints have racked up 11 sacks on defense through three games, a figure that's tied for 5th in the NFL.
"I’m going to see if you can move, because if the pressure can get there in your face and you can’t move out of the way, then I know I have a pretty chance that that ball has got to come out hot," McAllister continued. "I can not allow you to sit back there and be able to just dissect my defense and get into the weapons that you have on the edge and it looks like they’re starting to get it to a lot of those weapons out there on the edge. They’ve got a lot of pretty toys at the running back position, the tight end and the receiver position. The question is can the quarterback get it to them consistent, and I’m sending the sink at him.”
The Saints and Falcons face off at noon on Sunday in Atlanta. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
MORE FROM DEUCE
On the Falcons weapons
“I think you’re aobivously, all three of them, a little bit different. Bijan looks like the guy that you thought he would be and he’s done a really nice job being able to pick up the blitz, but it’s … when he has the ball in his hands and he can make people miss and doing some different things like that, that’s what the Saints have to be aware of. He’s basically a guy like Alvin who can do a little bit of everything, and he’s gonna be a stop and start guy, so you’ve got to be able to, hey, I see him and I’m gonna unleash on him. I can’t just say, oh, he’s gonna slow down. No, he’s a … stop and start guy as far as everything he wants to do, not necessarily cutback, but he will cut a lot back and they use him out of the backfield, they throw it to him out wide and they’re using him a lot more but they still will throw Allgeier in there and it looks like, finally, your tight end is 100% healthy. I still think they could probably target him a little bit more and after what you saw this weekend, I imagine they’re gonna say, yea, that’s a matchup we feel like we can win a lot more, and so the Saints defensively, you’re gonna have your hands full. You’ve done it before and it’s just going to be can you lock in.”
Will the Falcons try to emulate what the Eagles defense is
“I don’t think that would be somewhat of a surprise if they don’t at least try to see if that can attack some of the places. I mean, but at the same time for the Saints, there’s some things that you can do to that defense when it’s out there. You try to cut it in half, that’s basically what it is. I don’t have to worry about certain players just because of how they’re going to play, but there are key places I have to be able to make sure that I’ve secured it and it’s a lot easier for me to say when I’m not the guy that’s out there trying to block some of those phenomenal players on the defensive line, but at the same time I think that there’s some places that you can hit a defense when they try to play like that as well.”
