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By John DeShazier -- NewOrleansSaints.com
Defensively, the New Orleans Saints improved from the 2015 season to the 2016 season, allowing 375.4 yards and 28.4 points, down from 413.4 yards and 29.8 points the previous year; the run defense dropped to 101.6 yards per game allowed, from 129.4. But the overall improvement wasn’t as much as they’d hoped, and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is looking for a bigger jump from the unit in 2017. Still, he saw some significant positives as the Saints fought through injury and growing pains last season. He sat down with NewOrleansSaints.com senior writer John DeShazier to discuss his first season as Saints defensive coordinator, and more.
JD: What did you like and dislike about your defense last season?
DA: I think we made a lot of progress, I think we got a lot better in a lot of areas. I think our run defense was better. Obviously, the pass defense was something that we still need to improve on. I hear a lot of talk about the pass rush, but there’s a lot of factors that are involved in this. Pass rush and pass coverage have to work together. We just didn’t have those things on the same page as much as we needed to, but yet, I thought there were certain times in the season where we were able to take the ball away and do some good things. There was a stretch there where we played really good red zone defense. But ultimately, with a lot of the injuries that we faced – what we perceived to be our starting lineup, I don’t know that we ever had them all together for any one game this season. So I think getting into next year, getting back and getting healthy and adding a few new pieces, I think we’ll be a much improved defense.
Full Interview -- NewOrleansSaints.com