Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Opening Statement: “I’ll just open up real quick and then I’ll let you fire away. I’m certainly happy for the team. I’m very happy for Aaron Kromer and the job he’s been doing. There’s nothing better than getting your first win as a head coach. I’m proud of the way the defense played, certainly the way they rose up in the second (half). I was proud of what they did there. They stuck with it. I didn’t think it was always pretty in the way we did it. There were too many big plays, but we were able to overcome those explosive plays against us by creating some negative plays of our own. We had I think two tackles for losses, the five sacks helped and then certainly the turnover. When you can negate some of the issues you have early that certainly helps. I want to enjoy the win, but I think we all realize, certainly as coaches we do and we’ll be talking with the players here in a little bit, that we still have a long way to go defensively, so we’ll focus on what it is that we need to correct. Having said that, I’ll open it up.”

You mentioned being able to create those turnovers. This game, you seemed to be able to create those big plays more consistently. Can you talk about that?

“I think it was a combination of a couple of scheme things, the effort on the part of the players, certainly the front four at the end there getting to the quarterback when we really needed them to do that and we were trying to cover on the back end, the combination of all of that. There was what we would probably term one or two coverage sacks in there, certainly one of the earlier ones. That’s a credit to the secondary and the secondary coaches. That makes a huge difference. We want to eliminate the explosive plays that we gave them, but if that happens, you have to negate them.”

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Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

"Does it help Corey White knowing that a lot of the guys playing alongside of him have been in shoes recently as younger players still developing?"

“Yes, and I’m sure they’re helping him. There’s nothing better in this league than veteran help, not that Johnny (Patrick) and Patrick (Robinson) are ready to be declared veterans, but you have Roman (Harper) out there and you have Malcolm (Jenkins). Both those guys are always in their ears with confidence.

Explains a lot :roll:

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Being a 5th round rookie, he was never meant to see extensive playing time his first year.

Injuries have forced him into that role and he is only doing the best he can...

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

This poor guy must have nightmares. By the end of his rookie year he'll either be tough as leather or scarred for life.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

And thats the truth.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Real leather bears scars.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

No doubt.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

"the front four at the end there getting to the quarterback when we really needed them to do that"

Could we possibly REALLY NEED them to do that more often?

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

LOL.. it's like..ummmm don't we need them to do it all game? Would be nice!

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Did you notice who was playing? We had 4 DE's in the game. Smith and Jordan inside with Gallete and Wilson on the outside. That is a great lineup for passing downs, not sure on running downs though.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

The commentator did make a comment that the "pressure" squad was in. Made me watch a little closer.

i somewhat suspect that they could do no worse against the run than our "run squad"

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

This season we haven't had opponents against the ropes. They run to finish the game out and the nascar package might not be effective.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

LOL..yea if we could get that for 4 quarters instead of 4 minutes that would be nice

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

He needs to be asked why his defense is on pace to give up the most yards in NFL history... at the same rate the NO offense set the NFL record for the most prolific offense in NFL history last year, 456 yards a game(and at least 420 in every game so far), 31 yards more per game than the 1981 Baltimore Colts.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Funny. "pressure" and "run" would not be what I'd use to characterize those defenses.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Yeah, but last week that particular front 4 line-up wasn't able to create any pass rush to speak of, so maybe it was more about the Chargers' O-line underperforming as opposed to just the Saints' front 4 - especially the LT, Gather.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

The packers had the worst o line in the league and we didn't get to Rodgers all day, didn't even get a sack
Chargers o line wasn't worse than packers and the only difference is, we played Wilson and galette more versus the chargers

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

I think it was Galette who did a spin move somewhere towards the end of the game and my eyeballs nearly fell out of my head -- felt like I had not seen a Saints D-lineman do anything that fancy in years! Usually they just sorta stand there locked up with the O linemen, humming and not going anywhere, spinning in circles, like those little electric football men.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Ah! But you classify whats on the field when our offense is not on the field a "defense"...

Interesting... Tell me more about your travels.
http://www.freud-sigmund.com/wp-cont...ud-picture.jpg

:p

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Still, that doesn't negate the fact that this same "pass rush" front 4 wasn't able to create any pass rush against the Packers, even though they were give enough snaps to do so.

Wilson's sack/fumble/recovery was all on Jared Gaither, who was at that point suffering from an injury, which Wilson took full advantage of - for which you must give him credit for... but still...

I'd say that overall the Saints' front 4 were able to create more push consistently against the Chargers than the Packers. The one big difference between those two performances were the O-lines they were facing, hence my conclusion that the Chargers' O-line was one of the reasons why the Saints' front 4 were able to have a better game this past Sunday. I'm not saying that the Chargers' O-line played badly or that they are better or worse than the Packers' O-line - I'm simply saying that for whatever reason the Saints' front 4 were able to create better match-ups against the Chargers' O-line than they were against the Packers' O-line.

Re: Steve Spagnuolo Reviews Defensive Performance Against Chargers
 

Baptism under fire, he will learn from his mistakes. By the end of season he will know how to play and excel. This is better for him and us in the long run, I like this guy!!