Stats Uncovering Major Saints Offensive Flaw that could Kill the Season (1 Viewer)

Swimmer

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Many of us tend to not recognize the real problem with our offense that is causing our defense nightmares. By and large, our offensive stats seem good, so let's get on the defense as the root of our problems. We all can see the defense needs to improve, but in a number of games this year, the problems created by our offense which screw our defense are the same ones we have seen in most of the playoff games the past 3 years. In the Charger game, here's the Saints offensive stats before the last second, 1st half TD drive

Number of Offensive Series = 6
Points = 3 ( and those came from great field position where the offense only gained 18 yards on that drive
Average Plays per Series = 4.2
Average Yards per Series = 13
Drives with No 1st Downs = 4 ( I had to guess a little on this, but its either 3, 4, or 5
Interceptions thrown by Brees = 1

Punts = 4

Until the last 2 minutes of the half, our offense was horrible for 28 minutes. They left the defense on the field most of the 1st half. I've seen this same thing in other games this year also. We want to blame the defense, but even the Niners defense would tire being on the field that much.

We Saints fans have seen and love the big 2nd half comebacks. But these huge comebacks will seldom work against top teams. More importantly, is leaving the defense on the field for long major periods of time over and over again. The offense is setting-up the defense for fatigue and failure in way too many games this year, and a couple of playoff games in the last 3-years. Our offense must have longer, time-eating drives, even if no points result, to give our defense a chance to breathe.
 
Who's arguing that the offense has been great this year? This seems to be what a few threads are saying today, but I haven't seen anyone coming around touting how great our offense is. Yes I understand a lot of people are slamming the defense, and yes I think it's because they are on the field too long in most games and maybe some people don't, but I really don't see a whole lot of offensive praise. In fact, most people are begging the team to rely on the run more to eat up more clock.
 
The offense needs to win the TOP battle for our defense to be successful. We don’t have the talent on defense to win without consistent offense.

It’s not a coincidence that once the offense started rolling last Monday that the defense was able to clamp down.
The silver lining is we still haven’t seen what the offense will look like until MT is back. We lost him week one and at that point Sanders was still very green with no offseason.
 
You are correct, we have to hold the offense accountable. This reminds me of the Washington Redskins game back in 2017. We were down until 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, and then we decided to go into our "2 minute" offense mode.

Of course we can't play 2 minute offense the whole game, but it appears that we move the ball better and play more with a sense of urgency when we're in that mode.

Another stat I would like to see is: What are Brees numbers when he's in the shotgun vs when he's not?
 
Of course we can't play 2 minute offense the whole game, but it appears that we move the ball better and play more with a sense of urgency when we're in that mode.

Or can we? SP has used tempo before and it seems like every time he does it they march right down the field. Brees finds a rhythm with defenses on their heels without time to adjust. I wish SP would incorporate more tempo. It would be another way to keep defenses honest. The problem is that SP has 1.2 million different personnel packages and he's going to try to use them all.
 
In my opinion Sean Payton's offenses have always struggled with 3 and outs, although I don't have any advanced stats to back that up.

Coming into this season I hoped/expected our defense to be essentially top 5/borderline elite. Jenkins was our big veteran FA acquisition to be the leader of the defense. Guys like Lattimore/Williams (both) have been in Allen's system their whole career, so in theory the communication should be there. I expected the depth of the d line to make it extremely good. And as long as Anzalone stays healthy, I expected big things. None of this has held true.

So in my opinion the offense has been below expectations but the defense has been dramatically below expectations, and no amount of excuses about the offense makes up for it. I would say even if our offense improves dramatically, our defense isn't going to suddenly improve so much we're super bowl contenders. You can't consistently leave guys running free in the secondary and expect to compete with someone like the Chiefs.
 
Or can we? SP has used tempo before and it seems like every time he does it they march right down the field. Brees finds a rhythm with defenses on their heels without time to adjust. I wish SP would incorporate more tempo. It would be another way to keep defenses honest. The problem is that SP has 1.2 million different personnel packages and he's going to try to use them all.

When the Saints go no huddle, it's like they become invincible. I've been wanting us to run that more often for YEARS.
 
When the Saints go no huddle, it's like they become invincible. I've been wanting us to run that more often for YEARS.

You mean the no huddle that still takes up the entire game clock and sometimes delay of game because so many shifts in the offensive package? If so, I really really hate and despise our no huddle....
 
