Attack, attack attack. The Saints offense while extremely prolific, will be playing right into the Raiders’ defensive strength – SPEED, especially at linebacker.

On offense, the Raiders will have to concentrate on the between the tackles runs which will be best suited for, “crash”, Mr. Fargas. Also, while the Saints did a tremendous job against Peterson, the Vikings do not run the ZBS, and the Saints were very quick to fill the gaps. This Sunday, the ZBS should be able to counter that defense successfully.

This is the second time that my contributions have made the front page, so a big thanks to you Saint! Like you I started out at AN, but its gotten too crazy over there for me, and it was hard to keep track of the A’s in the second half. Who the heck is Josh Outman anyway?

Here is a link to a RealFootball365 article specifically on this issue. Many of the authors notes are the same as ours, though I don’t agree on the “don’t punt to Bush” one. I think we could try and make it the “punt to Bush and force the turnover” goal.

• Watch special teams. The opening kickoff run back 56 yards by Pierre Thomas was frightening enough even before Reggie Bush turned the game into his own personal track meet. However, the Saints had already toted an underrated return game, in fact entering the Monday night game tops in the league in yards per punt return. Though punt returning has been a slightly rare event for New Orleans in 2008, with 10 in five games (and just five such Saint opportunities going into the Vikings game), this will be an area of concern what with the way the Raiders are perpetually going three-and-out this season. Maybe this should be put even simpler, to wit. ..

• Don’t punt it to Bush at all.

• Defend the play-action. This one’s easier said than done, of course, as the Saints may sport the single deadliest tandem on this play with Drew Brees and Bush. Most emblematic of the combo (get to studying this part of the game tape, Cable!) was the call to go for it on fourth-and-1 with just under 5 minutes to play in the second quarter. Bush in the backfield should have made it obvious that the play-action was coming, with Reggie going to the strong side. Maybe it was obvious; no matter. Brees landed the ball in Bush’s hands and he was gone for 15 yards.

• Exploit penalties. In their first three games, the Saints were already being penalized more than five times per game. Game No. 4 saw the whistle blown on New Orleans a whopping 13 times; and on Monday night, the Saints’ double-figure penalties were certainly their undoing against Minnesota throughout in terms of establishing some kind of momentum. Hopefully the bye week will clean up a few problems within the fairly heavily penalized Raiders (30 calls in five games, tied for 14th best) a bit here, because Oakland’s got to win the battle for the referees.

• Force the turnovers. Going into "MNF," New Orleans’ turnover differential was zero. Post-Vikings, that number is minus-4 and the loss made for the second thanks in more than part to costly turnovers. As much as you have to dig Bush’s playing style and versatility, he apparently still has some issues vis-a-vis holding on to the ball. And Brees does throw interceptions (at least one per game thus far into 2008). Is this a chance for DeAngelo Hall to truly redeem himself? Sure, if he remembers how to play underneath.

• Pretty much forget about running off tackle. Adrian Peterson didn’t gain more than 4 yards on a run to the perimeter until the fourth quarter against New Orleans. To be sure, the Saints will be attempting to shut down Darren McFadden in like fashion. Because Justin Fargas returns, why not just have the super-determined cannonball plow through the middle continuously against New Orleans?

The Raiders will have to score on defense or special teams, better if both to win in Saintville. Do not like going into another teams house while they are on a losing streak. Teams seem to correct their situation when playing the Raiders. You have Grant going against cornell Green, and Will Smith going up against Harris. Those match-ups do not fair well in the Raiders favor. This is not the game to become pass happy as AL Davis wants. We have to utilize the run more than ever. Forget about the saints containing Peterson, that was their game plan on defense to stack the line, and the vikes game plan was to throw. If the Raiders do show they can contain Smith and grant and do an average job against the blitz then yes the passing game could do some damage. Saints secondary is weak and they lost Porter for the season. But most of all our defense will have to play all 4 qtr’s at a great level to beat Bree’s and company. Both the saints and Raiders could be 3-1 at this point. Should be! We are 7-5-1 against the saints with a tie record playing in New O. 2-2-1<2-1 against them in the month of October. I just have a bad feeling that this game could get out of hand. People can say what they want, but the turmoil over the weeks might finally effect this team this week. I fear a 35-10 score. I hope to GOD I am dead wrong! Ryan better have the right game plan for our defense this time. He has Al’s blessing, so Davis can’t blame Kiffin any longer, We shall see! Please Ryan prove Me wrong!!!!!!!!!/em>

Nickel defense: The Raiders are going to have to utilize their nickel defense a lot on Sunday, so much so in fact that Ricky Brown may just decide he doesn’t need to get on the plane to New Orleans. This means that Stanford Routt (depending on his health) or Tyvon Branch are going to see plenty of action in the defensive backfield.

Pass rush: The Saints are #1 in the league with 325.8 passing yards/game and #2 in the league with 194 passing attempts. That means that the vaunted Vikings run defense wasn’t the reason the Saints abandoned the running game – they were never really committed to it in the first place (maybe they just wanted to be friends with it.) With Derrick Burgess ailing it will be important for Jay Richardson, Kalimba Edwards, and Trevor Scott (he’s still a Raider right?) to step up and get plenty of pressure on Drew Brees. I like what Edwards has done so far this season, so he may get the start over Richardson on Sunday.

Press coverage: Constant pressure and blitz packages requires press coverage by the defensive backfield – if you bump the wide receiver out of their route in the process of a blitz the ball will come out before the receiver is where they are supposed to be = good things happening. Hopefully Asomugha’s elbow is up to the task and Hall has figured out that he’s played better at the line of the scrimmage rather than 15 yards away from it.

Medium/Deep Passing: MNF taught everyone an important lesson – forcing the issue usually leads to good things, either a long TD pass or pass interference that leads to game winning field goals. The Saints secondary was poor to begin with, and they just lost Tracy Porter for the season. Like Cable has said, we need to take our shots in the passing game, and he’s not talking about dink n’ dunk. Go JaMarcus!

Locker Room: The Saints are pissed about this week’s game. Not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing yet. On the one hand they could just go out and take a “we want it more” attitude a la San Diego, where our locker room culture hasn’t gotten to yet. On the other hand the Saints may come out desperate and try to force the issue and make even more mistakes than they did this week. Either way, the Raiders need to know that they are facing a team that is absolutely steaming, and if they don’t come to play at 110% energy they don’t stand a chance.