Saints film study: Jonathan Vilma saves day against Atlanta

On Sunday, Jon Vilma earned every penny of the five-year, $34 million contract he signed with the New Orleans Saints in free agency last March.

With the Saints desperately clinging to a 26-23 lead against the Falcons, the veteran linebacker made two key plays in the final five minutes to preserve the Saints' 13th win of the season.

First, he killed one drive with an interception against Chris Redman. It was Vilma's second clutch interception in as many weeks and his third of the season.

His second big play was an example of his tireless preparation and veteran savvy. He quickly diagnosed a Falcons play which had been run earlier in the game and made a critical tackle on fourth down to stop another Falcons drive and ice the game.

The first time the Falcons ran the play - a follow route by the running back -- it resulted in a 38-yard gain by running back Jason Snelling. Facing a third-and-3 on the third play from scrimmage, the Falcons aligned receiver Michael Jenkins to the left side of the formation with three receivers bunched tight to the right: wide receiver Brian Finneran, tight end Tony Gonzalez and receiver Roddy White. Snelling motioned from the left side of the backfield to the right side and followed the three receivers on a pass route at the snap. Finneran ran a shallow 5-yard crossing pattern to the left. Gonzalez ran a 10-yard out to the right. White, meantime, went deep on a post pattern. Snelling followed the cluster, faked an out route to the right then cut back to the left down the middle of the field.
Conscientious of Gonzalez, three Saints went with him on the out route: safety Roman Harper, who appeared to have single coverage on him underneath, and linebackers Scott Shanle and Jon Vilma who were in a shallow zone. Ultimately Vilma lost his responsibility in the middle of the field and allowed Snelling to break free between the hashmarks for the longest pass reception of his career.

The Falcons went back to the same play on fourth-and-2 on their final drive and the Saints read it. Vilma jumped the route by Snelling and met with him with a perfect form tackle to stop him short of the first down. Redman looked like he had his mind made up on the play before the snap. He had Gonzalez open on the out route against Harper in the right flat but never looked his way.

"That play worked earlier, so you knew they were going to come back to it at a certain point in the game," Vilma said. "We talked about it on the sidelines and had a different defense ready for it. It worked the second time against it."

Cornerback Randall Gay said he and several Saints knew the play was coming as soon as they saw the Falcons line up in the bunch formation and guess correctly that they would go back to the back.

"Everybody on the team was calling it out right when it happened," Gay said. "We have smart team. We study it. We listen to what (defensive coordinator) Gregg (Williams) and D.A. (defensive backs coach Dennis Allen) and everybody goes over. We knew the play and everybody was ready. We didn't cover it well (the first time). They came back for it. I left my man to go cover it. J.V. beat me to it."

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(nola.com)