Season on DC shoulders (1 Viewer)

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Saints’ Super Bowl hopes now depend on Dennis Allen’s ability to get improvement out of his defense on 3rd down. Whether it be by mixing up his playcalling to disguise their intentions pre-snap or somehow improving the secondary’s technique when the ball is in the air, if the defense continues to yield so many 3rd down conversions Saints will fall short again. One of the other areas to look at is the inability of the defenders to jump on their assigned man on those short quick routes. Too many times we’ve seen opponents’ QBs take that three step drop and easily dump it to uncovered receiver on 3rd and shorts. Is Allen capable of getting this defense playing at a high level? The Saints’ season is rising on it.
 
I said it in 2018. We will not win a Superbowl if Dennis Allen is calling plays in tight situations.

He's painfully average and needs an absurd amount of talent to have success. He'll pop off a good streak, but all in all. He alway collapse in the playoffs with his putrid playcalling.
 
Is Allen capable of getting this defense playing at a high level? The Saints’ season is rising on it.

We played pretty well against Tampa. We were dominant at times last year, too. The issue is consistency, and especially on 3rd down and in crucial moments. Monday's game was just a poor performance all around, but we know we are capable of much better. It's just frustrating not knowing which version of our defense will ever show up, or if they show up at all. That's worrisome in a year like this when we know we have to rely more on our defense than ever. Hopefully they get it together.
 
I said it in 2018. We will not win a Superbowl if Dennis Allen is calling plays in tight situations.

He's painfully average and needs an absurd amount of talent to have success. He'll pop off a good streak, but all in all. He alway collapse in the playoffs with his putrid playcalling.
Totally agree. Missed our chance with Mike Nolan.
 
Stop hating on Allen.

sure he has bad games and sometimes its a head scratcher (like the prevent defense)

but he is is 100 times better than everythinh we had the last 10 years before him.

And even Payton called some bad games offensively every year

The TB game was really good on D#
actually Allen had a way better season than Peyton until now...
 
I put it on the players not the scheme. As a defensive back you have to win some battles. As a defensive lineman you have to win some battles.
 
Saints’ Super Bowl hopes now depend on Dennis Allen’s ability to get improvement out of his defense on 3rd down. Whether it be by mixing up his playcalling to disguise their intentions pre-snap or somehow improving the secondary’s technique when the ball is in the air, if the defense continues to yield so many 3rd down conversions Saints will fall short again. One of the other areas to look at is the inability of the defenders to jump on their assigned man on those short quick routes. Too many times we’ve seen opponents’ QBs take that three step drop and easily dump it to uncovered receiver on 3rd and shorts. Is Allen capable of getting this defense playing at a high level? The Saints’ season is rising on it.
He needs better talent on the dline. It is highly overrated. Never any push from the inside without bringing Davis, leaving the middle open to uncoverable crossing routes and TE’s squatting over the middle. The only consistent pressure I see is from the edge where Hendrickson plays. And Jordan was totally missing in action against the Raiders. He has more sacks after games are well in hand then he does when they are most needed. A vastly overrated edge player at this point of his career. Add in, the continued bad science experiment with Marcus Williams and the reincarnation of an obviously aged Malcolm Jenkins adds up to a potential disaster of a defensive season.
 
I put it on the players not the scheme. As a defensive back you have to win some battles. As a defensive lineman you have to win some battles.

I felt like it was a bit of both. Persisting with Jenkins on Waller when he was getting burnt on every cut was a failure to adjust. Especially when Davis did a great job when he had to cover him. Even if you wanted to leave a DB there, see what someone else can do after Jenkins gets toasted that many times. The d-line also disappeared after the first quarter. Some people have said it was holding, I'm sure there was plenty of that going on honestly but it wasn't getting called and unfortunately that's out of the teams control. Then we didn't force Carr to hold it because generally someone was getting open within the time he finished his drop back. There were also a lot of shorter throws that should've resulted in limited yardage but we didn't tackle well at all. When you factor in the flags well they just couldn't get off the field.

In week 1 our defense looked great, in week 2, with our pass rush nullified and the DBs seeming playing on skates for 3/4's of the game we didn't look so great. That allowed their offense to control the game. Some of this is on Payton as well. He needs to recognize when the defense is gassed/spiraling and focus on controlling the clock to give them a break whilst also getting some points. That initial scripted drive was a thing of beauty, I'd even go so far as to say the first quarter in general was mostly really good offense from us. Then we didn't really get backed to what worked until our final scoring drive of the game. There were flashes, but there was always something to put us off. A bit too obvious of a hold (which I'll live with really, it's alot better than Drew getting lit up and potentially injured), a soft "blindside block", untimely drops, and yes even a few missed throws. If I had my way I'd have Payton watch those 5 games with Teddy last year and find a way to get inspired to play that kind of offense. We didn't air it out a whole lot with Teddy either and we don't have to do it with Drew but absolutely have to stick with run when it's working which will allow our receivers more space and also will let the o-line hit some people and get into the game themselves a bit more. This will make it easier for Drew and therefore the offense as whole.

The other thing I will say about this defense is that we have a lot of players, star players, that are prone to concentration lapses when they think the team they're playing isn't on their level. I don't know what it is really, I wouldn't even say that it's a Sean Payton thing or a Dennis Allen thing because I've kinda felt like its been a thing before any of those guys were even in the building. Lattimore always has a game or three a year where an absolutely average receiver makes him look bad and it's usually against a relatively average QB. Likewise Jordan seems to have 3-4 games where he thinks he's going to have an easy night and then we don't see much of him in the backfield all game, that's not to say he doesn't make an impact but that he doesn't make the impact we've come to expect from him. Even Jenkins had an off game on Monday after looking like an absolute world beater the week before. The only two players who really showed out were Demario Davis and Trey Hendrickson. I'll go ahead and say I thought the DT's had a good game, at least they did their jobs. Everyone else not so much after that first couple of defensive series.
 

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