Why did Spagnuolo stink as Saints' DC? (merged) (2 Viewers)

[mikedre]

The Saints had a defense lacking talent and terrible position coaches and no Head Coach. Spags was never given the chance to actually rebuild the defense here. It's that simple.

That! I think that Sean should have given him a real chance, after the previous year , where the NFL didn't want us to have a winning season at all

the players on defense that year was very bad

Bad? Greer, Vilma, Smith, Jordan, Wilson, Galette?

 

[St.Dan]

No HC that season.

To build on that obvious truth, there also weren't any truly elite defensive linemen on the team back then, as he had with the Giants. We had Will Smith, who was solid but not elite, plus a bunch of other guys making money but who weren't elite. Excluding Cam Jordan from that statement, as he was just in his second year; was referencing only the more experienced players at the time.

Also, 2012 was the bounty fiasco season and all the distractions that went along with it. Only reason we got to seven wins that year (actually had rebounded to 5-5 and competitive with the Harbaugh-coached 49ers in game 11 until a coupla unforced errors) was due to Drew Brees' greatness.

Payton brought Spags on board a month before the bounty fiasco hit, so there was obviously some sort of plan there. But it didn't have a chance to bloom, unfortunately.

 

[saintlad]

He's been so good everywhere else, how could he have been so historically awful?

If I recall, after Goodell threw us under the bus, there was this lingering shadow hanging over the team. (Hell Vikings fans still use Bountygate as an excuse for beating Farve.)


We were getting some crap calls in just about every game from the referees. They were so ticky tack about anything. It wouldn't look good for the so called NFL shield if we went to the playoffs.

We won just enough to not have a high draft pick that year.

 

[3ParStillDriver]

That! I think that Sean should have given him a real chance, after the previous year , where the NFL didn't want us to have a winning season at all

Bad? Greer, Vilma, Smith, Jordan, Wilson, Galette?

They were bad for his scheme. Spags defense operates mostly off zone coverage and a dominate dline while disguising blitzes from our linebackers. Our Dline was struggling to win their matchups and none of our linebackers were good at blitzing. Robinson was a corner who was better in man coverage then zone. Harper sucked in zone but was great at the LOS. Greer and Jenkins were the only two who were above average zone defenders.

He just didn't have the personal for his scheme here at all. Smith was fading in a big way. Galette was in his second year and not performing very well yet. Bunkley was bleh. and Ellis was getting shoved around everywhere. Jordan was our most consistent dlineman.

Our linebackers looked good on paper but none of them could blitz. And despite the fans loving Vilma, they had blinders on. He was above average but not great. And neither he, Lofton nor Hawthorne were good at pass rushing. Vilma also seemed very average in pass coverage.

 

[platinumvinnyv]

They were bad for his scheme. Spags defense operates mostly off zone coverage and a dominate dline while disguising blitzes from our linebackers. Our Dline was struggling to win their matchups and none of our linebackers were good at blitzing. Robinson was a corner who was better in man coverage then zone. Harper sucked in zone but was great at the LOS. Greer and Jenkins were the only two who were above average zone defenders.

He just didn't have the personal for his scheme here at all. Smith was fading in a big way. Galette was in his second year and not performing very well yet. Bunkley was bleh. and Ellis was getting shoved around everywhere. Jordan was our most consistent dlineman.

Our linebackers looked good on paper but none of them could blitz. And despite the fans loving Vilma, they had blinders on. He was above average but not great. And neither he, Lofton nor Hawthorne were good at pass rushing. Vilma also seemed very average in pass coverage.

As someone who loves Vilma remember he was out of position they moved him to Weakside even though playing MLB his whole career to make room for Lofton. Vilma greatest asset was between the ears and once they moved him from the MLB position I agree his weaknesses begin to show mor often. Lofton was a better athlete at that point of Vilma career but you can see Vilma was a general on the Def side of the ball

 

[El Caliente]

A couple of notes on Spazz’s time here in New Orleans.

1) it’s interesting how bad that Saints team was when Sean was out for the year. And he (Sean) was the only person missing. It seems like Loomis was exposed then when we were down. He put a set of coaches in place to replace Sean on the basis that they could maintain Sean’s culture, and at the end of the day they couldn’t. Fast forward nearly a decade later (when Sean left), and he tried pulling the same move with DA, and the experiment once again failed. Makes you wonder just how savvy Mickey and the front office are.

2) I had a thread that season (the Spags year) that called for Spags to be fired (granted it was after a win) that got an absolute avalanche of “down thumbs”. I believe it netted like 230 “down thumbs”. It was quite eye opening for me, as I thought everyone felt the same way. I still love this board, but I got a lot of crap for the thread, and it opened my eyes as to how off well respected opinions could be.

 

[ric weatherford]

Having the Refs 100% on your side will make any coach look great ......