Article Saints looking to improve their pass defense (1 Viewer)

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By Les East | Crescent City Sports

METAIRIE – There was little that the New Orleans Saints didn’t do well last season.

They went 13-3, won the NFC South and came within a whisker of going to the Super Bowl.

All of that happened because they had a talented and well-rounded team.

But one area that belied the team’s success, at least statistically speaking, was the pass defense.

The Saints ranked 29th in pass defense, allowing an average of 268.9 yards per game. They made 12 interceptions, allowed 30 touchdown passes and the 14 completions of 40-plus yards that they allowed were tied for second-most in the league.

“We talked at the beginning of the offseason program, we’ve got to get better in terms of our pass defense,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said.

Full Story - CCS
 
Funny that for the most part our secondary played well but statistically ranked near the bottom of the league, we came out slow in the beginning of the year and were susceptible to the deep ball but I felt like our secondary held up and can rival the top defensive secondary's in the league regardless of rankings.
 
Funny that for the most part our secondary played well but statistically ranked near the bottom of the league, we came out slow in the beginning of the year and were susceptible to the deep ball but I felt like our secondary held up and can rival the top defensive secondary's in the league regardless of rankings.

I read in that article that we were tied for 2nd worst in the league in giving up passes over 40 yards. That would explain a lot of it. That has got to improve.
 
Funny that for the most part our secondary played well but statistically ranked near the bottom of the league, we came out slow in the beginning of the year and were susceptible to the deep ball but I felt like our secondary held up and can rival the top defensive secondary's in the league regardless of rankings.

Besides coming out as the worst pass defense by far over the first few games, was some of this simply because teams had to throw to play catch up? Does that and the terrible start explain it all?
 
I'd be interested to see those rankings before Apple versus after. I think someone was keeping up with that during the season.
 
I'd be interested to see those rankings before Apple versus after. I think someone was keeping up with that during the season.
The simple fact that we traded for him mid season tells you all we need to know. If the team believed that the combination of PJ & Crawley we wouldn't have made the move.
Also the safety positions regression had a ton to do with the long completions as well.
 
Funny that for the most part our secondary played well but statistically ranked near the bottom of the league, we came out slow in the beginning of the year and were susceptible to the deep ball but I felt like our secondary held up and can rival the top defensive secondary's in the league regardless of rankings.

Defending the deep ball is going to be a big key this coming season. Arians loves to attack deep, and he’ll have some weapons to do so in Tampa.
Koeter returns to Atlanta, and he too likes to routinely test defenses over the top.
Meanwhile, in Carolina, if Newton’s arm strength returns... his bread and butter is scrambling a little and then uncorking a long jump ball up over the top.
 
I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to believe this.
Kirk Coleman played 35% of the defensive snaps last season. The dude was benched and cut after the season.
Marcus Williams played 93% of the defensive snaps last season mostly as the deep safety. The secondary was 2nd worst in the league in passes over 40 yds. Who was the deep safety 90% of the time?

As a unit the secondary gave up almost 800 more passing yards in 2018 than 2017. That argument that "well teams had to pass more because they were behind..." Well didn't the defense know that was going to be the case? Shouldn't we have had a lot more interceptions with all that extra passing going on as well (20 ints in 2017 and only 12 ints in 2018 with all those extra passing yards)? A good secondary would have feasted IMO.

Look its just my observation that teams took advantage of a confused secondary which includes the safety's. They were able to complete those deep passes because the deep safety play and CB play was not as good as it's been (look at 2017 when Williams was a rookie).

I'm optimistic that the entire secondary, including the safety's will be much improved this season. With a legit slot CB in PRob back, the stellar LB coverage ability of Davis confirmed and a camp that include Eli Apple I think there is a lot of reasons to be excited. Williams might benefit from some competition this camp if they decide to move CGJ in there as well.
 
Teams knew they couldn’t run it on us so they had to pass all day. But the big plays definitely have to stop
 
I read in that article that we were tied for 2nd worst in the league in giving up passes over 40 yards. That would explain a lot of it. That has got to improve.
Besides coming out as the worst pass defense by far over the first few games, was some of this simply because teams had to throw to play catch up? Does that and the terrible start explain it all?

I don't know if was our slow start or other teams playing catch up, but I do remember Tampa Bay scoring first in our home opener on a 53 yard TD reception. And the legend of Fitzmagic was born. :covri:
 

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