METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints are thin at cornerback this week with injuries to Keenan Lewis and Damian Swann.
That’s particularly bad timing since the Indianapolis Colts are so deep with big-play receiving threats.
Dynamic speedster T.Y. Hilton has emerged as one of the NFL’s top playmakers in recent years, and he’s working on his third straight 1,000-yard season. And second-year pro Donte Moncrief has emerged as another go-to guy for the Colts this season with four touchdown catches and a great combination of size and speed.
Then Colts also added veteran star Andre Johnson this offseason and another dynamic speedster in first-round draft pick Phillip Dorsett.
"Like they needed another one," cracked Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, who said Indianapolis has an "elite" receiving corps to go with an elite quarterback in Andrew Luck. "They’re loaded."
And they love to swing for the home run. The Colts lead the NFL in passing plays of 20-plus yards since the start of the 2014 season. They have 97 of them -- 12 more than any other team in the league.
That statistic seems to have been drilled home to players this week since it was referenced in some fashion by coach Sean Payton and multiple players.
"They have a boatload of guys. And that’s something coach talked about, it’s not just one guy, it’s four," Saints cornerback Delvin Breaux said. "(They have) speed guys. They’re rollin' man. We’ve got to bring our track spikes this week."
The good news for the Saints is that Luck has been a bit rusty this season -- even before he missed two starts with a shoulder injury. He has thrown eight touchdown passes with seven interceptions. And according to ESPN Stats and Information, Luck has completed a league-worst 33.8 percent of his passes thrown at least 10 yards down the field. All seven of his picks have come on such throws.
Luck also has been "off target" on a career-high 26.1 percent of his attempts this season, according to ESPN Stats and Info. Only Houston’s Ryan Mallett has been worse.
The bad news for the Saints is that Luck just played his best game of the season after returning from the injury last week in a loss to the New England Patriots. He completed 30 of 50 passes for 312 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Saints players and coaches have widely praised Luck this week -- including Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who called him a "stud" and safety Kenny Vaccaro, who shot down a question about whether Luck is "deceptively" athletic saying, "Not deceptive. Just because he’s white doesn’t mean he’s deceptive. He’s actually a great athlete."
It will be interesting to see how the Saints match up against the Colts' variety of receiving threats -- which also includes solid pass-catching tight ends Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen.
Breaux is emerging as a fantastic physical cover man in his first year since migrating from the Canadian Football League. He did an excellent job when matched up against the Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones last week. But it’s unclear if the Saints would want to match Breaux against the smaller, faster Hilton (5-foot-9, 180 pounds) or the bigger Moncrief (6-2, 222).
The Saints certainly don’t want a 1-on-1 matchup between Hilton and their other starting cornerback Brandon Browner, who is an asset as a physical press corner but is susceptible to getting beat deep by speed guys.
Beyond those two, the Saints can use Vaccaro as a cover man in the slot and they can use veteran Kyle Wilson and second-year pro Brian Dixon in coverage.
"They’ve got a lot of speed at the receiver position. I think they lead the league almost every year in explosive plays," Vaccaro said. "They definitely can cause some matchup problems.
"They want to take their shots. They keep you on your toes. You gotta keep your eyes right."