saintsfan1976

Nice recap. Hicks deserves more credit, he played one of his best games IMO

No mention of Ingram? C'mon man... 122yds and 5.3 ypc.

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New Orleans Saints film review: Defense - ESPN

The New Orleans Saints defense partied like it was 2013 in Sunday’s 35-32 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They followed the same formula that led to so much success last season -- getting good, consistent pressure from their four-man pass rush and holding up well in pass coverage. Sure, it helped that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was so off-target. But it’s hard to say which is the chicken and which is the egg in that scenario.

I was also even more impressed by the Saints’ run defense after watching the tape. Although they gave up three long runs to Pittsburgh’s dynamic Le'Veon Bell, he didn’t have any other carries longer than six yards.

And the Saints threw in two huge, game-changing interceptions for good measure (one by end Cameron Jordan, who had a monster day, and one by safety Kenny Vaccaro).

Just imagine how dominant the performance would have been if New Orleans’ defensive backs didn’t drop five other chances at interceptions.
Here are some more thoughts after watching the tape:

Jordan's best yet: The Saints got exactly what they’ve been needing from Jordan. He abused backup right tackle Mike Adams throughout the game, most notably in the third quarter when he drove him forward, batted a pass by Roethlisberger and intercepted it himself. Jordan later added a sack and another batted pass. He also helped collapse the pocket all day as Roethlisberger only scrambled for positive yards once.

Fellow bookend Junior Galette also got some great pressure, though he didn’t have an official sack. He once grabbed a fistful of jersey to force a third-down incompletion -- even though he was reaching around left tackle Kelvin Beachum at the time. Galette later forced a holding penalty on Beachum.

Interior linemen Tyrunn Walker, Brandon Deaderick and Akiem Hicks also got a great push up the middle at least once to help force some incompletions in big moments. Walker did it during each of the first two third-down stops.

Good coverage plan: The Saints went back to the coverage plan that they used in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. They put their best cornerback, Keenan Lewis, in single coverage against the Steelers' No. 2 receiver (usually Markus Wheaton, sometimes Martavis Bryant). Meanwhile, they covered Pittsburgh’s dynamic No. 1 receiver Antonio Brown with a combination of cornerback Patrick Robinson and safety help from Pierre Warren, among others.

It worked great with Brown having a quiet day until he scored two meaningless touchdowns in the final minutes. It also helped to frustrate Roethlisberger, who had trouble finding open men, completing just 9 of his first 24 passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions in the first 35 minutes.

Robinson’s impressive resurgence continued. His day should have been even better if he hadn’t dropped three possible interceptions (including an easy pick-six opportunity right in his breadbasket in the first quarter). But he played with aggression and confidence, and his two pass break-ups in the end zone late in the game were his two best.

Lewis and White were also good for most of the game, though they each got beat for a short TD pass in those final minutes. And Vaccaro made a great play on Roethlisberger's overthrown deep ball for his interception.

Run highs/lows: The Saints allowed Bell to break off gains of 12, 18 and 16 in the first quarter before settling in and playing great against the run. On the first one, Vaccaro got stiff-armed and Warren and linebacker Ramon Humber missed the tackle. The second one was well blocked, with Galette being sealed off by tight end Heath Miller. The third was a draw play from a pass formation that found a hole in the middle of the Saints’ zone defense.

After that, the run game was practically a non-factor, with Lofton, linebacker David Hawthorne and nose tackle John Jenkins among those standing out at least twice.

Late breakdowns: The Steelers’ final touchdown drives of 95 and 98 yards were disturbing, but neither was horrendous since Pittsburgh didn’t break off any huge gains over the top like we saw earlier this season.

The two biggest issues were missed tackles on dump-off passes to Bell (Lofton and Warren were each guilty twice) and personal foul penalties. None of those was egregious (Vaccaro got flagged for a late hit out of bounds, but it started in bounds; Vaccaro got flagged for roughing the passer when he was trying to bat a pass and wound up hitting Roethlisberger’s helmet; and White got flagged for a face mask while trying to make an open-field tackle). All three will serve as valuable teaching points, though, since they would have been absolute killers in a closer game.