Many of us tend to not recognize the real problem with our offense that is causing our defense nightmares. By and large, our offensive stats seem good, so let's get on the defense as the root of our problems. We all can see the defense needs to improve, but in a number of games this year, the problems created by our offense which screw our defense are the same ones we have seen in most of the playoff games the past 3 years. In the Charger game, here's the Saints offensive stats before the last second, 1st half TD drive

Number of Offensive Series = 6
Points = 3 ( and those came from great field position where the offense only gained 18 yards on that drive
Average Plays per Series = 4.2
Average Yards per Series = 13
Drives with No 1st Downs = 4 ( I had to guess a little on this, but its either 3, 4, or 5
Interceptions thrown by Brees = 1

Punts = 4

Until the last 2 minutes of the half, our offense was horrible for 28 minutes. They left the defense on the field most of the 1st half. I've seen this same thing in other games this year also. We want to blame the defense, but even the Niners defense would tire being on the field that much.

We Saints fans have seen and love the big 2nd half comebacks. But these huge comebacks will seldom work against top teams. More importantly, is leaving the defense on the field for long major periods of time over and over again. The offense is setting-up the defense for fatigue and failure in way too many games this year, and a couple of playoff games in the last 3-years. Our offense must have longer, time-eating drives, even if no points result, to give our defense a chance to breathe.
I agree. I don't care how good a defense is, keep putting them on the field, they will tire and become ineffective. Sean Payton needs to run, run, run the ball. Why he won't continue to do that, why he abandons the run especially when they are ripping of 5, 6 yards a run is beyond me.
 
You mean the no huddle that still takes up the entire game clock and sometimes delay of game because so many shifts in the offensive package? If so, I really really hate and despise our no huddle....

I have no idea what you're talking about, we're highly successful when running the no huddle and we don't substitute much.
 
Or can we? SP has used tempo before and it seems like every time he does it they march right down the field. Brees finds a rhythm with defenses on their heels without time to adjust. I wish SP would incorporate more tempo. It would be another way to keep defenses honest. The problem is that SP has 1.2 million different personnel packages and he's going to try to use them all.
The problem with that sort of tempo is that you wind up with a 3-4 minute scoring drive and then the defense is right back on the field. If the offense stalls inside the 20, then you have no points AND a tired defense. Offense has one of the best backs in the league in Alvin Kamara, and the very serviceable Latavius Murray. Let's throw in some 7-8 minute scoring drives to rest the defense
 
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Many of us tend to not recognize the real problem with our offense that is causing our defense nightmares. By and large, our offensive stats seem good, so let's get on the defense as the root of our problems. We all can see the defense needs to improve, but in a number of games this year, the problems created by our offense which screw our defense are the same ones we have seen in most of the playoff games the past 3 years. In the Charger game, here's the Saints offensive stats before the last second, 1st half TD drive

Number of Offensive Series = 6
Points = 3 ( and those came from great field position where the offense only gained 18 yards on that drive
Average Plays per Series = 4.2
Average Yards per Series = 13
Drives with No 1st Downs = 4 ( I had to guess a little on this, but its either 3, 4, or 5
Interceptions thrown by Brees = 1

Punts = 4

Until the last 2 minutes of the half, our offense was horrible for 28 minutes. They left the defense on the field most of the 1st half. I've seen this same thing in other games this year also. We want to blame the defense, but even the Niners defense would tire being on the field that much.

We Saints fans have seen and love the big 2nd half comebacks. But these huge comebacks will seldom work against top teams. More importantly, is leaving the defense on the field for long major periods of time over and over again. The offense is setting-up the defense for fatigue and failure in way too many games this year, and a couple of playoff games in the last 3-years. Our offense must have longer, time-eating drives, even if no points result, to give our defense a chance to breathe.

Thank you Swimmer, this is the reason we haven't looked "good" since the start of the season.
Anyone can put up a lot of yards and points once the game is supposedly out of reach and the defense starts playing our offense softer to try and get us to run out the clock.

Both Viking's playoff exits were this in a nutshell.

We HAVE to get our offense in gear and start moving the ball in the 1st half of games for this season to go the way we want it to.
 
Understandable but if the defense can’t Rush the passer or cover they aren’t helping themselves

I watched Steelers, Bucs and Titans D yesterday and it’s just amazing how discipline and insync those Ds are . Makes our defense look like youth football.

Dline Can’t to to the QB
Linebackers- seem to don’t want to cover
CBs can’t run or play the ball
Safeties - Just robbing the bank blind

Crazy thing looking at our D talent and the above mentioned teams . ON PAPER we have the better personnel by , most time playing together and most consistency in staff. Yet we look the worse
 

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