My big worry going into the game is Raven are going to attack the interior line. (1 Viewer)

Its kind of a catch 22, if your run D plays light out, then teams will attempt less runs. But I agree the Rams, Cowboys and Carolina will be our D's test as far as run D goes.

IMO the Browns (other than the QB) did not have much success running against the Saints. And other than the 28 yard run Barkley made, the Giants run game was stopped too. If the Saints can continue to pressure the QB and keep the back end fixed, the total D will be more than just middle-of-the-pack IMO.
Screenshot_20181016-111642.pngScreenshot_20181016-111758.png

Meh. For the Browns, take out the Taylor scrambles and it was 23 carries for 67 yards -- they were hardly ripping chunks out to get to 2nd & 4 and other short downs. For the Giants, Barkley had on really nice 28 yard run, and other than that their backs were 11 carries for 22 yards.

They threw because they had to.
 
But if an opponent beats us by exposing the our weak passing defence, what difference does it make? With respect to the Saints overall defence: it's only as strong as it's weaknest link

Because rule #1 in good defense is to stop the run. So with the Saints stopping the run well and the pass rush pressure improving, they need to just clean up the miscues on the back end - which they appear to be doing. Perhaps start causing more turnovers. But IMO its better to be the long pass we have to clean up on D then having teams get 5 yards per carry against us (Rams and Chiefs I'm looking at you, lol).
 
Meh. For the Browns, take out the Taylor scrambles and it was 23 carries for 67 yards -- they were hardly ripping chunks out to get to 2nd & 4 and other short downs. For the Giants, Barkley had on really nice 28 yard run, and other than that their backs were 11 carries for 22 yards.

They threw because they had to.

That was my point exactly and why I posted the screenshots of the rushing stats from the Browns and Giants games in response to ChaChi (yeah I know) who said,

The Browns and Giants had a bit of early success running on us in those games and then abandoned the run to go pass happy.

and

I don't buy into this run defense truly being a top shut down unit in the league yet.

BTW, after we played them the Browns were #2 overall rushing offense with an average of 152.8 yards per game, 32.2 attempts per game, and 4.7 yards per CARRY.

Against the Saints D the Browns #2 overall rushing offense ran the ball 27 times for 93 yards, 15 yards being the longest run, and a 3.4 yard per CARRY average.

Currently, the Browns are #5 overall in rushing offense...

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Stats aside, at this point I think we can also use the old "eyeball test" as well to judge the Saints Run D.
 
Because rule #1 in good defense is to stop the run. So with the Saints stopping the run well and the pass rush pressure improving, they need to just clean up the miscues on the back end - which they appear to be doing. Perhaps start causing more turnovers. But IMO its better to be the long pass we have to clean up on D then having teams get 5 yards per carry against us (Rams and Chiefs I'm looking at you, lol).
Marcus Williams better not underestimate Flacco deep ball by trying to jump routes. John brown gonna tear off a bomb without any deep safety help.
 
Marcus Williams better not underestimate Flacco deep ball by trying to jump routes. John brown gonna tear off a bomb without any deep safety help.

Exactly. Also, you would think with the front 7 doing a good job stopping the run, our guys on the back end shouldn't be caught looking into the back field to provide run support.
 
Our O vs their D: They blitz, we pick them apart. They play coverage, we pick them apart. There's no real way to stop our Offense other than getting pressure and we know that and with ALL the weapons we now have available... The greatest offensive mind and the greatest QB of all time in the game of football will not disappoint. The only way Baltimore's D wins this battle is if we have one of those ugly games full of penalties, dropped passes, and/or turnovers.

Their O vs our D: They won't beat us running. I've heard every argument about our run D #'s being inflated. But our interior line maturing and the addition of Demario Davis makes our middle triangle strong. Yeah, we might lose a snap here and there, but it is no longer a weakness on this team. Far from it. Teams don't run on us for two reasons. 1. They don't have success when they try... (every team tries to establish the run in 99.9999% of games. 2. Our offense doesn't allow it by putting pressure on the opposing offense to keep up. Tampa was the only team to take and hold a lead on us for any amount of time. And that was because... of the next paragraph.

