How bad are we really on defense? (1 Viewer)

[BlackandGoldXLIV]

We are so bad, that the Saints rank 40th in defense out of 32 teams.

 

[boutte]

No amount of lipstick is going to make this pig look good. There have been times when I've thought that they couldn't be worse if they tried then they proved me wrong. Any time you need 7 yards just run at the right side of our defense.

I know a lot of our problems have to do with injuries but that's irrelevant. This defense is nothing less than a disaster. Sean and Drew's careers have been significantly diminished because of the defensive performance the last four years.

Bad is one thing but this defense is one of the worst ever. Having said all that I think Dennis Allen will eventually turn it around.

 

[Meachemdat]

We are actually getting better, but you can see the lack of depth is what is killing us. We put together a solid 2-3 quarters then get gassed in the 4th because of lack of rotation and having some key injuries to the secondary in the 2nd half of games (this is insane).

Then there's the other thing......
Refs have been having a yellow flag confetti party with our secondary on 3rd and 4th down. The panthers went 3 consecutive drives of throwing hail mary's and getting them converted to the goal-line by PI calls.

How in the world do you become a better defense statistically when half of your yardage given up is coming from BS interference calls?!

 

[Cajun Mike]

Name all the players on defense and you will get your answer!

 

[whodat4eva]

Scouting
Development
Coaching
Talent
All missing on defense


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[bobad]

I know our defense has been less than ideal this season, but it seems like our guys have showed a lot of effort and seem less confused about assignments. Yet, we're still giving up a lot of yards.

However, I think we've played a pretty difficult offensive schedule that has contributed to our poor defensive stats.

Top Offenses (YPG)
#1 - Atlanta
#2 - New Orleans
#4 - Carolina
#8 - Oakland
#13 - NY Giants
#15 - San Diego

Basically, every offense that we have competed against is in the top half of the league in offensive yards per game. This makes us look just a little less terrible on defense in my eyes.

But,,, are the above YPG ranked so high if you take away our game? Just asking, I think our defense is getting there.

 

[UFCSaint]

once breaux and rankins are back, we'll see the defense getting better. if only we werent down to our 5th/6th corners every game...

I would love to see Rankins/Fairley and Breaux/Webb on the same field.

 

[Usmfan84]

They are allowing 33pts a game so very bad!

On a positive not the Jets have a worse Pass Defense than us and we are finally usurped by an even worse backfield. As of right now when a QB plays them they are allowing over 9 yards an attempt and a 120 QB rating which is good enough that every QB who plays them performs like Brees in 2011 or Brady in 2007 lol.

 

[Suavecito8]

Another way to look at it is those teams have each had 1/5 (or 1/6) of their output against our defense, inflating their totals.

I mean, we are 32nd in rush yards allowed, 30th in pass yards allowed, 32nd in 1st downs allowed, 31st in points allowed....

 

[HouseCall]

The short answer is "pretty bad".

The longer answer is "pretty bad but improving by tiny little increments each week"

We are still ravaged by injuries. We are still very pourous in the run and mid-range pass. We commit too many penalties in the secondary and don't generate enough consistent pressure from the front four to allow Allen to give help to the secondary rather than blitz.
However, we have finished two straight games. That shows growth. Growth we didn't have in weeks 1-3. So that's a positive.

Still pretty bad though.

 

[Swimmer]

Our defense is horrible. There's really no other way to describe it. That said, I love this defense! They play tough, they play with passion, they tackle and they never give up. This is an horrendous defense that I really believe will be much better next year. The last 2 years we had horrible defenses and I didn't expect them to get better.

I also believe in DA. I just pray SP gives the ability to get rid of the Good Ole Boy position coaches and hire his own.

 

[JackT.]

More like 6th and 7th. Breaux, Lewis (only cut because of health), Swann, Kyle Wilson, and PJ Williams.

Lewis, Breaux, Swann, Wilson, Williams, Moore(if hurt bad enough) then we have Sanford, Pruitt and Erik Harris. all injured. and Devonta Harris as a healthy scratch. kinda hard to win with those injuries in the secondary.

