We are somewhere between the '99 Rams and '06 Colts (stats included) (1 Viewer)

StarSaint

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Ok, here is my first big analysis of the where we stack against the two closest teams that come immediately to my mind to the '09 Saints when comparing recent superbowl winners.

Now I know we are only in week 2, but I figured what the heck, let's see where we're at so far. A few things to keep in mind

1) I am only going by interceptions when I am counting takeaways - I don't see a stat for defensive forced fumbles or recovered fumbles, or sacks for a fumble. Having said that, I think the interception ranking should still give us some good indicators.

2) I am not a statistician, don't claim to be one, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night - just wanted to see some rough indicators of where we are looking to stack up.

3) Comments are encourage - I would be curious to hear your opinions. There may be some things that I have taken into account.

4) God, it's great to be a saints fan right now!!!

Here we go....

New Orleans Saints 2009 NFL Rankings (through week 2). All stats courtesy of nfl.com

OFFENSE

TOTAL OFFENSE: 1
PASSING: 2
RUSHING: 7

DEFENSE

TOTAL DEFENSE: 21
PASSING: 28
RUSHING: 5
SCORING: 22
INTS/TAKEAWAYS: Tied for 1st

now the 1999 RAMS

OFFENSE

TOTAL OFFENSE: 1
PASSING: 1
RUSHING: 5

DEFENSE

TOTAL DEFENSE: 6
PASSING: 20
RUSHING: 1
SCORING: 4
INTS/TAKEAWAYS: 2

And finally the 2006 COLTS

OFFENSE

TOTAL: 3
PASSING: 2
RUSHING: 18

DEFENSE

TOTAL DEFENSE: 21
PASSING: 2
RUSHING: 32 (dead last)
SCORING: 23
TAKEAWAYS/INT: 20

Lets look at these figures for a minute....

The 2009 saints in two games are already proving to be the number 1 offense with a stout run defense that likes to takeaway the ball from the other team.

In 1999, the St. Louis rams had a similar set up with Warner, Bruce, Holt, Faulk and then players like Aeneas Williams in the secondary to come up with key turnovers.

The 2006 Colts offensively were actually a little worse than we were in 2006 (saints were #1) but had a solid defensive effort against the passing game. Bob sanders proved to be the difference maker, especially down the stretch and their pass defense was extremely good.

Where does that put our team this year?

Offensively, we are almost identical to the Rams of '09 and we resemble the defenses of both the '06 Colts and '99 Rams. Looking at the numbers, the Rams were better at run defense (like we are this year) but seemed to give up big yards in the passing game. One has to consider that since the Warner-led offense would score quickly and often, opposing teams had no choice but to pass and hope to catch up......sound familiar?

Looking at the defensive numbers of these two particular teams, I notice a trend that either the defense excels at stopping the or stopping the pass - but not BOTH. It would seem that for offensive oriented teams (like ours) this is a normal occurrence. We don't have the "grind it out" power run team nor do we have the defensive minded ball control philosophy that would skew these numbers more in favor towards the defense.

Bottom line, outside of a few adjustments we are right where we need to be as far as offensive and defensive rankings when compared against teams of similar make-up.

Based on these numbers if I had to choose one team who we resemble, it would be the '99 Rams - but it's close. Defensively, we rank comparably to the colts but don't let our 21 defensive ranking fool you.....our rush defense is good and we take the ball away quite a bit just like the '99 rams.

So, I think that's where we are...

comments welcome.
 
Interesting stats. I wonder how they stack up to the '98 Vikings too.

The 99-01 Rams though, man that was an offense.
 

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