Flacco will test our secondary. It's proved vulnerable this season, especially in the first 3 games. If Baltimore can expose our DBs, we're going to be in for a long day. When PRob went down we were forced to play PJ out of position again... (of course, he's looked a universe better in the slot since than he did when he got his shot at taking the outside corner job from Crawley). The Bucs lit us up. That was a total-defense-effort to play that bad. All 3 levels were out of sync. The Browns were able to do the same in very small doses week 2. Week 3, the week we benched Crawley and tried PJ... The Falcons lit up PJ and pretty much only PJ. In the second half, we went back to our usual players as usual positions and things got better. Week 4 and 5 vs the Giants and Redskins, our secondary looked much much better. Even with PJ playing over 50% of our defensive snaps. What changed? IDK... other than the results.

Our Team vs Their Team: The way to win a road game in the NFL is to play solid defense and run the ball. Get a lead and force the home team to be one dimensional and then stop that one dimension. (which would be passing the ball) Look for this game to come down to who gets up on who before halftime with a lot riding on our secondary. If the secondary we had vs the Giants and Redskins shows up... We win. If the secondary we had vs the Bucs or the Falcons shows up... We still win, but it's close. BTW... The Ravens do not have near the offense the Falcons have and are not even in the same discussion with the offense that the Bucs had the first two weeks of this season.

Conclusion: Don't drop passes, Refs keep the hankies in their pockets, secondary doesn't regress to what they were week 1 and 3, and we don't turn the ball over... We win. This will pretty much be the same for every game on our schedule the rest of the year.
 
You might beat Brees with a blitz a time or two but you're not going to win the game by blitzing him. He's so good at reading the defense and seeing the blitz coming. That's the first thing you have to do, you have to fool him by disguising the blitz. Good luck with that because Drew has seen it all. He's like a OC on the field.

Let's say you fool him, the blitz works, and you have a free rusher. I've seen Brees make free rushers miss a sure sack so many times. He's made a living by making guys miss and delivering strikes down the field. Drew might have the best pocket awareness I have ever seen. It's rare that he takes a blind side shot that he never saw coming.

Drew is so good against the blitz and SP/Carmichael have a great feel for when to dial up the screen. And not just when to run the screen but which screen to run. When they get that thing going it's like poetry in motion. It's like you want the defense to bring extra guys because most of the time it helps us.
 
I'd like a repeat performance from last year at Buffalo................................please.
 
A quote from a Ravens forum:

"The Saints come marching into Baltimore with a Top 3 offense (no surprise) and a stout #1 run defense (on paper). Their pass defense has been putrid, giving up nearly 10 yards per catch. I mentioned the run defense being stout on paper and it's hard to gauge how good they since they have had a couple blowouts and a couple track meet games where the opponents completely ditched the run game."

This is a common theme we will here over and over about the Saints' run D. The implication being that no one attempts to run the ball against the Saints. In fact, teams have attempted 23.2 rushes PER game against the Saints D. How many rush attempts are made per game against the Ravens D? 21.2. But the Ravens rush D (on paper lol) looks almost as good as the Saints - giving up 3.9 yards per attempt vs the Saints 3.1 per attempt.

This is the game (along with the Rams) where I hope the Saints DL really shines. Even if they do and the Saints win comfortably, Ithink the story line would be the how great the Saints O was and how awful the Ravens O line played against a sorry Saints D.
As long as the Saints win the game, they are welcome to call it whatever they like.
 
You don't beat Brees by blitzing him. You do it with front 4, middle pressure and coverage.

Unfortunately for them, we have one of the best interior 3s in the game.

The thing is, this is especially true this year. Brees has improved at throwing under pressure the last few years.
 
Ravens O-line is very middle of the pack.
Redskins O-line is much better.
I see pressure on Flaco and not giving him time to air it out.
Their running game will suffer as well.
 
I’m excited for this litmus test.
Also I want it for Sean and Drew, but if we must drop one this is the one. AFC. House money. I think we come out on top this game though.
 
Briefly perusing the Ravens board and they give us no chance lol. All picks but one I saw had their team winning, and I get that.
Only part I disagree with is that we can’t play if it gets wet or cold. These Saints can run and also have stopped the run. Those assets travel. Imo.
 

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