New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Friday, September 12, 2014
Media Availability Following Practice

Opening Statement: "Today was a very typical Friday for us with red zone, short yardage and goal line preparations."

If Kenny Stills comes back this week will there be a decision regarding activating five wide receivers or staying at four active like last week?

"It's a good question. We have to deal with those scenarios each week. A lot of it has to do with who we're playing personnelwise and would it (inactive) come from an offensive or defensive position. We have a couple of them. Obviously we will know here in the next 24 hours. It's not necessarily a one for one and all of a sudden he's up. It could come from a different position."

Cleveland looked effective last week working out of the no huddle and moving the ball. How do you prepare for that?

"Number one, you have to be quick with your calls coming in. What I think they did a very good job of was a lot of times in a no huddle situation you get a lot of different spread sets and the quarterback might come to the line. Last week was a good example. He might come to the defense and get to a run or pass. Atlanta was a lot of 11 or three wide receiver personnel in their approach. What Cleveland did last week, they were a lot of 12, two tight ends or three receivers. What was different and challenging about it was the run game was very effective for them, and the naked boots coming off of it. It's a little bit different hurry up offense in that the plays that you're getting are different than you might get from a three-wide receiver personnel group no-huddle. At the line of scrimmage, some of it's pistol and he's getting to a run that he wants to get to. The very next time he's getting to a play action pass and naked boot. That provides a little bit of a different challenge defensively making sure you have good eyes on your coverage and then you are in a position to fit the run. From a tempo standpoint, it's just a matter of that each offense runs it at different pace. Preparing for it allows you to carve plays in scout team and pick it up and get going to the next one, so generally settling in on the pace is one thing, but more importantly the scheme and where they're trying to go off on the running game and the play action of it is really effective. I think that second half, watching it again last night, (Brian) Hoyer did a real good job with the run looks, the run sells. He was just as effective booting (bootleg) left as right. A lot of time, teams will be one way or right-handed. That will put a lot of stress on the linebackers and safeties."

When teams do that to you, do you want to slow down your offensive play-calling to keep your defense off the field or do you get in trouble when you do that?

"I think we try to pay attention to the last drive. Last week, there was a 16-play drive that Atlanta had that just got extended with a penalty and was a lot of plays. Paying attention to the drive they just had offensively is important and knowing that we need to get some first downs here. They were just out there for quite a while. A team could be in a hurry-up and go three and out. Just understanding the snaps the defense has prior ot the series is something you have to be mindful of as a play-caller."

Is Cleveland one of the few classic 3-4 fronts you will see?

"To answer your question these guys have a 3-4 base defense. They play it exceptionally well. They have a lot of veterans in that front. (Karlos) Dansby is playing inside linebacker. (Paul) Kruger is one of the outside backers. The inside guys are very good. When you support a guy like (Donte) Whitner, a safety, (and) you bring him down, it's a salty front. It's good.