Tobias-Reiper

.. I was about to post this on another thread, but figured I make it a thread of its own, because I find this very interesting.

Contrary to popular belief, the defense has played well this year... Here's why:

- Before yesterday, the Saints defense was the only defense to hold the Panthers to less than 21 points.

- Against the Giants, the Saints committed 6 turnovers, some in their own territory... what do you expect the defense to do?

- Held the Bills to 7 points

- Against the Vikings, a couple of things jump out:
the Saints defense had 7 sacks, and a sack usually stops a drive... but when you look at time of possession, you'll see that the Vikings held the ball almost twice as much as the Saints ( 38+ minutes vs 21+ minutes)... The reason? The Saints offense was 2 of 12 on 3rd downs and had 4 turnovers... I actually think it is a testament to the good play of the defense that they held the Vikings to field goals in the 4th quarter considering that they were on the field for almost 40 minutes.

- Against the Pack, 5 turnovers by the offense; 4 out of 16 3rd down convertions... Defense can't do much there either...

- Against the Falcons, they weren 't great, but they weren't horrible either... offense played good for a change...

- Against the Rams, they weren't great, but no horrible either... held the Rams to 21 points..

- Held the Dolphins to 19 points, created 2 turnovers; the Saints offense out-did itself by going 0-11 on 3rd downs, and scoring only 6 points...

- Against the Bears, the Defense created 3 turnovers. Points off those turnovers, 0. Offense out-did the Bears offense by turning the ball 4 times.

- Against the Pats, both offense and defense played decent, but the Pats made the plays when it counted...

SO, while no one is going to confuse the 2005 Saints defense with the 1985 Bears defense, they have actually been playing well... it seems it is the offense that stinks now

'Cause the simple man pays the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill