New Orleans Saints Running Back Chris Ivory
San Diego Chargers 21 at New Orleans Saints 36
Undrafted Saints rookie running back Chris Ivory may have come to the NFL from Tiffin University, but he wasn't a small-school find along the lines of Marques Colston (Hofstra), Jermon Bushrod (Towson), and Jahri Evans (Bloomsburg). Ivory spent three years at Washington State before he was booted off the roster for a violation of team rules, and he landed at the FCS (formerly Division-II) school in Ohio through head coach Dave Walkosky, who served as Washington State's special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach in 2007. Ivory played in four games before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Despite concerns about Ivory on and off the field, Walkosky wound up with a host of business cards from NFL teams on his desk. Ivory was not drafted, but the Saints gave him a chance to be the second player in Tiffin history to make the NFL. Titans receiver Nate Washington, who played all his college football there, was the first.
As with most low-pick and undrafted players, Ivory got his preseason shot because of depth-chart issues. In his case, injuries to backs Lynell Hamilton and P.J. Hill prompted the Saints to give Ivory more time and bring in veteran big backs Ladell Betts and DeShawn Wynn. Judging from what I saw when the Saints took on the Chargers last Saturday, Ivory's working hard to climb to the top of that depth chart no matter who might be in the way.
Despite their well-deserved reputation as a supreme passing team, the Saints won the Super Bowl just as much on the run. Pierre Thomas ranked first in DVOA among running backs in 2009, and Mike Bell combined low DVOA and high Success Rate in a way that generally indicates a short-yardage back who makes required gains consistently and doesn't do much more. Bell has taken that show to Philadelphia, which precipitated the need for another big guy in the first place. Sean Payton likes two-back sets (New Orleans set up with two running backs 61 percent of the time, 11th in the league), will move his guards in space, and uses tight end David Thomas very effectively as an H-back/blocking option. It's a good setup for any power back.
Ivory got his first carry against the Chargers with 10:44 left in the third quarter, though he was playing with, and against, first teams. After Drew Brees hit Colston for eight yards out of twins left and threw an incompletion on second down, the Saints faced third-and-2 from their own 27-yard line. The Saints brought an I-formation set against San Diego's 5-2 nickel, with Ivory bulling up the middle for the first down. Two plays later, Ivory took the ball out of single-back max protect, went downhill, tried to bounce the play outside left, and lost a yard. That was the last play with the first team, and Patrick Ramsey replaced Brees after an incompletion to Lance Moore.
New Orleans' next drive started with 6:42 left in the third quarter, with Ramsey overthrowing Courtney Roby on a deep seam route from the Saints' 20. (Bonus shot of Brees dropping an "F" bomb on the sideline after that one). On the next play, Ivory hit the middle of the line out of another I-formation and took to the left side after an outstanding block to the right by fullback Zak Keasey moved linebacker Kevin Burnett. Ivory showed a nice stutter-step for a big guy, but that play was made by the blocking.
The Saints were subbing Ivory out in obvious passing situations, so I didn't get the kinds of looks at his pass blocking that I would have preferred at the start. This told me how they may see Ivory working in their offense, but I was hoping to see a bit more. There was 5:28 left in the third quarter when I saw Ivory put up a solid block on outside linebacker Antwan Applewhite as Ramsey threw a short pass to tight end Tory Humphrey. Given the importance the Saints put on blocking (seriously -- if you think they're a dinky spread offense team just because they have so much formation diversity and Brees is so productive, give them another look), that's the kind of thing that will help Ivory get real reps when the regular season starts.
Of course, the Ivory play that got people talking in this game was his 76-yard touchdown catch-and-run with 7:36 left in the game (Figure 1). The Saints had first-and-10 at the 24 and lined up in another I-formation. Ivory headed left, took a quick swing pass from Ramsey, juked Applewhite inside as he tried to come down from read-and-react, bulled safety Steve Gregory, and outran everyone else until safety Darrel Stuckey tried to bring him down near the end zone ... and that wasn't happening. I liked the way Ramsey originally sold this as a pass play to the right, led by the blocking of fullback Mike Tolbert, and two receivers cleared out the coverage from that side. That kept San Diego's defense from overloading to the first target.
Teams who find under-the-radar players like Ivory usually have strong systems in place. Much has been made of Sean Payton's playcalling acumen, and Payton deserves every bit of that praise. But the Saints also have an inherent and well-developed ability to tailor talent to scheme that allows them to rise above the middle- and bottom-of-the-pack teams who simply throw a bunch of athletes at a problem.
"(Ivory) did some good things," Payton told reporters after the Chargers game. "There are some things he has to work on in regard to landmarks. I thought he ran hard and had good effort. He has good balance and finishes his runs well, which has been pretty exciting to see. There are a ton of things he's working on like any rookie would be but specifically a running back. He's making progress and it was good to get him work with the ones the other night."
Ivory should get a lot of reps against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. If he keeps performing at this level, he'll be seeing more time with the ones soon enough.
