Marcus Williams was the obvious scapegoat after the Saints’ meltdown late against the Vikings. If he just tackles Stefon Diggs in bounds, the game is over. Simple as that, right?

Well, not exactly. Yes, Williams should have made the tackle, but that doesn’t mean the Saints coaches put him in an easy spot to make a play. I’d go as far to say that the defensive call was as much to blame for the loss as Williams’ miscue.

First, let’s take a look at the all-22 angle of the play…

There are three problems with how the Saints play this. Let’s go through them all…

1. Only two safeties deep

The Saints were focused on covering the sidelines, which is probably why they didn’t bother to drop a third player deep. I get that. But it puts tremendous strain on the safeties. With no help over the middle, Williams is forced to cover Diggs with a three-way go…

Because of that, he has to wait until the ball is thrown before making his move. Williams was forced to perfectly time his run toward Diggs. That’s difficult to do when covering so much grass. As you can see, Williams gets there a beat early, which forces him to adjust and eventually leads to him missing the tackle.

If he had help in the middle, Williams is closer to Diggs when the pass is thrown, making it much easier to time his hit.

2. Linebackers playing too shallow

The Saints essentially wasted two players by having their linebackers drop to about the 50-yard-line. With no timeouts and only 10 seconds to work with, Minnesota had no reason to target this area of the field, so why waste the numbers?

Because the linebackers were playing so shallow, New Orleans had only three defenders beyond its own 45-yard-line when Keenum releases the ball.

3. Four-man rush

With only 10 seconds on the clock, the Saints should have had one priority: Force the Vikings into a Hail Mary attempt. They did not need to win the game on that play, so there was really no reason to pursue a sack. That’s what makes the decision to rush four so bizarre.

Most teams will rush three in that situation and drop another defender into coverage. New Orleans decided to remain aggressive and it resulted in a one-on-one opportunity for Diggs down the field, which he ended up winning.

The game should have never come down to a one-on-one tackle. It wouldn’t have had defensive coordinator Dennis Allen made a smarter call. The situation gave the Saints a distinct numbers disadvantage. New Orleans’ strategic decisions evened up the numbers for the Vikings and they took advantage.

Blame Marcus Williams all you want, but the loss is on the Saints coaching staff.