After the 1st two weeks of the season the Defense has given up 1025 yards of offense. (1 Viewer)

[Bill]

I only thought I was depressed until I read this thread.

Ignorance is the mental health prescription this season.

Excuse me while I

 

[Zztop]

Other than GW, the team hasn't had an "identity" on defense. But about these stats... downright pathetic and should get DA fired. But something tells me he won't be.

 

[MJ in Calif]

That is video game numbers. We are on pace to give up over 8000 yards of offense at this point.

I can't even wrap my head around that possibility nor the fact of how much we have given up to start the season.

Seriously what do we do? Is Payton that blind to see how bad it is?

No he is not blind. He is just incapable of fixing it. He has no clue about that side of the ball obviously. Outside of Greg Williams, he doesn't even know how to hire a DC.

 

[blackadder]

Peter Drucker once famously said that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

Think about Southwest Airlines relative to some of the larger legacy airlines that make roundtrips in and out of bankrupcty every other decade.

Your culture, and the expectations that your culture creates, have much more of an impact on how your team performs (whether in business, football, or whatever) than any one strategy.

Cover 2 vs Man to Man - that's strategy. What's missing from this team looks much more cultural to me.

Payton has changed every strategic aspect of defensive multiple times -
player personnel, defensive coaches, defensive schemes - he's changed it all, and none of it has worked. We're actually worse than when we started the (first) defensive rebuild.

I think its because there is a bad, bad culture on this team, especially on defense. Accountability seems to be very sporadic, which usually makes things worse if teammates see inconsistent treatment. Think about how Payton publicly trashed and threatened to trade Breaux - because he wouldn't play on a broken leg. You think players are gonna extend themselves for Payton with his $45M contract when they see that?

Bad culture starts at the top. Normally that would mean Benson, but from many reports, I think its safe to say Benson is not the day to day leader he once was (Hey, he's 90, it happens).

Payton is the face of the team, he's the highest paid coach in the NFL, and every bit of this team is reflection of HIS choices - he created the culture here (or maybe its more accurate to say he allowed to to occur). The massive disruptions from Bountygate and then epic failures in the draft and FA took what what was a really special culture (including the sub-culture of GW's defense*) and blew it into space.

I just can't tell if Payton can even see this.


*GW's defenses were a classic case of 'culture over strategy' - that was really the heart of Bountygate - GW created a strong culture on that unit that helped compensate for just OK talent. Unfortunately he couldn't co-exist with Payton and large parts of that culture weren't fit for public consumption.

This is a great post.

The other aspect of the culture that once was that it clearly looked like the best players played regardless of how they were acquired, and when you saw them play the decisions made sense and inspired confidence, not just in fans but in the players as well. Pieere Thomas was the first great example of that.

But that now seems to be a thing of the past. Sterling Moore sitting on the bench. Harris over Crawley. Craig Robertson sidelined. This is disheartening and demoralizing to fans and it has to be inside the locker room too. The culture of trust and credibility has gone and instead players see arbitrary decisions that seem out of step with performance, political or just inept.

 

[OldTimeGamer1966]

I was watching the Seahawks /49er game and they showed the house cleaning they did it was crazy. The one thing they said was Lynch has brought a new culture to the organization. They are hungry and aggressive on defense the offense is still a work in progress. They played the Seahawks hard they were physical just like Lynch was as a player look for them to be in the NFC west hunt in a few years. We need a new culture just as bad as when Payton came in and changed ours.

 

[dapperdan]

1st Quarter 11 7 63.6 70 6.4 18 0

2nd Quarter 24 14 58.3 187 7.8 42 1

3rd Quarter 15 7 46.7 132 8.8 52 0

4th Quarter 32 26 81.2 258 8.1 27 2

Drew has just as much fault as the rest of the team. Most of his stats came in the second quarter before the half, and in the 4th quarter when we are so far behind it's too late.

Yesterday in the 4th, down by 3 scores with 10 minutes left what does he do? Proceeds to burn 5 minutes off the clock by huddling up, going to the line and running the play clock down to 0 before snapping the ball. That is not playing like you want to win...

Thanks for the stats. I believe Drew will be fine but he wasn't ready to start the season and a big part of this is the fact that he doesn't get enough reps in the preseason.

 

[St.Fury]

I'm not even sure SP has control of the defensive "culture" anymore. Maybe it's in his or Mickey's head. Maybe it's a legit concern, I don't know. But I think we were still feeling the effects of the bounty gate fiasco. They won't let anything resembling that culture creep back in. And it's affecting our performance. JMO

 

[OldTimeGamer1966]

I'm not even sure SP has control of the defensive "culture" anymore. Maybe it's in his or Mickey's head. Maybe it's a legit concern, I don't know. But I think we were still feeling the effects of the bounty gate fiasco. They won't let anything resembling that culture creep back in. And it's affecting our performance. JMO

I hate the thought that the bounty gate stuff being a culprit. It been 5 years we need to move past that. We can be saying that for the next 5 years it's just not an excuse and If Payton can't get over it we need to find someone who can change the culture. Goodell is winning so to say we all hate him heck most of the NFL fans hate him.

