Tyler Shough had an impressive rookie season and showed that he could be the quarterback of the future for the Saints.
The area where he needed the biggest improvement entering year 2 was his ability to handle pressure. As I wrote during the offseason:
“Shough was too often overreactive to both real pressure and perceived pressure. He tended to break down if a pass rusher did start to leak through the O-line. He didn’t always perform well in a collapsing pocket. His decision-making sped up in bad ways at times. And he even sometimes became frenetic when there was merely the appearance of pressure or a blitz (even if the pocket was clean).”
But so far this season, he looks like a different QB vs. pressure. In Week 1 vs. the Lions, he was 18-29 for 202 yards with 2 TDs and an INT against the blitz. Last week against the Ravens, he completed 14 of 17 passes for 144 yards and 7 first downs.
The most noticeable aspect of Shough’s performance against Baltimore is that he had a great understanding of when the blitz was picked up by the protection and when he needed a fire under his ass to get the ball out.
On this 20-yard completion in the first quarter, Shough knew the pressure was picked up, recognized the man coverage, and targeted the 1-on-1 matchup he liked with Chris Olave on Marlon Humphrey from a tight split with lots of green space to put the ball:
That’s a perfect throw.
You saw the same thing on this 3rd-and-13 in the second half. The Ravens showed double-A-gap pressure and ultimately brought 5. The Saints had it picked up, though:
That’s a great job by left guard David Edwards of looking for work and knocking Roquan Smith (#0) to the ground. It was also a great job by running back CJ Donaldson of starting in the left A-gap, seeing his initial responsibility drop out, and then scanning to pick up the blitz coming off the edge.
But notice Shough too, cool as a cucumber. Since there was no pressure and one fewer defender in coverage, the routes downfield had time to stretch the defense. There was no one to account for tight end Juwan Johnson, who picked up 25 yards on a dump-off:
In the 4th quarter, trailing 17-9 and facing a 3rd-and-5, the Saints saw even more pressure from Jesse Minter’s Ravens defense.
Baltimore again aligned with a double-A-gap pressure. Those backers dropped out in the middle and they ended up bringing a blitz off the edge. This time, Shough knew he had to get the ball out quickly with the overload coming from his left, and he delivered it to Olave in the slot, who ran for the first down:
On New Orleans’ game-winning drive, they faced another pivotal third down (3rd-and-8). The Ravens again crowded the line of scrimmage and appeared to be playing cover-0 behind it. With the Ravens showing blitz and dropping out in the middle all afternoon, Shough targeted the slot where he thought there might be a throwing lane. Juwan Johnson did the rest:
Watch Shough again understand and navigate the pressure. This one couldn’t be picked up, so he needed to get it out of his hands. Watch him quickly navigate the blitzer in his face and release the ball just before taking a hit from his blind side:
Awesome stuff.
New Orleans almost beat the Lions and Ravens on the road to start the season. Going back to last year, they’re an ascending team. And with the way their quarterback is playing, the Saints are a real player in a suddenly-interesting NFC South.