Defense starting to make Saints scary
 

NEW ORLEANS -- We’ve known for quite some time that the New Orleans Saints’ offense could probably score enough to stay with an NBA team if it needed to. Defense, though, hasn’t exactly been a strong point during the Sean Payton era.

Heck, you get the idea the coach only uses a defense because it’s required. You can’t fault him, because running an offense the way a smart kid would play a video game has brought New Orleans far more wins than losses through the years.

But it was the defense that was largely responsible for Sunday night’s 31-17 victory against the Detroit Lions at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Full article.
Defense starting to make Saints scary - NFL Nation Blog - ESPN

Scary to me. Teams seem to be able to march downfield at will on us. Our CB's fell short(literally) last night.

Having said that, the SCHEME worked allowing Detroit to beat themselves.

Against a more disciplined team, the Saints defense would have been shredded even more than it was.

I quit counting at 5 the dropped interceptions the Saints had last night.

Good article. Again, Saints defense missed several gifts and without the penalties I'm not so sure the Saints could have pulled it off. Maybe that was part of the plan. It sure did look like some of the Saints were talking a lot more garbage this game.

Our defense is an excuse to score more points.

I was disgusted in our defense last night.

But perhaps the plan was to bend and not break all night. We put 8 guys on Megatron leaving everything else vulnerable. As they approached the redzone that soft zone tightens up and we played better.

The ease at which the Lions gobbled up yardage was embarrassing, but I guess the bottom line was we only gave up 17 points.

Ugly but effective???

Our D held it together for 1 Quarter and then just took a nap.

There weren't that many dropped INT's and one of them wouldn't have counted because of a penalty.

Vilma had a pick 6 go right through his hands. That's the main one I recall. He's our best defender. He has to make those plays.

We held the Lions below my magic number (20), and for that I'm grateful.
I don't even know how to say what I'm thinking. We won the game but - DAMN!
I think they had nearly 500 yards of offense on us.
Had they not kept shooting themselves in the foot, they may have made a game of it.
I remember when we were losing like that. But not under the Payton regime.
Thanks Detroit.

The scheme we played last night was different, almost to whatever side Johnson lined up on. I don't think our corners or safety actually knew how to play this scheme well, to many blown covers and late to the ball when thrown. I actually thought they did a decent job last night except for 2 plays and that was on Jenkins. Our front 7 looked fairly good with pressure and coverage. I know 400 pass yds. don't sit well, it doesn't with me either but the crazy Gregg Williams scheme got us a win, finally. Halloweens believe it or not.

I was pissed most of the game. I know Stafford is a good QB, but he shouldnt have had that kind of success against a team fighting to lock up the second seed in the playoffs. +400 yards passing is 150 too many! I'm sick of gettin those "almost interceptions"

Defense stills scares me!! Just 4 The Sport | Facebook

Yasinskas is freakin nuts.
Our best defender tonight was Burleson. Adding in lost yards, he was worth -110 yards in penalties. Unsportsmanlike on the one, another stupid penalty on a punt, their whole team played beyond dumb.

I have a hard crediting a defense that gave up all those yards when the Lions' self-destruction was the story of the game. We play like that against a top 5, we lose

I like to think that the Defense created opportunities for the Lions' self destruction. We know that our defense allows crazy yards. There have been at least three 400+ yds this season, maybe four now and we have only lost in one of those games. If GW knows we can't stop the yds, then create situations that allow the newbies and the jerks on the Lions to shoot themselves in their own foot. Now on to the next WIN!!

Am I missing something? I thought our defense looked horrible in the second half. I mean I thought they looked better against the Giants.

Defense making Saints scary how? They play 1 half the game come out cold as ice get burnt and we pray they hold them on key downs after the Lions make a comeback?

totally agree danno, it was what it looked like to me. seems like we were conceding the yardage not to let tron beat us with bombs. i was pretty pe-od all night myself at the defense till i just went with them. there is one ? mark the last couple of games with p. robertson. what exactly is he trying to prove? he has been playing a completly different second half of the season. deer in the headlights so to speak.

Scares the living daylights outta me. I know that much.

I'll agree with one point. They scared the crap outta me! Writers should have to actually watch a game before they're allowed to post anything up on it. The only way GW could've done anything to stop Detroit would've been to put on a striped shirt. We have a good deal of talent on the defense, we just aren't using them well. Thank heavens for a monster offense!

I want very badly to drink the Kool Aid on this year's defense, but every time I get the glass up to my lips, I find I just can't do it... they are THIS CLOSE to the turnovers and big plays that made that '09 defense sizzle, but they just can't seem to get the 2-3 more big plays a game that would easily make them dominant, game-winners, world-beaters, scary, fierce, the ones you don't want to face, etc.

I don't know what else to do, except blame the lockout/lack of practice, and maybe this new secondary coach for some of this stuff -- these guys know how to make interceptions, how to make big plays, or at least they knew how. They have ALL done it before -- Porter, Jenkins, Greer, Vilma, we have all seen them do it before, with our own eyes. And they did it before under Gregg Williams as coach, so it can't all be on him.

BUT I think those early defensive shut-down stops in the beginning of the game were HUGE. This game was basically a shootout, but the Lions kinda didn't realize it was a shootout at first -- they thought it was some other kind of game, so they didn't start shooting until 5:00 left in the 2nd quarter down by 17...that made the difference.

It did look to me like basic TACKLING was getting better -- grabbing the guy and getting him down. The basic "hats on the ball" swarming type stuff seemed to be improved. PRESSURE from the front 7 seemed to be a little bit better, in parts of the game at least.

Are you kidding??

I distinctly remember 5 passes that should have been picked off.

And I don't eon't to know how many we have dropped this season already.

Prime example: On Monday night, the Giants fumbled the ball 5 times and the Saints only recovered one!!

I think the point of Greg Williams' D scheme is to be an all or nothing type defense. Remember, he was brought in to implement a defense that matched the offense? Before him, the offense was scoring so quick that the defense barely left the field, and they would completely wear down. Being so aggressive, they may create a big play or allow one, either way the opponent has to keep up with best offense in the league, and our defense gets a breather. This isn't supposed to be a ravens type defense, and stafford never throws for 400 if he isn't playing catch up the whole game.

If we can win by 14 points when we give up 400+ yards to our opponent, I'll take that every time.