Week 3: Saints vs Falcons - Player Grades, Snap Counts and Analysis (1 Viewer)

Murkzilla

Subscribing Member
VIP Subscribing Member
Approved Blogger
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
151
Reaction score
138
Offline
https://crawfishboila.wordpress.com...s-player-grades-snap-counts-analysis-falcons/

Good morning! You probably know the drill by now - just posting up the link (above) for those interested to our snap counts (including run/pass split), individual player grades and analysis for all Saints who took to the field in Monday night's loss to the Falcons.

As always - feel free to throw any questions and/or call out any of the grades below. We'll always check back on the thread and are happy to discuss and debate things.
 
It's really frustrating and depressing to me that the supposed bright spot of the defense this year, Robertson, is a complete liability in pass coverage. I don't know how anyone could watch the game against the Falcons, in which we got absolutely destroyed on routine pass plays to running backs, often in absolutely critical situations, and not see this. He's slow.

Robertson to me is very similar to Lofton, good against the run and horrible against the pass. I'm not overly impressed with his total tackles, because our defense is on the field letting teams dink and dunk for 80+ yard drives all game, and someone is going to get a lot of tackles because of it (see Lofton in 2014, Anthony in 2015). It's just even more sad that Laurinaitis can't get to the ball more.
 
It's really frustrating and depressing to me that the supposed bright spot of the defense this year, Robertson, is a complete liability in pass coverage. I don't know how anyone could watch the game against the Falcons, in which we got absolutely destroyed on routine pass plays to running backs, often in absolutely critical situations, and not see this. He's slow.

Robertson to me is very similar to Lofton, good against the run and horrible against the pass. I'm not overly impressed with his total tackles, because our defense is on the field letting teams dink and dunk for 80+ yard drives all game, and someone is going to get a lot of tackles because of it (see Lofton in 2014, Anthony in 2015). It's just even more sad that Laurinaitis can't get to the ball more.

That's one of the comments my trainer said. "Our LBs have no lateral speed so the Falcons gashed us being able to get the edge and with cutbacks. Normal lateral speed NFL LBs would have shut-down nearly all those runs."
 
Thanks guys, always enjoy any further discussions!

It's really frustrating and depressing to me that the supposed bright spot of the defense this year, Robertson, is a complete liability in pass coverage. I don't know how anyone could watch the game against the Falcons, in which we got absolutely destroyed on routine pass plays to running backs, often in absolutely critical situations, and not see this. He's slow.

Robertson to me is very similar to Lofton, good against the run and horrible against the pass. I'm not overly impressed with his total tackles, because our defense is on the field letting teams dink and dunk for 80+ yard drives all game, and someone is going to get a lot of tackles because of it (see Lofton in 2014, Anthony in 2015). It's just even more sad that Laurinaitis can't get to the ball more.

I agree very much on the tackle totals - they are often a red herring.

With Robertson, I've been very impressed with his play against the run though. Not just the tackle totals alone, but he does look to have quick instincts (especially on runs inside the tackles) and good ability to read the ballcarrier and blocking schemes to make plays. You're right that runs outside the tackles can cause more problems, particularly the cutback/counter runs that the Falcons used to great effect. Once Robertson is going downhill, he doesn't have the greatest "turning circle". Not dissimilar to Laurinaitis in that sense.

His other similarity with Laurinaitis that we've all seen so far is that he's very limited in coverage. Both of them seem to struggle with reading playaction, and both lack the ability to cover RBs (or even athletic TEs). You could possibly find a way to "hide" one LB like that, but when you have two it becomes incredibly tricky - and our nickel package has predominantly been Laurinaitis/Robertson as the 2 LBs. Not a good combo.

I really think the Falcon offensive gameplan on Monday is something we're going to see again and again this year, until the defense shows any signs of being able to stop it. Attack the edges with the run, then mix in quick/short throws to the flats to RB/TE targets (often after a play fake) to take the D-Line out of the game and force our LBs/safeties to get to the edge and make plays...
 
Great analysis. I am so disappoint in our LB core. Different players, different D coordinator, same softness over the middle that just gifts completions and chain moving runs.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom