Defending the Wildcat will be key for Saints

METAIRIE, La. ― Whatever you do, don’t call the Wildcat offense the single wing around Gregg Williams.

“It’s different than the single wing,” Williams said. “It always grates on my nerves when you guys call it that. It’s not the single win. You don’t see a guy back there, spinning around, hiding, doing all that kind of stuff.”

But whatever you want to call it, one thing is for sure – it’s working.

A fad it’s not, as anyone who follows the Saints will see Sunday when New Orleans travels to Miami for a 3 p.m. interconference matchup.

“It gives you a versatility and anybody can have the football,” Saints safety Darren Sharper said. “It has been successful and whenever something is successful, you know this is a copy cat league, so teams are going to do it.”

It’s in Miami where the offense came into being. It was under then-first year coach Tony Sparano that the nation first saw a running back line up at quarterback and run a version of the option.

And it worked. The Dolphins, 0-2 at the time, blasted the New England Patriots 38-13. Coming off of a 1-15 season, it marked a turn around for a once proud franchise.

“We were trying to get Ricky (Williams) and Ronnie (Brown) on the field at the same time and this was the way to do that and at the same time help our offensive line create a little bit of space,” Sparano said Wednesday during a conference call.

This season, with Brown as the main player running the Wildcat, the Dolphins run offense has taken off. Miami has led the league in rushing the past three weeks and averages 177 yards per game.

Brown has six rushing touchdowns and leads the team with 443 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Williams has 316 yards per game and averages 5.2 yards per rush.

Lest you think Miami only runs out of the Wildcat, Brown has thrown two passes, completing one for 21 yards.

That puts a premium on quickly reading the play correctly by Sharper, safety Roman Harper and cornerbacks Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer.

“It’s a different thing as a defensive back because your keys are all different from what you’re used to seeing,” Sharper said.

It doesn’t help that the Dolphins old onto the ball better than any other team in the league, leading the NFL in time of possession at nearly 35½ minutes per game. They head into Sunday’s game with the fourth-most rushing attempts in the league.

The Saints might have a top 10 defense, but against the Eagles, New Orleans had a tough time halting Philadelphia when it used the Wildcat.

Of Philadelphia’s 79 rushing yards, 45 came from the Wildcat. Only twice did a play run from the formation gain fewer than five yards and the Eagles used it nine times.

“What it allows is that it allows you offensively to get that advantage back from a numbers standpoint,” Saints Head Coach Sean Payton said. “You’ll see variations throughout the country in college football with quarterbacks that can both run and throw it, but this is a team that utilizes this aspect of their offense very well, better than anyone.

“That will be a tremendous challenge for us.”

The challenge comes in practice as much as the game. It’s pertinent for the scout team to give the starting defense a true look, but with the offense being so specialized, it’s tough.

This week, Reggie Bush and P.J. Hill both tried to simulate Brown and Williams.

“It does force you to devote more time and try to quickly teach the scout team players that are representing the look and how to do it effectively,” Payton said. “All those things are factors.”