Danno

Underhill: Impossible to ignore injuries as Saints cling to life after big loss to Falcons

Nobody wants to hear excuses.

The standings aren’t going to pardon the Saints for losing their third game just because they were without more than half of their projected starters on defense. New Orleans lost to the Atlanta Falcons 45-32, are now 0-3, and will need a major rebirth to save the season.

"No, it's next man up," linebacker Craig Robertson said. "You'll hear that all over the NFL because you can't change what you do week in and week out from injuries. It's always next man up."

The Saints aren’t going to make excuses. That’s not what football teams do. It’s a next-man-up world, and the ability to fill in and overcome adversity is typically what separates winning teams from losing teams. But it’s impossible to tell the story of this game without noting who wasn’t on the field, and it has to be pointed out that, at least at cornerback, the seventh man is up and on the field at this point.

No question guys have to step up and make things happen, and the standings don't care how logical the reason for losing might be. A loss is a loss is a loss.

But the reality is that it’s hard to operate when there when the starting defense has just as many replicas on the field as real starters. And on Monday night, the wounded players infected the body of the team, and the body of the team didn't perform well enough to fight off the effects.

Now, the Saints as a whole are clinging to life.

...

Nobody is going to argue that the Saints defense has been a steel curtain through two games. But it was decent. The team played well for three quarters against Oakland until cornerback Delvin Breaux broke his fibula, and it didn’t surrender a touchdown in Week 2 to the high-powered New York Giants offense.

But perhaps it should be pointed out that the defense was allowing 4 yards per carry entering action and that defensive tackle Tyeler Davison, who is typically on the field on the in running situations, was sidelined with foot and shoulder injuries. Maybe the Giants and Raiders didn’t have the proper formula to expose the weaknesses in the Saints running defense, but the unit wasn’t this porous during the first two games.

Strong safety Kenny Vaccaro, who missed the game with an ankle injury, was also missed against the run. He also would have likely made a difference in the passing game, where it seemed like Atlanta kept running on the Saints by dicing up New Orleans after the catch.

Even so, it’s hard to find the level of disdain needed to rant about this being the worst defense ever, as some likely will, when Davison, Vaccaro, Breaux and linebacker Dannell Ellerbe were all sidelined. And that’s not counting cornerback P.J. Williams and defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, both of whom are on injured reserve....

Underhill: Impossible to ignore injuries as Saints cling to life after big loss to Falcons | Saints | theadvocate.com[/B]

dizzle88

The troubling part for me is that, with or without injuries, we are consistently the worst defense in football and more often than not we break NFL records for our ineptitude.

2012, 2014, 2015 and now 2016, we simply cannot untie ourselves from 30th or worse in ranked defenses.

We suffer more injuries than many teams seem to but it's like Payton doesn't even care, how Dalrymple has kept his job for so long is a mystery. Same goes for Bill Johnson, Joe Vitt and Greg McMahon.

NOLA54

We are the Cleveland of the south with or without the starters. The last 2 seasons were not a fluke. Changes have to be made regardless of what contracts have been signed. I love what SP & Loomis have done for us in the past. They have both lost control of the team and no longer have any fresh, relevant ideas.

saintfan

When we get healthy (if) tunes will change.

CharityMike

My biggest beef is with the lack of front 7 depth. We lost a rookie and a 2nd yr player on the line and we have no answers. DB's get a pass. You can't lose that many and be expected to have success. Whose fault is it our front 7 STILL sucks? Can't blame that on injury. How many years has it been this way?

To say its because of injuries, the answer is sort of. The front 7 has NO EXCUSE. The blame falls on the staff. If the front 7 were not so SH!T the DB's might not look so bad.

|Mitch|

Bill Johnson and Joe Vitt

Defensive Line and Linebackers coaches...

Danno

Lost Galette, gladly
Lost Rankins, that was some serious inside rush
Lost Davison, that was a run stuffing machine
Ellerbe hasn't played a down this year
Kikaha was counted on to provide some serious pass rush.

You can damn sure blame that on injury.

RailBoss

maybe too late already, but a little optimism can't hurt

QBREES9

Has the fat lady sung yet.

The Dude

This is where drafting smart and acquiring the right players in FA would help. They don't all have to be HOFers but they can be SOLID depth when players start going down.