Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
We often think of the NFL game in terms of what happens from snap to whistle. But in the New Orleans Saints’ offense, the play starts much earlier. Head coach Kellen Moore is getting more and more comfortable as a playcaller each week in New Orleans and both of the team’s touchdowns in its 20-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers are evidence of exactly that.
After struggling in the red zone early in the season, the Saints are now tied as the No. 2 red zone team in the NFL scoring six touchdowns on eight possessions (75%) inside the 20 over the last three games.
That’s up from 34.5%, which was both worst in the NFL through the first 12 weeks and was on pace to become one of the worst red zone-touchdown conversion rates in the last decade of the NFL.
In Week 15, a large part of the reason why New Orleans has been so proficient in the area comes down to what Moore has done pre-snap.
First-and-Goal: Devin Neal rushes for four-yard touchdown (2nd Quarter – 3:38)
The key to this touchdown pre-snap isn’t motion or movement of any kind. Instead, it’s all about tempo and play design.
As the Saints break the huddle, they moved quickly to the line of scrimmage, almost with a hurry-up pace. The reason why, presumably, is that the team added a sixth offensive lineman for this play (William Sherman) and instead of adding him in-line beside one of the tackles, he instead took the place of starting right tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. But Banks is lined up offset from the offensive line as a tight end along with a wedge of physical players.
Wide receiver Devaughn Vele, quarterback Taysom Hill and tight end Jack Stoll, three of the team’s top perimeter or slot blockers, are all lined up around Banks.
In order to not telegraph the direction of the upcoming run, it’s a quick snap count for quarterback Tyler Shough. Just a couple of seconds at most is all that the Panthers get to react to the formation. After that, the ball is snapped and running back Devin Neal is on his way to pick through the blocking and defense to find his way into the endzone.
Not only do those split outside lead the caravan for Neal, but almost the entire offensive line pulls to the outside, as well. New Orleans sells out nine blockers for this run to the right and it pays off as Neal navigates the congestion and pushes into the endzone.
TAKE IT TO EM ROOK!
Touchdown Devin Neal 🔥
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/Z4doWXlSsU
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) December 14, 2025
Third-and-6: Shough completes to Olave for 12-yard touchdown (4th Quarter – 2:29)
Before all of the motion and shifting, the Saints lined up in a three-by-two formation with running back Audric Estime at the top of the screen outside of the numbers and wide receiver Chris Olave in the slot. At the bottom of the screen, the Saints have a look with tight end Juwan Johnson at the point and wide receivers Mason Tipton (inside) and Kevin Austin Jr. (outside) at the base.
But then, New Orleans runs a series of motions.
First, Estime motions into the backfield, which moves Panthers safety Nick Scott closer to the middle of the field, lining up over the ball on the right hash. As he motions to Shough’s left hip, Olave shifts outside of the numbers, bringing cornerback Jaycee Horn along with him.
Then, the finishing touch. As the Panthers show blitz, bringing safety Tre’von Moehrig and linebacker Trevin Wallace up to the line of scrimmage, Tipton shifts from inside the trips bunch to the outside, creating a trips lineup instead.
That adjustment then led Scott into the middle of the field and adjusted the outside corners further to the perimeter, leaving the middle for the field vacated for Olave and Shough to attack.
With the cavern of space now available toward the middle of the field, things are about to get even better for New Orleans. After all of the shifting and pre-snap movement, Scott is now just over the top of Johnson, who runs a corner route, pulling him even further from the middle of the field.
As the ball is thrown, there’s ample space to work with as the Panthers defense completely empties two thirds of the coverage map. Thanks to the aggressive blitz and man coverage, both common in the red zone and on third down, the protection does a great job buying enough time for Shough to find Olave on the slant.
Olave’s big responsibility here is to “cross the face” of his defender. That means crossing in front of Horn, rather than passing him and breaking his route while giving up inside positioning to the corner. Olave does this with textbook execution and all that’s left now is the ball placement and catch, which Shough and Olave deliver.
With his 12-yard TD strike to Chris Olave, Tyler Shough now has six TD passes in 2025, tying Archie Manning’s rookie record for TD passes in @Saints history. https://t.co/1yG6U0HADq
— New Orleans Saints PR (@SaintsPR) December 15, 2025
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