ThePosterFormerlyKnownAs-

Tell you what. I will concede that maybe the reason the point total isn\'t as high is because teams are not having to play catch up and can control the clock more by running. However, it is very clear to me that this defense is better than last year. I\'m not saying they are \"all world\", but just that they clearly are better. I hade no hope last year that they could stop ANYONE. This year I do. We all expected this defense to take time to gel and I believe they are doing that. Only time will tell.

I guess you see the glass as half empty and I see it as half full. To me, it only stands to reason that this young defense is going to get better as the season goes along.

WhoDat

I don\'t disagree with that. I\'m not saying that there isn\'t room for improvement, they just realistically aren\'t a lot better yet. The focus has been on the offense b/c it hasn\'t been scoring at will like it did last season, but the defense still has problems to deal with.

ThePosterFormerlyKnownAs-

I\'ll tell you what. After the games against the Colts, Titans, and Seahawks. I don\'t think anyone(myself included) thought we would be in any position to even be thinking playoffs. But here we are with a chance. You have to give credit to the coaches and the players for not packing it in. They are playing with heart now and why they weren\'t before is beyond me. The defense is a big part of the reason we won some of the games. They have played very well at times and broken down at times also, but I think that\'s to be expected. I think we half enough talent on defense this year to be competitive. I don\'t think we had that last year. Your thoughts on how good the defense can be this year?

whowatches

Two things:

1. When considering the defense this year you must also take into account the fact that our offense is scoring fewer points (way fewer points). Opposing teams don\'t have to play catch up. In my opinion this is the biggest reason for the difference in points allowed so far this season.

However...

2. Watching the game Saturday, I saw a fight in the defensive unit that I did not see most of last year or in games earlier this season. Yes, we gave up long drives, but we also caused some big turnovers and played with emotion. I, like many of you, actually enjoyed watching the game when the Saints D was on the field... been a long time.

WhoDat

Honestly, I\'m not sure that the defense can get much better than it is right now. Getting Howard back and moving Whitehead to DT should help us get additional push up front on passing downs and that means pressure on opposing QBs. Of course, we\'ve been getting good pressure recently, so I\'m not sure how much more that will help.

Letting Grady go has it\'s high points and low points. I\'m not saying it wasn\'t the right thing to do, for what I can tell at this point, it was right, but that also means that we don\'t have any big run stopper in the middle anymore. Our secondary played well against Tampa - woopee - but they also got abused by no-names from Tennessee and Carolina. Frankly, I think this defense may start putting a little more pressure on opposing QBs, but unless the offense starts scoring more quickly and more often, then they will only get worse against the run.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"