Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams received the game ball from New Orleans' 27-7 win Sunday, reportedly to a roar from the team's locker room in Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium that could be heard several rooms away. Hopefully Williams smiled upon thinking about the thousand and one sports critics who said "sure the Saints can score points, but their DEFENSE sucks." The NFL, and really all sports teams with the exception of Notre Dame and the Yankees and their ilk, exist on a Show Me First basis. Notre Dame looks like they might not be horrible this year, and Lou Holtz says he wouldn't be surprised to see them play for the national championship. The Yankees sign another $10 million-plus bat or arm, and they can't be beaten. You know other teams like that. But many teams have to prove a point over and over to replace the popular misconception of them. Just the other day someone told me that the Ravens couldn't keep their current success going because "they're a defensive team, and their defensive numbers have dropped." Like my jaw. Sure, historically the Ravens have been a defensive team, but the team is only 13 years old. And no matter how old a team is, its focuses and strong/weak points can change. I'd assume they'd have to in order to stay relevant in the modern NFL (how you doing back there, Cleveland?). Truth be told, it looks like the Ravens have compensated beautifully on the offensive side for the defensive decline. "Historic" Ravens football? No. Winning football? Yes. No team has ever stayed good by doing the same thing over and over with no change. Want proof? The Oakland Raiders.
Now I'm not saying the Saints are shifting from an offensive team to a defensive one, just that it's gonna take a lot of good performances by this revamped and refurbished defense before anyone believes they are capable of going four good quarters against a quality offense. And it should; I'm not advocating lots of praise just because of 3 games so far, but we've since seen that Kevin Kolb is good enough to start on at least 5-10 NFL teams, and Stafford may not be a future HOFer, but he'll probably be at least a serviceable QB. And Buffalo has some real threats, all of which NO managed to shut down. And even if the Saints secondary remains Swiss-cheezy at times, and if their rush defense slips to middle-of-the-pack, the offense will remain as dangerous as Chris Brown's pimp-hand, barring injury to Brees. The same dude who told me that the Ravens couldn't continue their level of success because they used to be a defense-first team also told me that "Defense wins superbowls." How original. I wonder if he came up with that on his own. Of course defense is important; so is oxygen. Couldn't play a game without that, either. If defense didn't matter, the Saints would have won the Super Bowl last year. But defense doesn't always have to be the dominant side. I think the 80s 49ers, the early-90s Cowboys, mid-90s Packers, late 90s-early Zeros Rams, and especially the 06 Colts bear that belief out. Yes, the Steelers and other teams dominated with defense, which proves my point: sometimes it's one, sometimes t'other. And the 49ers, Packers and Cowboys all had pretty decent defenses, but quite a few of those championship teams scored a buttload of points on their opponents in the Super Bowl, winning by such large margins that the defense really didn't have to be that good. The Patriots of the early 00s were good defensively and offensively, of course, but once again my point is that you can never tell which will ultimately prevail, the Scorers or the Prevent-You-From Scoring-ers. Which makes tired old axioms like "Defense wins championships" so annoying to hear. Sometimes they do. The other times they don't. Sometimes offense wins championships. Except when it doesn't. But you know what? Sometime's it's even the Special Teams...
So basically my point is that the Saints Defense is not only improved from last year, in some places it's downright good. Which I don't remember hearing or saying since the days of the Dome Patrol. If you're not a Saints fan, you may not be able to understand the joy of this. I'll try and explain: For years, decades, actually, the Saints were extremely, embarassingly horrible on offense AND defense. Then, for a little while in the late 80s and early 90s, they developed a pretty good defense, along with a pretty bad-ass placekicker named Morten Anderson. They'd surprise a few good teams here and there, but got killed the couple times they made it to the playoffs. Then a period of false hope, a laughably innocent and naive time when people thought Aaron Brooks was the next Hot NFL quarterback, then disaster in hurricane form. But along comes King Payton, and the Knight With the Shining Arm(or), and the draft acquisition of the Overhyped-But-Still-Very-Useful-One (Bush) along with the draft of the Where-the-f*$&-Is-Hofstra-One (Colston). Lots of other smart coaching and front-office moves followed, and suddenly -gasp- the Saints were an Offensive force! An offensive force that at times operated with seemingly no Defensive support! And despite the hopes of people in the 504, 337, and 318 area codes, they finished fairly predictably. In fairness, though, at least that "predictably" was a far better "predictably" than ones of reckonings past. But it wasn't enough. Saints fans wanted more, emboldened by LSU's football victories and realizing that such a thing as "success" was actually possible for a Louisiana-based sports team. The Hornets have also fed into and benefited from this wave of optimism, whether they realize it or not. The expectations aren't just "Do your best" anymore. They are "We might be good enough to win this thing." And they damn well might. The offense and defense are notable this year.
