How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Goes to be an assistant with the Ravens, heaps all that praise about how much more talented they are and blah blah.

Fast forward to the present and the Ravens defense is very average in spite of all their talent. Meanwhile the same Saints team that supposedly had no talent is getting respect from all the media nerds, and Rex Ryan who they completely trashed despite some obvious mitigating circumstances in Dallas is some kind of wizard of defense.

Makes you wonder if any of these eggheads have any clue at all. The only people who at all predicted improvement for the Saints D were the fans and some local media, who correctly recognized that the Saints existing personnel was already a better fit for a 34 defense.

I love it when these people are made to look stupid.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

It took time to see Spags body of work.

But when you look at defenses after he leaves a team (Giants, Rams, Saints) and then you question.............WTF was he ever doing?

Giants defense never changed any after he left, certainly never got worse.

Rams defense never changed any after he left, some might say it got better.

Saints defense got way better.


Hes over there in Baltimore, they not exactly great on Defense, although they lose Reed and Lewis to. But still........

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

The game nowadays is all about adjustments and are you humble enough to admit what you were doing wasn't working.

Great coaches adjust to their defensive players and the way the other team are playing.

Sean Payton makes adjustments, Rob Ryan makes adjustments. Spags refused to and was so set in his way that no defensive player ever felt comfortable in that D.

Now the players feel comfortable, they have their swagger back and rightfully so, they pretty much won the first two games for us and threw the cardinals out of the dome

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

He looks great standing on someone else's sidelines!

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

There are way too many young and veteran players alike waiting to come into this league... Same goes with coaches etc...

Football is an Alpha sport.. A get it done league.. And if one person just can not get it done, you can certainly find another that will.

Fans become enamored with a player because they are emotionally or financially invested in him or his jersey. To the owners, coaches, and players, it is a job. It is a job with performance expectations and financial and career ramifications.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I kind of understand. But looking at it more closely the Ravens have only allowed 15pts in the past two games. Take away that first game and they are looking pretty solid.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Spags doesn't look as bad now as he did a year ago.

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I agree with you. I don't think he was a horrible coach (although he's not the DC for baltimore so it's not really his defense) but I do think he was a horrible fit for us.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I don't think it's necessarily being a better fit for a 3-4 vs a 4-3, although that is part of the improvement. The Saints have gotten a lot of pressure on passing downs rushing 4 without blitzing (in other words, playing 4 down defensive linemen); and a team can expect to be in "base" defense only about 30% of the time.

I really think a talent infusion has a lot to do with the improvement. John Jenkins in the middle; Junior Galette being a "starter" rather than a situational player, Tyrunn Walker (who had no snaps last season, and was inactive for 15 of the 16 games) and Glenn Foster rotating in and getting push; Keenan Lewis covering on the back end; and, of course, Kenny Vaccaro.

And Rob Ryan... what can I say? He has made this defense feel good about itself... feel that they can stop anyone, and come up with the big play when needed.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Between him and Vacarro, I don't know who fires them up the most...but whomever it is, keep rockin' it. I spent the last two days rewatching the game on NFL rewind just to watch the defense.

When the hell was that last time that happened?!?!?

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

That season aka bounty gate it's burnt out my memory .... Who is this spags guy ?

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I know, who ? We have Rob Ryan.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Don't get me wrong, there is some new talent, but look at what Spagnuolo still had available to him.

Galette
Jordan
Lofton
Hawthorne
Hicks

That is arguably the five best players on our defense this year, and they were all there last year, he just didn't have a clue what to do with them.

He also had:

Walker
Bunkley
Johnson
Greer
Harper
Jenkins
Robinson
Bush

All guys that have played well and been a big part of the defense at one time or another.

adding Vaccaro, Jenkins, Lewis, Haralson, Foster, etc. has been great, but looking at the above list of players and knowing now how good they actually can be, is there any excuse for that being anything close to the worst defense in the league (much less the worst in history or whatever). And all this time we've been sitting here having to hear about how the Saints defense "doesn't have any talent". Which was an idea I never bought into, but how are you gonna argue against it when the numbers are so bad?

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Well.... If he is soooo good, maybe he should coach for the Clowns

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Him n' Smith and a brown spot? Oh yeah!

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

In all fairness Spags without SP didn't stand a chance!

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I would hate to think the Saints 2012 record if they had made Spags interim Head Coach! OUCH.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I still think Spags is a very good coach... he just wasn't one with us. The same mitigating circumstances the OP is using to excuse Ryan in Dallas, the same could be said of Spags in New Orleans. He moved on, we moved on, and we're all in a better place. No need to harp on it and point fingers. There was enough fault and suckage to share amongst everyone.

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Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I believe this years defense is better than it was in '09...

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Monday night on primetime TV we'll see if they are the real deal.. Dolphins suited up Offense is going to challenge them.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

Spags is like Holmgren, it was the talent he had that made him.

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You're exactly right Railboss. There was lots of things that went way wrong last season, and almost none of them were Spags fault, IMHO. I blame Greg Williams. I blame Goodell. I blame the media. I blame to some extent Sean Payton. And some of the blame goes to Drew Brees. Spags was thrown into a no win situation, and that's what happened...we didn't win. There was no way we were going to be allowed to win last year. Goodell saw to that. All Spags did for us is try to hold this team together while the whole football world was trying to tear us apart.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I think there are some major stats that would disagree with you there...

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

well first of all he didn't have KV or KL. Further, there was the whole issue with whether JV or Smith were even going to be able to play and weren't they held out of team activities or something?

Tell ya this- Corey White (who got his ass handed to him last year) looks like he might be a pretty decent player. Hicks looks like a steal too. Both brought in under him. So was Lofton, and was Hawthorn too?

He doesn't get all the blame for last year and to blame him is unfair. We couldn't get any pressure with our front four. You want to know why RR has been so successful so far- it is the pressure coming from our Dline.

All that said, IDC as long as Rob is getting **** done.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

I agree somewhat, but I really was t talking a out stats. We sucked last year. I'm sure there's lots of stats to back that up...starting with our record. My point was, we had no chance of being succesful last year. Goodell made sure of that. Spags was just a warm body in a position that had no chance for success. We could have put Gruden in that position, and the results would have been the same.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

and so it was for bill walsh, and jimmy Johnson...what is ur point lol?

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I'm not that sure about Walsh. He still has a legacy within the league. Jimmy's hair made him. Spags and Holmgren just had nothin' without their players. Although I always thought Holmgren could've really worked some lederhosen and an alpine hat.

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL
 

They're all nothing without their players. I mean you can't win without talent. Don't get me wrong there is still an element to coaching, but you don't win in this league without talent.

If it wasn't true then why did Walsh go 2-14 his first season and JJ went 1-15

Re: How bad does Spagnuolo look now? LOL