Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

Team/att-game/yards-game
New Orleans 30.1 228 -- 2002
New Orleans 37.1 343 --2003

Billy according to this teams throw the ball 7 times more against us this year.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

AH Billy, let me say this one more time. I am talking about this years numbers on this years team. Your quote of me was persuant to this year, to continually compare to last year is of no relevance to the point I am making and the point we have been discussing.

[Edited on 12/18/2003 by saint5221]

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

I\'ve got the years in the wrong place. My bad. I\'m going to correct them now. Thanks.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

So, you contend that the reason that we are ranked 8th in the passing game is because teams are thowing the ball less? I don\'t see it. We\'ll just have to agree to disagree. I think that is a VERY SMALL part of it.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

I don\'t know what other\'s opinions are of the job Venturi has done with the defense, but I think he has done a VERY good job. Really, the only thing that matters is how many points a defense holds it\'s opponents to. This year we have held opponents to 20 or less points in 9-games. I think we did it once last year?


In the offseason all the talk from Venturi was about stopping the BIG plays.(plays of 20 or more yards.) I had my doubts if this would be able to stop teams from scoring more than 20 points. It\'s clearly done exactly what Venturi said it was going to do.

When you break down the bad games that the defense has played, it was really in the first 4 games, when so many starters on defense were out.

First 4- games:

09/07 at Seattle L 10- 27
09/14 Houston W 31-10
09/21 at Tennessee L 12- 27
09/28 Indianapolis L 21- 55

Since that time, the only time the Saints defense has given up 20 or more points in 4-quarters of football has been against the Eagles. But our offense had 3 fumbles in that game that resulted in 21 of the Eagles points. So,I don\'t think all the fault goes on our defense for giving up 33-points to the Eagles.

11/23 at Philadelphia L 20-33

Turnovers against Philidephia :
A. Brooks 2 2 0 0
J. Pathon 1 1 0 0

What I find very interesting is this:

You can argue with the stats, but you cannot argue with the results. The results being points allowed.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

So, let\'s see if I have this right...our defense has held opponents to 20 points or less 9 times this year and our offense can\'t close the deal? Is that what we\'re saying? And if that is what we\'re saying then what seems the be the main problem on offense? We\'re definitely not scoring enough points to win and if the defense has been that good then why is our point production so bad? And why, with the year Deuce is having, does he have so few TD\'s with so much all-purpose yardage? Something does not mesh here. Anyone care to try and put their finger on it?

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

I think the defense has played better than I thought they would. My question for all of you is this. How many times did the offense leave the defense in terrible field position due to turnovers, costing them points?

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

The offense has definately let the team down this year. It\'s been a little bit of everything that has contributed to this. Brooks fumbling, receivers dropping passes, penalties, bad play calling, injuries. But, the defense has played well enough to win MOST of the games. For whatever reason, the offense has not delievered.

The offense has hurt the defense PLENTY of times with poor field position caused by turnovers.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

Very good point, Joe.

Saints' 'D' gets passing grade
 

This is Rick Venturi as quoted in the article:
So which team are the Saints preparing for this weekend, Jacksonville or the Jaguars?

;) I\'m guessing he was misquoted here, but it\'s still kind of funny.