Grading the New Orleans Saints' defense vs. the Falcons
 

Even though the Atlanta Falcons finished with 469 yards, this outing was the New Orleans Saints' defense's best of the season. They held the Falcons to 35 yards rushing, were able to put consistent pressure on Matt Ryan and Scott Shanle and Malcolm Jenkins combined for the game-sealing strip and fumble recovery for a touchdown. Cornerback Jabari Greer had an especially strong performance both in run support and coverage. He finished with a team-high 10 tackles. Defensive end Junior Galette caused problems for the Falcons' offensive line and looks like he's becoming an impact player.

What grade do you give the defense in the Saints' 45-16 win over the Falcons?

Grading the New Orleans Saints' defense vs. the Falcons - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

Whatcha got?

A

They played a great game, couple miscues here and there but overall a great performance, when our drives stalled in the 4th quarter they kept the falcons to a FG or less, and a Defensive TD made it even better

Defensive line stopping the run, short yardage situations, and putting pressure on skid britches: A
Defensive secondary covering the zone: C
Matt Ryan kept throwing succesfully to the same spot in the secondary and we made no adjustments to close the seams.

Junior,Junior,Junior. The D's front 7 looked really good and so did the secondary, they tackled well, wrapped up well and hit everything that come across the middle, I loved it. Junior is starting to get closer and closer to what we thought he can be. Ellis, yes Ellis had a play in particular I liked last night on the RB., if he can get it together I think we will be set up front. J. Patrick also looked good, sound hard hitting and tackling. I gave 3 fleurs only because of the amount of yards given up but I thought they played exceptionally well. Sound defensive performance.

It was Ramon Humber, not Scott Shanle, who forced the fumble, by the way...

Our defensive line is starting to look rather good, especially the tackles. The secondary looked pretty good, though it wasn't perfect by no means. I'm hoping that turnover that we forced will be contagious the next couple of weeks and we start capitalizing on mistakes.

The one thing that looks like it has been solved is our tackling. We are swarming the ball and wrapping up pretty good.

We're looking like we are a Superbowl contender.

You know, throughout the season I've been sort of skeptical of Cameron Jordan, but I'm absolutely loving the rotation that we are throwing out there with Junior and Jordan. I think Jordan's pass rush skills will get better with an offseason under his belt, but I really like how they are handling that position right now.

I also think Jordon will get better with his pass rush, Junior also. It would be great if we didn't have to worry about that position for a long, long time.

Galette - Wow, he's developing nicely
Greer - solid
Humber - Where the hell did he come from?
Harper - Anyone notice how much more he's playing zone coverage?
D-Line - Good game, especially versus the run
GW - looks to have dialed back the exoctic and frequent blitzes.

Well, well, well very few penalties for our O = A lot of points for our O. Fumble for a score broke the game open. SHANLE PLAYED, HARPER PLAYED, JABARI PLAYED, TACKLING IN OPEN FIELD SITUATIONS YES THIS D IS GETTING READY FOR THE RUN.

What's that? Ah -- looking like? Don't talk about -- looking like?! You kidding me?! looking like?!
Man, WE ARE CONTENDERS

:bng:

Championship

CAN WE PLEASE CUT ROMAN HARPER!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!!!! Dislike? Really? Every Big Play Is Blown Coverage From Harper. Every Play To Tony G Last Night Was On Him. He Was In The Wrong Defensive Scheme 3 Times LAST NIGHT....And I'm Only Talking LAST NIGHT...Ever Since The Game In Seattle Last Year He Sucked. He's Nothing But A Linebacker In A Safety Position

seems like a few defenses I have seen so far this year... Green Bay as well.. Give up lots of yards... But when get to the 30 tighten up.... With the offenses these 2 teams have they can take a gamble..If they give up 3 points oh well.. The offense will score 7.... If Green Bay and The Saints meet this year in the Playoffs It could turn into a instant Classic... I sure Hope it Winds up that way....

Roman Harper is our best tackler, if you got rid of him you would see a HUGE drop off in our D, he's perfect for Greg Williams style of D.
Vilma missed tons of tackles yesterday, but im trying to think its because of rust

Vilma Is Still Hurt. And Dunbar Did A Great Job Standing In For Him While Gone. But I Agree He Is Our Best Tackler But We Also Pay Him To COVER And He Blows Alot Of The Plays Where He's Needed To Stop The Pass. I Was A HUGE Harper Fan Two Seasons Ago. But I Call Them Like I See Em..He's Going Downhill

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JECHcrzu65...s1600/bros.jpg

Arguably our best defensive player after Greer. How was every play Tony Gonzales made last night on Harper? You do realize he was hurt and missed time in the second half right? Man... Gonzo's 5 catches for 41 yards sure ripped apart our secondary last night(hope you sense the sarcasm).

Get over Seattle. It'll help you make an unbiased assessment how much Roman Harper means to this team... much less defense. Otherwise, you'd just be spewing poop out the wrong end.

