Some interesting turn over stats.
 

The Saints finished in a 4 way tie for 3rd inforced fumbles at 20. Only 7 of which were recovered by us. By contrast Cincinnati recovered 12, Mn and SF recovered 15. NE forced 10 and recovered 11. (That's what it says. Don't ask me.)

Another record we set that nobody is talking about is least fumbles in a season. We only fumbled 6 times all year!! But we lost 5.

We intercepted a whopping 9 passes this year. In the believe it or not dept there were two teams with less. Mn and In only had 8. Pat Rbinson had 4 and no other player had more than 1. But get this, not one safety had an int. That's appalling! Has this ever happened before. Talk about needing to step it up! Malcom Jenkins should hide his face in shame. Harper you expect, we've known for years that he has zero ball skills but Jenkins is supposed be a future star FS. And it's not just the starters I'm talking about either. None of the back ups came up with the ball this year. Scott freaking Shanle had more ints than that whole unit!

Only one other team made the play offs with a negative turn over ratio. (Pitt with -13)

Were going to need a bunch starting saturday.

Wasn't like we didn't have the opportunities either. I know I counted at least 10 dropped picks this year. But like they say, that's why they are DB's because if they could catch they would be WR's!

We just have a different definition of 'turnover'. With our unstoppable offense and bend-don't-break defense, a field goal against is actually a turnover, because we are going to go down and get 7.

How many teams in the NFC gave up fewer points than us?
Ready?
THREE! (and 2 of those did not make the playoffs)

Oh, and how many teams out-scored us? zero

We need to get a better dictionary.

It's not that turnovers aren't important. They're very important. But I think ScottF is sorta on to something there. I think people get lulled into thinking that the Saints' defense is REALLY BAD, because they don't have those spectacular amazing plays that make us cheer like they did in '09. But they're NOT really bad (okay, they're not really great either, but when the defense WORKS, it's good enough).

This year there were a lot of dull, uninteresting STOPS where we got the ball back, got the other team's offense off the field, shut a team's particular favorite weapon down, etc. There weren't as many spectacular Sportscenter-type highlight reel plays, just ordinary plays like:

- Jenkins' 3rd down open field tackle on Chris Johnson
- stuffing the falcons on 4th and 1 (huge play)
- porter breaks up the pass on the next-to-last Titans play
- Houston's four drives inside the 20 that resulted in only field goals
- holding the Buccaneers to only 6 points in the whole 2nd half (in the game we lost when Payton went down with the knee)
- the first Carolina game where Cam's final drive stalled out around midfield, giving us the victory
- Will Herring's interception for a TOUCHBACK in the Giants game (somehow, an INT for a touchback is not as sexy as one with a return)

You could do this list for every game... It's like, they made a lot of plays, but this year's plays just weren't as many REALLY AMAZING plays as they had in '09. You don't leave the ramps of the Dome after the game, pumping your fist in the air and cheering wildly about that boring Eli Manning incompletion, on some 3rd down in the 2nd quarter. But that's how we won.

And all year long, the other team would end up having these head-scratching, "what happened to Michael Turner?" "Why didn't Calvin Johnson get any TD catches?" "Where was our GO-TO GUY all day?" type moments. But I think the lack of BIG PLAYS this year, means some people have a hard time getting pumped up about this defense.

Let's talk definitions..........my dictionary says a win is still a win!:cool:

Jenkins has not played well this year, he has come on some lately, but he will have competition next year with Isa??????, can't spell his name. There have been far to many drops from our DB,s, if they need lesson they can ask Shanle. I like the forced fumbles, that's a positive, even without the recovery. P-Rob has finally started to get it together, maybe the shearing of the locks helped because before that I wanted to shear his head off at the neck. As a unit I think they are about to come alive, and just in time.

Well The D has come around in the second half of the season... but to start the season... on they were bad! Good enough doesn't cut it in the NFL.

FYI

Saints D giving up Yards per game ranked: 24th
Saints D ranked agasint the pass: 30th.

I don't call that getting good enough.

D-Sucks-itis seems to be contagious among the top teams in the NFC this year.

Any drive that ends with a punt, fumble, interception or 4th down short is a turnover.

I would agree that any drive that ends in a FG is also a turnover, unless it's an end of half or end of game scenario.

Opponents have scored 37 td's and made 27 of 32 FGs.

Opponents have also punted 71 times and allowed only 6 of 22 4th down conversions. 9 interceptions, 7 fumble recoveries. Saints are 5th best in 3rd down situations, allowing only 33.2% conversions.

One might say that the Saints' defense has forced 103 turnovers in 172 meaningful drives. As the Packers are the "gold standard" this season, they forced 108 turnovers in 170 meaningful drives. Not much difference.

SF had 135 turnovers in 183 meaningful drives. I would argue that SF played the collectively worst set of offenses (StL, AZ, Sea, Cle, Ravens, Wash, TB -- 10 bottom feeder offenses.) of any NFC playoff team.

Saints played GB(3), Lions (5), Panthers (7)twice, ATL(10) twice, Giants (8), Houston pre injury(1 at the time). 8 top ten offenses. Beat all but 1.

I know I am MONUMENTALLY tough on our defense, but even I have to recognize.

The thing is though, that even in the offense crazy game that the NFL plays today the field position battle is still important. How do you think Rodgers put up so many TDs while lagging so far behind in yards passing. His D gave him short fields all year. How more games could we have won if the D gave Brees 10 more possessions?

Another stat that seems get overlooked these days is time of possesion. The Saints had a little over 31 mins a game this year. Not bad but nothing special. These are all things that add up real quick. I know i know we won 13 games this year. I'm happy as can be about that. 15 would be better.

I agree with danno - they are a little schitzo!!