 

[St.Fury]

I hate the thought that the bounty gate stuff being a culprit. It been 5 years we need to move past that. We can be saying that for the next 5 years it's just not an excuse and If Payton can't get over it we need to find someone who can change the culture. Goodell is winning so to say we all hate him heck most of the NFL fans hate him.

It's not boutygate itself. If the repercussions of that haunt our staff to the point where they are afraid to develop an aggressive culture, defensively, then there IS a lingering affect. They HAVE to find a way to get over it. But, seems like any time we try to play aggressive football, we get tons of penalties. Often for things that other teams get away with regularly.

 

[Domeination]

Our team culture is a problem, but I think our strategy is too. Right players in the wrong positions on D, and vice versa. Wrong coverages called in too many situations. DA does not know how to coordinate a defense.

 

[blackadder]

1st Quarter 11 7 63.6 70 6.4 18 0

2nd Quarter 24 14 58.3 187 7.8 42 1

3rd Quarter 15 7 46.7 132 8.8 52 0

4th Quarter 32 26 81.2 258 8.1 27 2

Drew has just as much fault as the rest of the team. Most of his stats came in the second quarter before the half, and in the 4th quarter when we are so far behind it's too late.

Yesterday in the 4th, down by 3 scores with 10 minutes left what does he do? Proceeds to burn 5 minutes off the clock by huddling up, going to the line and running the play clock down to 0 before snapping the ball. That is not playing like you want to win...

It's been that way for 3 years at least. No urgency.

Why would Brees be running the offense that way if not coached to do it?

And if it's hurting the team, why wouldn't coaching have instructed him to stop it and pick up the tempo?

Why wouldn't they have gone up tempo more often?

 

[whodatphil]

I'm still available to play corner. I gotta be better than Harris

 

[Saints 318]

Insane how we keep managing to top our own bad records. Every single year it's the worst in history. That takes some real talent.

At least we got talent to do that

 

[coacher]

Peter Drucker once famously said that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."



Think about Southwest Airlines relative to some of the larger legacy airlines that make roundtrips in and out of bankrupcty every other decade.



Your culture, and the expectations that your culture creates, have much more of an impact on how your team performs (whether in business, football, or whatever) than any one strategy.



Cover 2 vs Man to Man - that's strategy. What's missing from this team looks much more cultural to me.



Payton has changed every strategic aspect of defensive multiple times -

player personnel, defensive coaches, defensive schemes - he's changed it all, and none of it has worked. We're actually worse than when we started the (first) defensive rebuild.



I think its because there is a bad, bad culture on this team, especially on defense. Accountability seems to be very sporadic, which usually makes things worse if teammates see inconsistent treatment. Think about how Payton publicly trashed and threatened to trade Breaux - because he wouldn't play on a broken leg. You think players are gonna extend themselves for Payton with his $45M contract when they see that?



Bad culture starts at the top. Normally that would mean Benson, but from many reports, I think its safe to say Benson is not the day to day leader he once was (Hey, he's 90, it happens).



Payton is the face of the team, he's the highest paid coach in the NFL, and every bit of this team is reflection of HIS choices - he created the culture here (or maybe its more accurate to say he allowed to to occur). The massive disruptions from Bountygate and then epic failures in the draft and FA took what what was a really special culture (including the sub-culture of GW's defense*) and blew it into space.



I just can't tell if Payton can even see this.





*GW's defenses were a classic case of 'culture over strategy' - that was really the heart of Bountygate - GW created a strong culture on that unit that helped compensate for just OK talent. Unfortunately he couldn't co-exist with Payton and large parts of that culture weren't fit for public consumption.

Just get all the players a copy of The Energy Bus and some Jon Gordon books and they will be good to go ...

JK - you're spot on with this Mr. Sparkle. Good post.


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[Saint Kamara]

We are giving up 8.2 yards per play. Just disgusting.

As bad as things look on the field, that number still sounds ludicrous. That's an unheard of figure.

Just looked it up, it's actually 7.6, which would still be an NFL record, and easily.

Just to compare to the last 4 terrible defenses by the Saints:

2012 6.5 (32nd)
2014 6.0 (31st)
2015 6.6 (32nd) NFL record worst
2016 6.0 (4 way tie for last)

2007 season was also the worst in the NFL at 6.1.

No team in NFL history had ever given up 6.5 yards per play. The Saints have now done it twice and very well be on their way to doing it a 3rd time.

So Drew Brees could indeed be strapped with essentially the worst defense in the NFL for the 6th time in his 12 seasons.

As others have indicated (Bclemms specifically), Saints fans don't really comprehend the likelihood that this would happen to Brees at this high a rate. The chances are so low it can't be charted.