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Saints Defense (1 Viewer)

Zigg

Footballguy
Watching/reading leading up to the Saints-Philly game, and it seems like it's 2010. Everything is about the offense, and can they stop sucking on the road. I haven't heard or read one thing about the Saints D. This is not just an improved D, not just a good D, this is a legitimate top 5 defense that has gotten better as the season progressed, with dominant performances against good teams. Losing Vacarro and his versatility is huge, but this will be a very tough test for the Eagles offense and should be awesome to watch.

This is by far the most intriguing game of the weekend.

 
top 5 defense? Getting rolled by the Rams with Kellen as the qb automatically drops you out of the top 10
Saints @ StL - 302 net yards - 4.2 per rush

'Hawks @ StL - 339 net yards - 5.4 per rush

Saints got rolled by the Rams, but the defense was the least of the worries that day. Like every other lazy reporter, you assumed it was the D. Saints couldn't protect Brees and played like crap. Saints D isn't perfect, but like I said, it is legit top 5.

 
top 5 defense? Getting rolled by the Rams with Kellen as the qb automatically drops you out of the top 10
Saints @ StL - 302 net yards - 4.2 per rush

'Hawks @ StL - 339 net yards - 5.4 per rush

Saints got rolled by the Rams, but the defense was the least of the worries that day. Like every other lazy reporter, you assumed it was the D. Saints couldn't protect Brees and played like crap. Saints D isn't perfect, but like I said, it is legit top 5.
Who is your/the top 5?

To me they play top 5 at home but on the road are not as good when they do not have that 12th man.

 
top 5 defense? Getting rolled by the Rams with Kellen as the qb automatically drops you out of the top 10
Saints @ StL - 302 net yards - 4.2 per rush

'Hawks @ StL - 339 net yards - 5.4 per rush

Saints got rolled by the Rams, but the defense was the least of the worries that day. Like every other lazy reporter, you assumed it was the D. Saints couldn't protect Brees and played like crap. Saints D isn't perfect, but like I said, it is legit top 5.
Who is your/the top 5?

To me they play top 5 at home but on the road are not as good when they do not have that 12th man.
The Saints are the #4 ranked D statistically. What I mean by legit top #5 is that that ranking is not a fluke. Sometimes you see a team ranked high and you just know they will get smeared once they play a top offense. The Saints aren't that team. Unless they weren't with Vacarro. That injury scares me a ton, especially against a team like the Eagles(built in excuse established).

BTW, the Saints D has been pretty good on the road. It's the offense that is Jekyll and Hyde, not the D.

 
Dominant performance until Lewis went out, still held the #2 offense to 256 yards. Still not a peep about this being a great defense. Wish they still had Greer and Vacarro.

 
Dominant performance until Lewis went out, still held the #2 offense to 256 yards. Still not a peep about this being a great defense. Wish they still had Greer and Vacarro.
Add in Harrelson at LB in addition to Lewis - I can't believe the injuries they have had this year on defense. CB Greer, S Vaccaro, LB Vilma, LB Butler, DL Coleman, CB Robinson, LB Smith, on and on an on the injuries have hit and they have kept on playing superbly. If Lewis had not come out it really would have been dominating.

I do not think anyone earlier this year could have foreseen this performance - just amazing.

 
Dominant performance until Lewis went out, still held the #2 offense to 256 yards. Still not a peep about this being a great defense. Wish they still had Greer and Vacarro.
Add in Harrelson at LB in addition to Lewis - I can't believe the injuries they have had this year on defense. CB Greer, S Vaccaro, LB Vilma, LB Butler, DL Coleman, CB Robinson, LB Smith, on and on an on the injuries have hit and they have kept on playing superbly. If Lewis had not come out it really would have been dominating.

I do not think anyone earlier this year could have foreseen this performance - just amazing.
Ryan deserves a lot of credit. Front line is doing an amazing job too.

 
Saints Defense finishes:

2nd in passing defense

4th in points allowed

4th in total yards allowed

19th in rushing defense, but held Forte, Lynch and McCoy to close to their worst performances of the season, overall just 10-12 yards per game less than Seattle and Detroit, the nos. 6-7 ranked teams

And with all those injuries, now up to what something crazy like 8-9 starter quality players out? Amazing.

