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this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; Quoted by St.Shrume: Of course, our passing defense being rated so high (8th, i think) is kind of misleading, since people didn\'t have to pass on us, since running was so easy. I think it\'s a natural assumption for some ...
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#1 |
Banned
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 2,616
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It's amazing we won 8 games last year.
Let me try and explain how our poor run defense did NOT help our pass defense. Hopefully, this will put an end to all these myths. Here\'s the thing about our run defense. We were ranked 31st in the NFL at giving up runs of 20 or more yards. We allowed 16 runs of 20 or more yards. That\'s next to last in the league, by the way. To put that into perspective: Runs of 20+ New Orleans 16 Tennessee 2 New England 2 Baltimore 3 Dallas 5 Miami 5 Buffalo 5 Jacksonville 5 Carolina 8 What does this have to do with anything? Well, it means that a LOT of the yardage given up on the ground was in large chunks. The yardage given up by our run defense is kinda misleading. For large portions of games, teams weren\'t running the ball that effectively and controlling the clock. Which is ONE of the reasons our defense was on the field less than Jacksonvile. Saints=29:46 defense on field Jaguars= 29:51 defense on field The Jaguars just didn\'t give up as many LONG running plays Saints 20+ = 16 Jaguars 20+ = 5 To once and for all put an end to the myth that our run defense helped our pass defense. Consider this: Pass attempts per game against Saints defense = 30.3 That\'s the 7th fewest in the league. And that\'s what everyone wants to point to and hang their hat on. However, do you know how many passes were thrown againt the team who was passed on the 8th most in the NFL?? It was 33.1 pass attempts per game(Miami Dolphins). Which is a WHOPPING difference of 2.8 more pass attempts per game. That\'s hardly enough help a pass defense out. Bottom line is our pass defense was passed on 30.3 times per game and it really wouldn\'t have made a difference if teams would have rushed for 1-million yards per game. It\'s how many times teams attempted to throw the ball against our secondary that counts. And for final proof that our secondary was passed on as much as just about any other team in the league: ![]() Team/ Pass att. per game Indianapolis 27.8 New York (A) 28.4 Oakland 29.2 Tampa Bay 29.7 Washington 30.2 Pittsburgh 30.2 New Orleans 30.3 Dallas 30.8 Denver 30.9 Arizona 31.1 Cleveland 31.4 Houston 31.4 Buffalo 31.8 Atlanta 31.8 Cincinnati 31.8 St. Louis 31.9 Jacksonville 31.9 San Francisco 32.1 New York (N) 32.4 Carolina 32.6 Detroit 32.6 San Diego 32.8 Chicago 32.8 Miami 33.1 Baltimore 33.2 Minnesota 33.2 [Edited on 2/6/2004 by GumboBC] |
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