I'm going to try to evaluate each team's defense prior to our game against them. That will include a general look their performance to date or their 2017 performance (if its early in the season). That will also include a look at the film to evaluate:
1st and 10 tendencies (personnel, fronts, coverages, % blitz)
3rd and short tendencies
3rd and mid tendencies
3rd and long tendencies
So lets start with New Orleans.
They were somewhere just north of the middle of the pack of defenses in 2017 (maybe 14ish). They were:
- Top 10 in Sacks
- 10th in Points/TOs
- Middle of the pack in 1st Downs/Yards/% of Drives Ending in an Offensive Score/Red Zone Defense
- Bottom 1/3 in Yards Per Play/3rd Down %
Now this is important. This ranking, like all defensive rankings, is inextricably tied to their Offense. Two extremely key stats to their defensive success:
Offensive Turnover Per Drive: Top 10
Time of Possession Per Drive: Top 5
Points Per Drive: # 2
So the 2017 NO Saints was (a) not turning the ball over and putting their defense in bad position, (b) significantly possessing the football (shortening the number of drives per game and total plays faced), (c) answering scores to either stop the opposing team's momentum or pile on their own and put their D in an advantageous position.
For a frame of reference, Tampa Bay was # 30, # 11, and # 16 in the respective categories above. Our 2017 Offense didn't do our 2017 Defense any favors (and they needed all the favors they could get).
So that 2017 New Orleans Saints defense wasn't as good as their numbers reflect. Give them our 2017 Offense and that 14ish ranking drops a bit.
Finally, the Saints are a MUCH better Passing Defense than Rushing defense. They're not good against the run:
- Middle of the road in terms of Yards and TDs
- 27th in the league in Yards per Carry
Teams had to pass the ball a lot against the Saints (due to their prolific offense) and they didn't get nearly as many plays per game as the Saints did (due to their offense's ToP/drive advantage).
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Notable additions:
To improve that Rushing defense, they had to improve their LB core. To that end, they signed former NYJ Demario Davis to play MLB for them. He's a very good ballplayer and he should help them.
We all know their other notable offseason acquisition; the big trade up for Marcus Davenport. We'll see how well this works out for them. He'll be a rotational pass-rusher/3rd down player to start. He has a lot of physical tools, but his pass rush suite needs to improve significantly to be effective against NFL level OTs.
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Alright, I'll start looking at their film in the coming days and breaking down tendencies.
