Falcons seek to contain Saints, Brees

Flowery Branch — The Falcons call them “explosive plays,” and they have to hope none blow up on them this week.

The reference is to passing plays of 20 yards or more, and New Orleans is leading the NFL in them. The Saints have 34 plays of 20 or more yards, including 11 plays of 40 or more yards.

The instigator? Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who is leading the NFL in passing yards with 2,563.

“He’s playing the best ball right now, I think, of any quarterback in the NFL,” Falcons strong safety Lawyer Milloy said.

Brees has a myriad of targets to fire to deep.

Devery Henderson has catches of 84 yards, 81, 54, 52 and 51 yards this season already. He’s an old Falcons nemesis who caught a 37-yard touchdown last year against Atlanta.

There’s Marques Colston who is three games into his return from thumb surgery. He had a 49-yard catch and run in his second game back, the Saints’ game before their bye week against San Diego on Oct. 26.

Tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Billy Miller both have catches of greater than 20 yards. And running back Reggie Bush has a 42-yard reception in his repertoire.

Bush did not play against San Diego after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee earlier that week, but Saints coach Sean Payton didn’t rule out his return for Sunday in conversations with reporters on Wednesday.

One thing all those receivers have in common is the ability to run after the catch. The Saints lead the NFL in yards after the catch with 1,157 yards, including 317 from Bush.

“They have a lot of guys with a lot of speed who are doing a good job of getting the ball up the field,” Falcons free safety Erik Coleman. “That’s going to take a group effort. That’s going to take 11 hats getting to the ball every time no matter where the ball is.”

It’s not as simple as just applying more pressure on Brees either. Brees has been sacked only seven times this season, which is the third-fewest in the NFL.

If receivers aren’t open downfield, Brees won’t hesitate to dump off a pass to the short routes.

The Falcons have allowed 22 plays of 20 or more yards, which is tied for the 13th most in the NFL. It’s something they’ve paid close attention to improving since the bye week after the Chicago game.

The way Falcons coach Mike Smith figures it, giving up big plays like that is more about the defensive mistakes than the offense’s prowess.

“Most explosive plays are usually caused by one of three things: one is poor tackling, two is missed leverage and three is a blown assignment,” Smith said. “So we’ve been really concentrating, working on taking good pursuit angles and tackling. We want to make sure we are mentally into our game plan. There will be times they’ll make the perfect throw and the perfect catch, but for the most part it’s more about the defense than it is about the offense.”

By “leverage,” Smith meant having defensive backs force receivers into pursuit from other defensive backs, controlling real estate in the secondary.

That’s something Coleman, Milloy and company know will make the difference Sunday.

“I’ve never played a team this diverse in the passing game,” Coleman said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”