Quinn Recalls Challenges of Trying to Slow Down Brees and the Saints' High-Powered Offense
Friday, January 6, 2012 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When Dan Quinn got home and turned out the lights, he could still hear the win in his head. So could the rest of those at Qwest Field a year ago Sunday when the Seahawks pulled off perhaps the biggest shocker in NFL playoff history by upsetting the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.
The defining moment came when Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch escaped the grasp of eight Saints on the way to a 67-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.
“It was one of the loudest things I have ever heard,'' Quinn said. “Your head was still ringing when you went to bed.''
No one gave the Seahawks – the first team in NFL history to win a division title with a losing record – much of a chance to beat the Saints and All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees. But they did thanks to a big offensive performance and a bend-but-don't-break defensive effort.
A few days later Quinn joined old friend Will Muschamp at Florida to become the Gators' defensive coordinator. He was Seattle's defensive line coach on Jan. 8, 2011.
With the NFL playoffs set to start this weekend, Quinn knows exactly what Detroit defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham and the Lions are doing this week. Trying to figure a way to slow down Brees – there is no stopping him – and the Saints' record-setting offense.
“They are going to be up late,'' Quinn said.
New Orleans hosts Detroit in the first round on Saturday night. The Saints are one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl because of Brees, who rewrote the NFL record books by having arguably the best season any quarterback has ever had.
Brees broke Dan Marino's 27-year-old NFL record by passing for 5,476 yards. He also completed an NFL-record 71.2 percent of his passes and threw 46 touchdowns.
“That's lighting it up man,'' Quinn said. “That ain't a lot of balls hitting the ground. What a challenge that presents for the defense.”
If the Lions are going to win, they'll likely need to use a similar approach as Seattle did.
Quinn said the Seahawks focused on three areas: put pressure on Brees, make sure not to give away defensive disguises before the snap, and have universal calls to avoid trying to match Saints coach Sean Payton's rapid-fire personnel changes on offense.
Brees threw for 404 yards but he needed 60 passes to reach that mark. More importantly, the Seahawks' defense stiffened when it mattered most. New Orleans drove inside Seattle's 8-yard line seven times but three of those trips ended in a field goal.
Quinn's message to his defensive line – especially Seahawks defensive ends Raheem Brock and Chris Clemons – was to make it as uncomfortable for Brees as possible when he dropped back to pass.
“No. 1, you've got to affect this quarterback,'' Quinn said. “If we don't get him off the spot, he's so accurate and knows where to go with the ball. He can throw it into a tight spot.''
Brock had Seattle's only sack, but the Seahawks were able to disrupt Brees enough to force him into secondary throws and incomplete passes that helped slow him down just enough.
Brock and Clemons, who combined for 20 sacks during the regular season, played critical roles.
“In that game, I just tried to feature those two guys as much as we could and say, 'Hey, listen, let's go see if we can try to hit this quarterback to get him off the spot because he is going to make some throws.' That's kind of the way we did it. We had some ways to get him off the spot.
“And he still made some throws, but fortunately for us, our offense had some big plays, too.”
Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw for 272 yards and four touchdowns and Lynch finished with 131 yards.
Seattle did what it was unable to do a few weeks earlier in New Orleans during a 31-17 loss to the Saints, a loss that left Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll with nothing but respect for Brees.
"Their offense and Drew Brees did what they were famous for – threw the heck out of the football," Carroll told reporters afterward. “They played a great game on offense. We couldn't slow them down when we needed to.''
In the rematch, they stopped Brees just enough to escape with a 41-36 win.
The Lions now get their rematch. They lost at New Orleans on Dec. 4, 31-17, as Brees completed 26 of 36 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns.
Quinn said if Detroit defensive linemen Cliff Avril (11 sacks), Kyle Vanden Bosch (eight sacks) and Ndamukong Suh (four sacks) can constantly pressure Brees, the Lions' chances of an upset increase. If not, Brees can pick apart any defensive plan.
It's not just Brees' accuracy that makes the Saints so dangerous in Quinn's view. The supporting cast causes defensive coaches headaches. Three Saints – tight end Jimmy Graham, running back Darren Sproles and receiver Marques Colston – had 80 or more receptions.
And then there is Payton's knack of using multiple personnel groups from play to play.
“You have to be ready for two backs, two tight ends, or one back and three tight ends,'' Quinn said. “It's all these different groups so you had to have a couple of calls you could play against everything.
“If you watch this game coming up, you are going to see maybe in the first 20 plays of the game, it goes three wides, two wides, two backs, one back, no back. It's like they are trying to put all this mental pressure on you by trying to match. There are some times when it's not worth it to try and substitute and match them.”
To offset some New Orleans' controlled chaos, the Seahawks remained in a nickel defense for much of the game. Quinn said the Gators used a similar approach when they faced Florida State in November.
“We played almost the entire game essentially in nickel even though sometimes they weren't in three-wide receiver sets,'' Quinn said. “We just felt like it was worth the tradeoff to get the guys lined up and allow them to play fast.''
The Gators limited the Seminoles to 95 total yards in their most effective defensive performance of the season.
And Quinn said whatever the Lions do they can't let Brees see too much prior to the snap. Make him guess where the coverage is, where the pressure is coming from. He is one of the best in the NFL at making reads and adjusting his mental approach prior to the play unfolding.
“When he knows what it is, man, it's hard to stop,'' Quinn said.
In his 10 years as an NFL assistant, Seattle's win over the Saints is one of the most memorable for Quinn. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't always pretty, but the outcome was perfect.
“It was a great game in the fact you did something they said couldn't be done,'' Quinn said. “It was a really rewarding time and just a game to say, 'Hey, this is why you play, why you compete.' ''
The Lions hope they can say the same on Saturday night.