LOL!!!!! Not Mad. I Actually Want To See Him Do Good Like Any Other Player On The Team!!!....Greer Is Def The Best Defensive Player But IN MY OPINION Harper Is Not Playing Good Anymore...Every Big Pass Play Is In His Area Of The Field..He's Getting Picked On Bro I'll Be Sure To Point That Out In The Carolina Game To You

They looked really good last night but I to keeping a dead horse but Jordan has to step up. Junior looks like our best pass rusher by for. I know Will got around the end a couple of times last night but came up short to get to Ryan.

Wow, thats freaking amazing.

We have certainly been down on the D for the majority of the season. They played well last night and are looking better each week. Shut the Dirtybirds down in the red zone and shut down Turner. The team, all around that played last night, can go all the way. That was a dominating performance.

couple points:
don't cut Harper; He's actually pretty good
Jordan isn't getting the numbers, but did a great job taking on blockers, being where he was supposed to be, and spreading runs outside. Twice Greer made nice tackles bc Jordan extended the OT outside

Overall A-

I don't know who is responsible, but MANY times last night, and all season, quarterbacks have been throwing into our secondary and there has been NOBODY even in the same tv screen shot except the reciever. Our secondary has to come from 20 yards away to tackle the reciever. Ryan threw to the same spot all night, and nobody was there except his reciever. Did anybody notice that Skid Britches threw for almost 400 yards last night?! 400 yards! That's not a secondary shutting down the pass.

They Scored 16 points....let me repeat that. They Scored 16 points! He could have passed for 10,000 yards. We held them to Field goals and 16 points. It's hard to shut a team down to zero points. I think they played very well including the backup Saftys.

Not trying to be a downer but I'm concerned about Drew's starting to throw INT's again going into the playoffs.

But these are what I was talking about before the game.

But both were deflected passes. The 1st was a freakishly good play by Moore.

Guys that stood out:

Junior Gallette - Needs to be starting.....period.

Greer - Thought he would be a liability. I was wrong & Mr. Greer....you have my sincerest apologies. Guy has played lights out all year.

Vilma - Glad to see him back. He reads the offense for the whole D.

Shanle - I can't believe I'm saying this, but he played well last night.

Jenkins - Dude looked like Ronnie Lott with those hits last night.

Harper - Always making plays.

D-Line - Much improvement, but still no pass rush.

You guy's are forgetting that our rookie DB played last night and made some good plays. He had a couple open field tackles that was pretty impressive considering our DB's, with the exception of Greer, seem to have a problem tackling.

Our D did what's most important, held them to just 16 points. Did we have some miscues, of course. I LOL'd at the comment to cut Harper. Maybe we should cut Vilma for not even trying to knock the pass down that foolio caught for a touchdown. He was right there and seemed to just watch it happen. You can't cut everyone because of a bad play or 2 a game. The other team gets payed to play the game also.

It WAS Shanle that stripped the ball; go to the 3:14 mark of this video and you will see #58 strip the ball.

NFL Videos: Falcons vs. Saints highlights

Are we grading on a Bell Curve?:wink:

Yeah, I get what you are saying there and yes, it could improve...I know that exact "spot" you are talking about last night and I saw it too, throwing to the same spot over and over, BUT this is what I kinda think was happening there: Every time Ryan threw to that same spot, in the middle of the field, our guy would make the open field tackle and it would CHEW THE CLOCK UP, thirty forty seconds per completion. The sidelines were well covered, Julio was generally pretty well covered; we had a lead, and other than that one fluke TD pass they were not getting ANY big plays on our D. That spot on the field where the guy was always wide-open, it really only opened up for the Falcons once we had the lead. So I know what you're saying and I agree with you it could be better, but there was also that time-wasting element to consider. Kinda like letting your opponent bleed himself to death by a bunch of little cuts, rather than lopping off his head. The Detroit game actually looked kinda similar on defense, letting them do certain things and NOT do others.

No not felling ya on this.

I thought the turning point of the game was third-quarter when Junior Gallette shut-down Matty-Froze on 3rd down. If the Falcons would have put it in the end-zone on that play -- this game would have been MUCH harder.

Next, important play, 30+ yard Sproles run. To me, it was all down-hill, from there, for us.

What are you smoking??? Harper is our best tackler & always around the ball.

That is what I saw. I saw Shanle knocked the ball out -- but Humber was in on the tackle.

Only one was Drew's fault. The other pick in the end zone was just bad luck.

Prior to tonight Drew was 37 TDs to 11 INTs. Tom Brady is 36TDs to 11 INTs. Only QB better is Aaron Rodgers. And he is off the charts better: 45 TDs to 6 INTs.

But, really, I wouldn't worry if I were you. We have a scary running game, not to mention, a Pro-Bowl tight-end and an amazing slot receiver Lance Moore, that gets us 3rd down yardage this year. Last year, Drew was trying to make up for a non-existent running game.

Also, our O-Line this year is playing vastly better than last year.

It was a great all-around effort