Team Speed on the Saints

Symbiote said
How about Pierre Thomas? I thought he looked great so far.

The defense is transitioning into new schemes and so forth, but at the same time they don't look like they have fully transformed as they are still blitzing and not tackling as effectively. Once again, it takes time. Spags isn't going to cure everything over night, and this team isn't stacked on a level of defensive dominance.

Atlanta's defense looked scary last night but no one is looking at Peyton Manning. He was forcing the ball around when he threw those picks. Denver came into that game wanting to air it out, as Peyton is famous for and you can't always win one dimensional like that. Peyton also isn't working with All Star wide receivers anymore, as he's used to forcing it between two defenders to a guy like Wayne. I'm also a bit disappointed in Atlanta's defense. 3 picks in the first quarter, they did great on turnovers, and then they let the Broncos come back and nearly win.

Did anyone notice that despite getting 4 turnovers, Atlanta's "great looking" offense only scored 13 points off of turnovers? Or that Manning (in both games) really hasn't had a deep ball? He's never been terribly accurate throwing it deep (less than 25% completion-- Drew's been around 50%), but in the last two games he's either wildly overthrown the deep ball or thrown an interception. Even is passes over 20 yards in the air haven't been terribly accurate. Did you notice after the picks Manning seldom threw the ball over 10 yards? He went straight to dink and dunk.. Translation: Manning isn't Manning yet. He doesn't have his arm back and throws more like Chad Pennington. Atlanta had film, Pittsburgh didn't.

The Saints didn't have any real film on RG3. NOBODY was expecting that. Carolina is able to do the same things, but are more polished with it. If anything, I think this "getting in the hole" has a much bigger effect on the defense than anything... they aren't protecting a lead, and the other team can be as balanced as they wish. The offense looks off, because frankly, while Drew was trying to squeeze every penny he deserves, he wasn't getting chemistry with his WR's in OTA's are getting a jump start like he did last year during the lock-out, and that is VERY noticable.