CHA_CHING

I have never disputed that on this board or the other Saints forum. I have always maintained a strong stance that Williams defense was not only the main reason we lost to SF in 2011, but the problem with that team all together.

The problem was masked thanks to playing an easy schedule full of horrible defenses that our offense willingly padded stats and ran up scores on. I get a lot of flack from fans for not bowing down and worshiping the 2011 team, but I don't cause they went most of that year without being truly challenged. SF's defense was a brick wall they slammed into and struggled with for most of that game. The 2011 defense had already made mediocre at best QBs like Jake Locker and Josh Freeman look like Pro Bowlers.

And that is why they never achieved anything outside 2009.

Go back to the Beastmode run. They didn't bother trying to tackle, kept trying to snatch the ball free.

I don't miss Gregg Williams. The difference is that between 2009 to 2012, Brees was in his prime and our offense could put points on the board. They averaged 36 points a game in the playoffs.

Williams' defense did the same thing of making crap QBs look like pro bowlers. Look up Kevin Kolb. Had the game of his career against us in 2009, then became a hot name going into the next year only to flame out. Marc Bulger had the last great game of his career against us in 2009. Chad Henne had a good game against us for 3 quarters. You could make a list of crap QBs who performed well against GW's defense.

Allen's defense definitely blows it late in games but it's not the only problem with our team the past 3 years. Payton has been firmly out-coached in all 3 of our playoff exits, and Brees is no longer in his prime and has played pretty badly in the playoffs.

halloween 65

I believe this to. I honestly believe if we wouldn't have blitz them play after play in pre-season they wouldn't have a blueprint to beat us in the playoffs, Watching the pre-season game I told the wife that it was going to bite us in the butt, and it did. He gave away every card we had.

dizzle88

Even though GW messed the ending of that game up, I find it hilarious that people refuse to blame Brees and the Offense when they turned the ball over 5 times in that game.

That game could have been over in the first half with the way Brees played, but the D held firm, unfortunately the Vernon Davis catch and run crippled us, people will forever think it was only the D that doomed us that day.

halloween 65

I can't dispute that part to.

ChrisXVI

How exactly does Gregg Williams control what moves an edge rusher uses? Wouldn’t a player do whatever they wanted to win their reps?

CHA_CHING

I partly agree here, except on your second part. That game was never going to be an easy one for us. The only thing that really kept us in that game all day was the Niners being unable to convert on 3rd downs. It was their Achilles' heel that entire season. They went 13-3 thanks to their defense while the offense barely did enough to win them games. They had a kicker that year break Jerry Rice's point record.

Like I said in previous post; the 2011 team was a paper tiger. They really aren't that different from the 2013 Broncos. Both had record setting offenses that padded stats and ran up scores. Only difference was Denver had a better defense than us and they managed to get through a weak AFC where they slammed into a brick wall in the SB facing a legit defense.

We got our brick wall earlier in the playoffs, didn't even reach the SB. I know many Saints fans truly think the 2011 team was some "greatest team to never win a SB" but I have never bought into that. We had a bottom 4 defense in terms of DVOA. That defense was bad and they had struggled with average at best QBs.

The 2011 team struggled on the road even with crappy teams. Go back to the Falcons game where we blew a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter. Mike Smith gave that game to us by going for it on 4th down in OT, giving us the ball in field goal range. We struggled with a crappy Titans team with Jake Locker at QB. Got our asses handed to us by the Rams, struggled with Tampa Bay and Carolina on the road too. It shouldn't have surprised anyone that we made Alex Smith look like the second coming of Steve Young in that game. I knew we were going to lose when they got that TD on the Tecmo Super Bowl bootleg run play.

The Niners were never going to be a pushover in 2011. It was insane that we were even favored on the road against them when they had the #1 ranked defense given how badly we struggled with the Lions the week prior. Fans forget, that Payton had to start going for it on 4th down in that game, cause we couldn't stop Stafford. Let them put 28 points on the board and get into a shoot out.