 
Watching/reading leading up to the Saints-Philly game, and it seems like it's 2010. Everything is about the offense, and can they stop sucking on the road. I haven't heard or read one thing about the Saints D. This is not just an improved D, not just a good D, this is a legitimate top 5 defense that has gotten better as the season progressed, with dominant performances against good teams. Losing Vacarro and his versatility is huge, but this will be a very tough test for the Eagles offense and should be awesome to watch.

This is by far the most intriguing game of the weekend.
Is this more of the Saints get no respect narrative? Every single Saints game showed a number of shots of Rob Ryan and talked about how good the D has become. I think legit top 5 is a stretch, but wouldn't argue much about top 8.
 
Watching/reading leading up to the Saints-Philly game, and it seems like it's 2010. Everything is about the offense, and can they stop sucking on the road. I haven't heard or read one thing about the Saints D. This is not just an improved D, not just a good D, this is a legitimate top 5 defense that has gotten better as the season progressed, with dominant performances against good teams. Losing Vacarro and his versatility is huge, but this will be a very tough test for the Eagles offense and should be awesome to watch.

This is by far the most intriguing game of the weekend.
Couple things:

Overall this Saints defense is better, way better, than 2009. But it is not as good in one area: takeaways and scoring off takeaways. There has never been another Sharper and Porter.

The offense is not as good. The normal Saints offense with this defense might be 15-1. Problem is the offense has often struggled.

 
Byrd makes this the #2 D in the NFL in my opinion. A lot of young players will hopefully be a year better, and the potential is through the roof.

 
Byrd makes this the #2 D in the NFL in my opinion. A lot of young players will hopefully be a year better, and the potential is through the roof.
Without Bowman pulling an AP, the Saints have a shot but I still think that's too high for the Saints right now.

 
Saints D added Champ Bailey. Yeah old, yeah injured last year, yeah yeah yeah, he's Champ Bailey and he will be the no. 2 CB, not the no. 1 (to the extent it's possible he won't be charged with WR1's and he will be practically an onfield coordinator and part time coach for younger players at this point).

Add that to Vaccaro & Byrd, plus Marcus Ball from the CFL (70+ tackles, 2TDs, 6 TO's for Argos, and presumably he can play the pass) at safety.

Three free agent acquisitions in the defensive backfield at least bodes aggressiveness and an effort to upgrade over some very frustrating play by Jenkins and Harper over the last 4 years.

 
Saints D added Champ Bailey. Yeah old, yeah injured last year, yeah yeah yeah, he's Champ Bailey and he will be the no. 2 CB, not the no. 1 (to the extent it's possible he won't be charged with WR1's and he will be practically an onfield coordinator and part time coach for younger players at this point).

Add that to Vaccaro & Byrd, plus Marcus Ball from the CFL (70+ tackles, 2TDs, 6 TO's for Argos, and presumably he can play the pass) at safety.

Three free agent acquisitions in the defensive backfield at least bodes aggressiveness and an effort to upgrade over some very frustrating play by Jenkins and Harper over the last 4 years.
Old, injured. Kind of sounds like what everyone said about Sharper when the Saints picked him up. Hope it works out like that did.

 
If Champ can stay healthy then he will be a fine addition. We have flexibility in our scheme now.

Looking at the draft now? C, DT, and WR are priority.

 
The Saints were No. 4 in sacks last year. As many know they were top 5 in other categories like fewest points allowed, which help in FF, and others like yards allowed which aren't so important. But they were right there with the Hawks, 9ers and Panthers in those categories.

What they need to do in FF is improve in turnovers and in scoring off turnovers. They had zero defensive TDs, zero. The addition of Byrd, Ball and Bailey (if they pan out) and the return of some key players like Butler might do the trick. One huge problem with guys like Jenkins and Harper was that they didn't catch the damn ball when they were in position to make plays and then did not score when they managed to hold on. The pass rusher is there to pressure QBs into bad throws, they just have to convert. I will also add they were a very good play at home, 82 points in 8 games in standard scoring, which is very reliable, though no big explosion games with multiple TDs and that kind of thing.

 
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From RW:


Saints exercised RE Cameron Jordan's fifth-year club option for 2015.
It's a no-brainer move for New Orleans, which now has Jordan under control for $8.4 million over the next two seasons. A 2013 breakout player, Jordan graded out as Pro Football Focus' No. 4 3-4 end, behind only J.J. Watt, Calais Campbell, and Kyle Williams. Only Watt received better pass-rush marks. Turning 25 in July, Jordan has 20.5 sacks and five forced fumbles the past two seasons.

Not sure I realized that Cam had been graded into such elite company.
 

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