 

[bouxdag]

Lewis, Breaux, Swann, Wilson, Williams, Moore(if hurt bad enough) then we have Sanford, Pruitt and Erik Harris. all injured. and Devonta Harris as a healthy scratch. kinda hard to win with those injuries in the secondary.

Being honest here, aside from Breaux, which one of those injured guys in the secondary is going to improve this defense at all when they come back, let alone significantly?

I mean Lewis certainly could if he suddenly played like 2013, but he hadn't played that well in over two years and couldn't get on the field.

Sterling Moore and B.W. Webb have imo, been better or just as good as Swann or Wilson. We basically signed guys off the street who are just as good as the guys already on the roster.

It's hard to say what we have in PJ Williams given the limited sample size. Maybe he would improve quickly like Crawley, maybe he would be another Patrick Robison, you can't really say.

Crawley, at this point, is better than any of them and with the way he continues to improve, deserves to be ahead of any of those guys (except Breaux of course) on the depth chart.

Pruitt, Harris, and Sanford are still behind Vaccaro, Bell and Byrd. They're not starters. They're depth and/or special teams guys.

So this *****ing and moaning about injuries in the secondary just kind of blows my mind. It sounds good, "We're down to our 15th corner!" But the fact is, aside from Breaux, no one's coming to save us. Crawley is our #2 now. We went into the year with a roster of unproven and/or injury riddled corners. We should have the cap room to improve our situation next year. But if we go into next year with guys like Swann and Williams as our "#3 and #4", we'll probably end up in the same situation as this year.

I think you can make a much better argument that Breaux was playing at such a high level when he got injured, that he would improve this defense dramatically, than anything else.

 

[ilvdsnts]

The Saints are giving up 33.6 pts per game. So far I've looked back all the way to 1994 and no team has given up that many points per game in a season. Even if you take away the blocked FG and the pick 6 this team is giving up 31.4 pts per game--that's terrible.

If the 2016 Saints defense was just a normal bad defense they would probably make the playoffs. A normal 32nd ranked defense gives up 26-28 points per game.

Breaux was the worst in the NFL last season in passing TDs against, he is not going to save the defense and we don't know who Rankins is.

Yeah but Yards per game is the stat that is the standard for determining overall defensive rank, and we are only 31st, not last and not historically bad in that category this year. And I see us moving up in that category as Rankins and Breaux return.

 

[blackadder]

Being honest here, aside from Breaux, which one of those injured guys in the secondary is going to improve this defense at all when they come back, let alone significantly?

I mean Lewis certainly could if he suddenly played like 2013, but he hadn't played that well in over two years and couldn't get on the field.

Sterling Moore and B.W. Webb have imo, been better or just as good as Swann or Wilson. We basically signed guys off the street who are just as good as the guys already on the roster.

It's hard to say what we have in PJ Williams given the limited sample size. Maybe he would improve quickly like Crawley, maybe he would be another Patrick Robison, you can't really say.

Crawley, at this point, is better than any of them and with the way he continues to improve, deserves to be ahead of any of those guys (except Breaux of course) on the depth chart.

Pruitt, Harris, and Sanford are still behind Vaccaro, Bell and Byrd. They're not starters. They're depth and/or special teams guys.

So this *****ing and moaning about injuries in the secondary just kind of blows my mind. It sounds good, "We're down to our 15th corner!" But the fact is, aside from Breaux, no one's coming to save us. Crawley is our #2 now. We went into the year with a roster of unproven and/or injury riddled corners. We should have the cap room to improve our situation next year. But if we go into next year with guys like Swann and Williams as our "#3 and #4", we'll probably end up in the same situation as this year.

I think you can make a much better argument that Breaux was playing at such a high level when he got injured, that he would improve this defense dramatically, than anything else.

The emphasis on the secondary and injuries is a little misplaced. It's significant, but not as significant as the weak LB situation, sporadic pass rush and getting gashed on by the run.