NEW ORLEANS -- One of the things I admire about New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is that he sticks to his beliefs and doesn’t let offenses dictate what he’s going to do.
Before Sunday night’s game with Pittsburgh, New Orleans was fourth in the league in sending five or more pass-rushers. The Saints had done it 48.2 percent of the time. A lot of coordinators would have watched tape of what Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had done against the blitz in the previous two games and probably wouldn’t have blitzed him very much. In his two previous games before New Orleans, Roethlisberger had completed 17 of 27 passes for four touchdowns against the blitz. In those situations, he was averaging 11 yards per attempt, had thrown four touchdowns and no interceptions and had a 140.1 passer rating.
That didn’t stop Williams. He sent at least one extra rusher on 15 plays where Pittsburgh attempted to pass, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Roethlisberger completed only six of those passes and averaged 6.3 yards per attempt. Roethlisberger was intercepted once and had a 34.0 passer rating against the blitz.