Lets go over this again.... (1 Viewer)

[DeuceMcAllisterFan]

We got alot fo breaks today... from all the key drops to the hail mary... the defense still is a problem imo..... they make me cringe everytime I see the ball in the air.... You know when your defense isn't all that great when you're not confident a 8 point cushion is going t win the game for you... that's just my opinion.

 

[Forest]

Yeah, the defense is a problem, but it is what it is...if they can hold teams to 24, we can win if we don't turn the ball over. Turnovers are fixable right now. The defense isn't so fixable right now as far as speed to the edges cause...

And I'm not talking about today. They played pretty well today, minus that long ball that was dropped by Roddy White and a few gashes by Vick...Fujita was too tight - if he went out a little more, we crack Vick at the 2ish yard line and they punt deep in their end zone.

 

[LSSpam]

This D lost the game against the Cats, and CONTRIBUTED in the loss 2 more games this season.....against the Steelers, and the Bengals the D gave up BIG PLAYS, which were the reason our opponents scored more points than us!...

Of course the turnovers didn't help either, in these 2 losses, but there weren't turnovers in the loss against the Cats!

The good news is, the D can play better! today they did just that, and that was enough for the victory......and as we're heading down the stretch our D needs to play just as aggressively as today!

We held them to 14 points until 1:45 left in the game when we were trying to strip Foster and he busted the 40 yard run. Defense didn't lose that game. Not in the least. Not even close

 

[birdog]

Reggie had a key fumble in the Caronlina game.

Turnovers are the key contributer to every game we have lost this year. You can't keep the ball in the other teams hands and expect a defense to just keep holding out.

Like I said, this defense can control games, it just can't win them. They are going to give up some big plays, its just the nature of the defense, but the offense has to limit those plays by controlling the ball, scoring points in the redzone, and not making stupid errors like they have in all our our losses this season....

This defense has many holes, however the play smart and hard and that makes up for a lot.

I stand corrected on the Bush fumble!.....yes, that was a factor, I admit it, but we HAD A LEAD in the 4th qt, so the game TURNED AT THAT POINT due to our Ds INABILITY to stop the Panthers from scoring!

I guess my point is that turnovers aren't the direct contributors to a loss, unless teams score points on their behalf!....but they CONTRIBUTE to a loss CUMULATIVELY, especially if more than 1 turnovers are committed by the team!.....unfortunately that was the case with the Saints in 3 of their losses...they turned the ball over 3 times or more in those losses, and in those situations, they just don't have the D to RECTIFY the mistakes!

 

[LSSpam]

I stand corrected on the Bush fumble!.....yes, that was a factor, I admit it, but we HAD A LEAD in the 4th qt, so the game TURNED AT THAT POINT due to our Ds INABILITY to stop the Panthers from scoring!

I guess my point is that turnovers aren't the direct contributors to a loss, unless teams score points on their behalf!....but they CONTRIBUTE to a loss CUMULATIVELY, especially if more than 1 turnovers are committed by the team!.....unfortunately that was the case with the Saints in 3 of their losses...they turned the ball over 3 times or more in those losses, and in those situations, they just don't have the D to RECTIFY the mistakes!

Again, we held them to 14 points until the defense was clearly going for the strip.

If the Saints can't score more then 14 points, we will lose. You are correct. This is true of most teams in the NFL (the 2000 Baltimore Ravens excepted)

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

Reggie had a key fumble in the Caronlina game.

Turnovers are the key contributer to every game we have lost this year. You can't keep the ball in the other teams hands and expect a defense to just keep holding out.

The thing is the defense has not been doing their part and forcing turnovers - we are 31st in the league in that department. Ouch. So when our offense turns the ball over it makes it look even worse than when say, Dallas does it because the D wont' force turnovers themselves. We are not really *that* bad in the turnover department. But when we do turn the ball over we lose more often than not because our D can't force the other team to turn the ball over and take momentum back.

Like I said, this defense can control games, it just can't win them. They are going to give up some big plays, its just the nature of the defense, but the offense has to limit those plays by controlling the ball, scoring points in the redzone, and not making stupid errors like they have in all our our losses this season....

This defense has many holes, however the play smart and hard and that makes up for a lot.

This all true, and I have been impressed by the job that Gibbs has done with the D. I don't even blame them for the Cinci loss. They did a remarkable job bur our offense couldn't score. But make no mistake this D is not Super Bowl calibre. I wouldn't hestitate to put 90% of our effort next year on defense. That means every single first day pick I woud spend on D, and our free agent push shoudl be in that direction as well. . We have some holes on offense (namely, lack of good TE and mediocre run blocking), but our offense can mostly get the job done.

 

[rlemieux]

The thing is the defense has not been doing their part and forcing turnovers - we are 31st in the league in that department. Ouch. So when our offense turns the ball over it makes it look even worse than when say, Dallas does it because the D wont' force turnovers themselves. We are not really *that* bad in the turnover department. But when we do turn the ball over we lose more often than not because our D can't force the other team to turn the ball over and take momentum back.



This all true, and I have been impressed by the job that Gibbs has done with the D. I don't even blame them for the Cinci loss. They did a remarkable job bur our offense couldn't score. But make no mistake this D is not Super Bowl calibre. I wouldn't hestitate to put 90% of our effort next year on defense. That means every single first day pick I woud spend on D, and our free agent push shoudl be in that direction as well. . We have some holes on offense (namely, lack of good TE and mediocre run blocking), but our offense can mostly get the job done.

I agree with you that major consideration (big time free agents and draft picks) has to go to the defensive side of the ball next year.

We have to rely on the offense to make our defense better. That means controlling the clock, scoring when given the opportunity, not turning the ball over and keeping the opposing offense off the field where they can not hurt us.

Like I said, we are going to give up the big plays, its just a given (every saints fan just needs to get used to it this year), however if the offense does its part and doesn't put the defense on the field more than it needs to be we will win most of the time.

 

[alon504]

Very true...and the Saints are pretty successful when they have the ball. I have an enormous amount of confidence in our offense this season. I don't even freak when we are behind....but, I do freak when we make mistakes.

 

[SaintsFanInNY]

WAs it just me, or did I see a lot more blitzing and/or the attempt to fool the offense by our defense today? We seemed to have LB's in the backfield quite often.