Saints defense crumbles
 

Where's the D?

The Saints' fourth-ranked defense from a year ago must have stayed in New Orleans. It certainly didn't show up Sunday. The Falcons gained 568 yards, the second most ever against the Saints.

One can't overreact to a single game, but the secondary was a question mark coming into the season and did nothing to temper those concerns Sunday. Matt Ryan riddled the Saints' defensive backs all day, completing 31 of 42 passes for a franchise-record 448 yards and three touchdowns. It's the best I've seen Ryan play in a Falcons uniform. With no running game to speak of, he single-handedly willed the Falcons to victory.

Read full article at NOLA.com

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

But it wasn't one game... I didn't see very many flashes of brilliance during the reason either.

I think its funny all the talk on the forums and predictions about us and all to be over-hype non-sense. No body could wait to play a game first before the predictions and power rankings come out.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

I had a feeling it was gonna happen. Every time people in the media start to say that we are going to win the superbowl this happens. The falcons offense when healthy is good at home but our D was just as bad as they where good. We will DESTROY them in our dome.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

It is one game. And the first game. Plenty to fix but not above reason.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

If you wait until after the game its not a prediction.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

IF anyone truly thought we were going to pick up where we left off last year they are delusional. Even with the new additions. Going from worst ever to 4th overall is a major achievement but is an overacheivment. To expect that again is unreasonable. I never expected us to be any better than above average this year. Which is fine by me because with our offense we don't have to be top five. You don't rebuild a crappy defense in one year. Even if we are just above average this year it is still a major achievement. If we can stay middle of the pack to above average on defense we should win a lot of games.
I did not see anything about this defense yesterday encouraging, but I am willing to write it off as first game confusion and division rivalry. I doubt they are that bad.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Anytime you score 34 points in an NFL game you expect to win the game.
If you don't, it says an awful lot about your defense.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

They look like the old Chargers Air Coryell.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Is says FINESSE.

We aren't physical.

Seattle, Carolina, San Francisco and Baltimore are physical. We are not.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Which begs the question, what happened? Last year we were a physical defense, teams were asking for trouble when they tried to test us, with improved personnel how have we regressed??

568 yards is embarrassing, even spags D didn't allow that much

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Perhaps they're spending too much time on social media and not enough getting bigger, stronger, faster, meaner?

Galette was tweeting all off-season about how good he was and how much disrespek he got. He looked weak, slow and uninspired.

The only D-lineman I saw with any fire was Walker. He deserves some more reps.

Byrd/Vaccaro looked no better than Harper/Jenkins. Do we actually teach our safties ankle diving?

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Maybe they did buy into the hype. They got spanked by a good offense. It may be a good thing to start the season with that to help refocus for the rest.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Embarrassing performance. Rob needs to man this defense up.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Did you mean that our defense is awful?;)

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Junior picked a great time to be completely invisible, 2 days after being rewarded with 23M guaranteed and a 4 year extension

They better pick it up, I looked forward to this season ever since last season ended, I didn't look forward to seeing that kind of play

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

I didnt see the game, and i refuse to look at any highlights. i dont want to see Atl get any respect. But from what I can see by stats, it appears that Spags was our DC.
Also saw a stat on a different post showing we were in a decline from about mid season on. We are weak, I don't want to jump on any bandwagon of being negative. But it is what it is.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Its not like we will get a good test this week. The Browns? Our defense better shut them down. If the defense plays well against them I'll be happy. But I'll hold off being optimistic until we face a better offense. If the Browns offense makes it a close game, our defense is just awful.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

OK, I'll go just the opposite and say I'll be optimistic until we play a bad offense and make them look good.

I don't think we should read too much into 1 inter division game, or the first game of the season.

And if you want to lay the blame at someone's feet, you should put it where it belongs. It was Roman Harper and Scott Shanley's fault!

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Yep. The Browns are ... THE BROWNS but I don't expect Kruger, Mingo, Hitner and Hayden to lay down for us like a cheap prom date on D either.

I won't take them lightly at all, even with Hoyer at QB.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Not much can be fixed in less than a week but a good start would be to challenge their WR's. If we get burned we get burned, better than handing it to them. Last week I started having flashbacks of Alex Molden. Challenge them at the line. We have to go Oliva Newton on em' and get physical. This playing off will not work.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

I posted after the third preseason game that I was worried about our defense, especially our secondary, who everybody seemed to pick on in preseason.

I haven't seen the game either. I have it DVR'ed. I trying to decide if I should watch it or not.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

For your own sanity don't! You'll end up pissed off and regret it.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Yeah, you're probably right.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

I really hate it when the Saints Players start mouthing off before a game. We almost always lose the game when they do that. I wish they'd just shut up and get ready for their opponent every week instead of taking anyone lightly. Never take your eyes off your opponent.....even when you bow. (Bruce Lee)

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Then again, watching it knowing the outcome, might be informative as to what the heck is wrong with the defense. To be fair, other than the INT that everyone is talking about, Drew made some pretty great throws that day. In fact, the Colston fumble play was shaping up to be awesome, right until he fumbled it! I guess the guy hit him on the shoulder, but he kinda went bleeahhhh and the ball went flying out. But right before that, Drew had evaded some guys and threw a nice laser to him. There was some Saints ball to be seen, it wasn't like the Cleveland or Arizona game in 2010 or anything. It had its moments.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

"crumble" leads me to believe that some small parts held together.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

You have the NFL's "best" offense and you only score twice in 6 2nd half possessions, blow two red zone opportunities, and with the game on the line, can't get 1 1st down, I'd say the offense is part of the problem.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Chicken or egg?

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

Like jnormand said, "Don't watch it".
Look at the stat sheets, form your own oppinions...
The video proof is disheartening, especially when it was the Falclowns.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

We scored 14 points in the 2nd half, on the road.

Scoring 14 points in every half would rank 2nd best in the entire NFL.

And we had 5 drives in the 2nd half, and gained 244 yards and converted 13 1st downs.

Offense wasn't the problem.

Re: Saints defense crumbles
 

I think we need a full time tackling coach on staff.
Especially if he can "actually" teach grown men how to tackle.
He would be worth every dime. Good tackle on 3rd and 17 "IS" a turnover.
From pee-wee, through high school, college, and now the big stage.
Still can't tackle? What? Really?
I understand that tackles get missed, and for all the reasons that tackles get missed.
But come on. Can't blame Gregg Williams, Spags or now Rob Ryan.
I've been spitting nails since before the Superbowl about poor tackling.
I'm still waiting on that fundamental tid-bit to kick-in.
Perhaps it's all the new rules and regulations and fines and jail time that lead these guys to poor execution.
They were teaching strip and letting guys rumble for extra 5, 10, 15...SportsCenter highlights.
It's hard to watch, and for me, it's harder to stop watching.
I just would love to see it change, starting like yesterday.