Here’s bayouram...
The Saints defense have rarely been challenged in the run game all season. I am not suggesting that their run defense is not good, but it would be interesting to see what happens if they're challenged vs the run an entire game against a strong running team. Particularly a team that is dangerous passing the ball. After reviewing their box score for every game this season, excluding the last regular season game, I found that only once this year did a running back have 20 or more carries vs them (Zeke had 23 for a 3.3 average). Also, rarely did a running back have 15+ carries against them. Only 2 backs had greater than 5 yards per carry against them, and I am going to exclude 1 of them because it appears that a lot of Mixon's yards for the Bengals came against the Saints 2nd team defense. Todd Gurley averaged 5.2 yards on 13 carries. I get a feeling if we challenge them on the ground even if we don't have early success, we will POUND them.
