Klint Kubiak's Scheme Has Fueled the Saints' Explosive Start

It would be easy to overlook the Saints’ 47-point performance in Week 1 against the Panthers given the state of that franchise. But New Orleans followed that up by dropping 44 points on the road against a Cowboys defense that was dominant one week earlier.

The Saints have been nearly perfect on offense so far. In fact, they scored on their first 15 drives with Derek Carr on the field to start the season. Suddenly, it appears that bringing in Klint Kubiak as the offensive coordinator was possibly the best hire of the offseason.

Kubiak is a disciple of the Shanahan/Kubiak (obviously) style of offense. And on Sunday against Dallas, we saw many of the cornerstones of that scheme: under-center offense, zone runs, play-action, motion, etc.

The scheme, execution, and play-calling were so good against the Cowboys that the Saints were able to generate 3 pass plays of at least 39 yards despite throwing the ball just 16 times. What was more impressive was that the explosiveness in their passing game came without Carr having to make many difficult or complex decisions post-snap all afternoon.

Of his 17 dropbacks, 13 of them were either play-action or screens. These are the types of plays where the reads are simple and clearly defined. That allowed Carr and the offense to play fast and execute without hesitation.

You could see it on the Saints’ first big play of the day. This was a 1st-and-10 on their opening drive. New Orleans came out in “12” personnel (1 RB, 2 TE), which got the Cowboys to match up with base personnel:

The bigger personnel was to help sell the likelihood of a run and get slower second-level defenders on the field.

The Saints then sent tight end Foster Moreau, who was initially aligned on the perimeter to the right, across the formation to Micah Parsons’ side. This put two blockers on the Cowboys’ game-wrecker right at the snap: