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What would happen if you combined the historic 2009 Saints offense with the borderline disaster 2008 Saints defense? We’re finding out in 2011.

The Saints rolled the Giants 49-24 on Monday night and proved on offense only Green Bay can claim to be superior. On defense they gave up 465 yards to the Giants and were unable to generate much of a pass rush despite having a double digit lead most of the night. The Saints managed just one sack against a Giant offensive line that is an injury-filled mess. It’s week 12 people and the Saints can’t get to quarterbacks despite Gregg Williams rushing harder than a mom running through the aisles at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. A Christmas miracle is more likely than the Saints suddenly finding a decent pass rush.

The pass rush problems are the heart of the defense’s struggles. Gregg Williams’s theory of defense is very simple. He believes quarterback pressure lead to sacks, sacks and hits lead to nervous quarterbacks, nervous quarterbacks make mistakes and mistakes lead to turnovers. Consistent pressure is the key and without it his defense isn’t very good.

The Saints did hold the Giants to 73 yards rushing which was a very encouraging sign for the rest of the regular season. Why is holding the NFL’s worst rushing team to nine yards below their season average important? If the Giants had come into the Superdome last night and mashed the Saints on the ground with a banged up offensive line then how could we expect them to hold up with upcoming games against Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson? At least the defense can’t be run over. Besides, with this offense how much defense do you need?

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Forecast: Can Saints offense overcome team's defensive shortcomings? | wwltv.com New Orleans

saintfan

Hey Greg Williams, you reading this?

Danno

I think they can, at about a 73% win percentage.

SaintsBro

THIS is what i have been saying all year. The defense has its problems, but I say it's maybe NOT REALLY AS BAD as some people out there think it is. They are like 2-3 plays away from being the crazy fun Gregg Williams defense that everybody seemed to love so much in 2009, where we just took over games late in the day, and kinda shut people down or stepped on the neck. Rolled through the season and playoffs, forced the turnovers, etc. But they'd give up embarrassing long TD runs, early in the game, or have brain farts in pass coverage, just like this defense does. But then when you NEEDED that stop, or something to happen, it was there.

If they can just generate a couple more of these BIG plays each game, at the right time, then they are very close to getting back to that type of 2009 form, where the sky's the limit on what they can do. The 4th down stand against Atlanta was HUGE; they held Tampa to nothing but field goals in the 2nd half (in the game we lost); you had the Herring interception in the end zone. These are big plays AT THE RIGHT TIME, which is exactly what we need more of. They're not going to keep every team out of the end zone, all day, every game; just need to do it enough when it matters.

brock3344

If the defense catches the ball we are all speaking of how great a defense they are!!

darstep

At least 5 dropped picks that I can count without looking back at film.
I know there is another 5 forced fumbles that bounced back into opponents hands.
Sometimes the stars just have to align to have the kind of give/take ratio we had on 09'.
Hard work and preparation goes a long way to getting the stars in a row.
We seem to give up a BIG play every game; run or throw, sometimes both.
We do have some jacked up run stat numbers, but I've seen improvement of late.
If the defense is starting to hit its stride, we are in for a pretty good run.

**SaintSince67**

ScottF

it seems like a simple reason , but all those drops ARE killing us
instead of getting off the field we are giving up more yards and points

2 years ago Sharper had 9 picks- not sure all 5 DBs combined have that this year
we can't get a stop unless it's a 4th down or punt

Euphoria

What our defense has short comings???

We can't get a decent or consistent pass rush to save our lives. Our whole Defense depends on pass rush. You get a pass rush and our CB's can then jump routes. Playing man and no pass rush we get eatin' alive.

Drops are not we can't stop anyone running the ball or even passing the ball. It all starts up front and our front sucks.

Mardigras9

Offense still can't have an off day. D has been hit and miss all year. However, they do seem to be improving gradually. As long as they keep trending upward there is promise.