2016 Saints' defense #12 in NFL in rushing defense (going into week 17) (1 Viewer)

[ndcc]

Big improvement over 2015, where we ranked 31st!

2016 stats (rushing defense): NFL Stats: by Team Category

2015 stats (rushing defense): NFL Stats: by Team Category

Note: Best performance was (Wk. 4) @Chargers, holding them to 38 total yds. rushing!
New Orleans Saints at San Diego Chargers - October 2nd, 2016 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

 

[Cajun Chat]

We went from 31st to 25th so far in total defense.

Passing was 31st last year and 29th this year. Still need that edge rusher and two healthy CB's.

 

[CTSaint]

Pfft!! Defensive Total points (Saints are 30th) says alot! Guess when was the last time Saints were top ten?

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[bclemms]

Points per play against- 31st. The Niners are 32nd and holding on by one thousanth of a point.

Gotta take that first step somewhere though.

 

[AARPSaint]

Points per play against- 31eliminatesiners are 32nd and holding on by one thousanth of a point.

Gotta take that first step somewhere though.

Points per play seems like a revealing statistic. It eliminates pick sixes and the like.

 

[bclemms]

Points per play seems like a revealing statistic. It eliminates pick sixes and the like.

Points per play and points per drive statistics are extremely important. Point per play differential is the most important stat I've seen. The only thing it doesn't really account for is strength of schedule.

 

[St. Geezy]

We've always said that if our defense was even remotely DECENT, as it is now, then this would be a dominate team. Unfortunately, none of us accounted for the possibility of us losing 4 games directly because of blocked field goals and bogus P.I. calls.

 

[Igordão]

I think the most important improvement by the defense this season was the ability to compete and do well against average and bad offenses. Now, they are a few pieces away to be able to dominate bad and average offenses and to be able to compete against good/great offenses.

 

[ndcc]

A good showing (on the road) vs. the Falcons, who have a LOT to play for... will tell us more about how far the defense has come.

 

[football]

There was games where the defense played well. But there were many games like the last two where they gave up too many yards and tds, although we won. We need a better edge rusher and better corners. I know a lot of people like Webb, but he has been picked on by quarterbacks and struggled mightily. I like Vonn Bell and he is coming to his own, but like all rookies he had his share of critical mistakes. However he had made some great plays. Not having Vaccaro did hurt though.
Overall there are some improvements, but need to improve on stopping teams on third downs.

 

[nosaints213]

I'm giving DA a pass this year. We are void of true talent defensively, and what talent we do have is often injured or missing time - off the top of my head (just this year), players that missed significant time: Breaux, Rankins, Ellerbe, Vaccaro, PJ Williams, Keenan Lewis (who we were counting on to start opposite Breaux), Swan, Harris, Laurinaitis, Kikaha, and Anthony.

Add a few legit players (CB, LB, and WDE), and we could easily be top-15 next year.

 

[VaeVictus]

We've always said that if our defense was even remotely DECENT, as it is now, then this would be a dominate team. Unfortunately, none of us accounted for the possibility of us losing 4 games directly because of blocked field goals and bogus P.I. calls.

Yeah, the PI calls in general have to be curtailed next season. In what little football I've been able to watch this season (flooded in August), I feel I've seen at least one instance per game where a team gets a first and goal b/c of a questionable PI.

The NFL needs to reduce the penalty to 15 yards except in the last two minutes of the game and lay off the number of calls..

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Any sense of what statistical difference ellerbe has made?

 

[Eman5805]

We aren't historically bad. Just regular bad.

That's a marked improvement.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

The best way to compare and see how big of a leap the improvement has been is to put this season next to the last two seasons for the Saints D only as far as Pointer Per Play. 31st this season may have been good for 25th last season and 20th the season we had under RR in 2014.

Still hard to be good in anything when the Defensive back group has had lower level talent 3 of the last 4 years. However, I think if RR was in the situation DA was in as far as injuries this year in the secondary/dline we would have been 36th ranked on defense.