Enough conjecture; lets wiggle our toes in some number-mud. The Saints have given up 937 total yards so far this season, 12th best in the NFL, for an average of 312.3 yards per game, 10th best. The most worrisome part is the pass defense, which has given up an average of 245.3 yards per game, 10th worst, and they're giving up 11.4 yards per passing attempt, also bad. Not horrible, though, and actually a bit misleading because of the early jump they got on Detroit scoring-wise in the 1st game. After getting a big enough cushion, the Saints secondary mostly played to prevent any big gains by the Lions receivers. So the numbers are fair, but like any stats can be bent a little bit because of circumstance. The NO secondary isn't great by any means, but it is a little better than the stats convey.
The good news is the rush defense, which has only given up 201 yards on the ground thru 3 games, good for a 67 yard average, both 5th best in the league. Opponents are only averaging 3.2 yards per rushing attempt, and the longest run the Saints have given up was 16 yards. Opponents have passed for 3 TDs ( Actually 2, since we're including a pass from the holder on a fake field goal call from Buffalo, their only score) and run for 2, a very nice stat to have 3 games into the season. Overall, the other stats on defense have been nice as well. Think on these: 6 sacks (10th), 7 INT (1 returned for TD), 3 Forced Fumbles, 2 Recovered (a tidy +6 in takeaways), 8 tackles for loss, 230 total Tackles, with only 53 Assisted, meaning they're not needing as much extra help to get the runners down. They've only given up 50 First Downs, 11th best in the NFL. Opponents have converted a measly 12 out of 44 third down opportunities, or 27.3%. That's 3rd best in all of football, behind only Minnesota and Philadelphia.
So now, besides the secondary (which is improving, I swear!) these are our concerns, Dude:
-The Saints are the 2nd most penalized team in football: 27 penalties for 241 yards. That's more than all the rushing yards they've given up so far. If they don't clean this up, it's definitely gonna bite them when they get into the really hairy games these next few weeks. I don't know who's responsible, but Coach Payton has to address this.
-New Orleans is giving up 26.5 yards per kickoff attempt, 6th worst in the league. This is actually a problem because of the Saints high-scoring offense; they've kicked off after scores 20 times this year, most in the NFL. Nothing would deflate a good drive like someone running back a kickoff for a TD immediately afterward, and although it hasn't happened yet it's sure to if New Orleans doesn't tidy up their kickoff coverage. Punt-wise they're giving up 8.4 yards per attempt, which isn't bad but could also use some tweaking. On the flip-side, kickoff-wise they're returning 21.5 yards yards per return, with a long of 42 (where's that beer guy?), which isn't horrible, but their punt return average is a Somalian 2.8 yards per, all courtesy of Mr. Bush. I remain on Reggie's side no matter what the haters say, but he's gotta do better than that. If he can't get back to his old form at returning punts he'll see his role diminish even more in the future. It won't happen with Bush anytime soon, but Sean Payton has shown that he has no qualms about releasing/limiting players who are fan favorites and past producers if they can't hack it anymore. I hated him for a month after he cut Joe Horn because of what Joe meant to NOLA and what he had done for the people there after Katrina, and I was even happy in a sick unexplainable way when Horn signed with the f&#^ing rival Falcons, but I grudgingly came to see the wisdom in it, especially after Horn's final year or so. That point was when I "Drank the Kool-Aid" of Sean Payton, to use a phrase that I've heard from hipsters for years and that seems to have become the phrase du jour for sports media types who want to seem cutting edge. Did I "Jump the shark" on that one? Hah. Anyway, I fell so much in Coach-Crush with Payton that I didn't even flinch when he cut Deuce McAlister, another fan favorite and NOLA hero, but he also happened to be a 30-plus running back with a dubious surgical history. I shed a black and gold tear for Deuce, but hoped at the time New Orleans would be better off without him. Now that we've all seen Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell, Payton looks like a genius (again).
So some cheery bits to finish on. The Saints vaunted passing game, the only thing the critics said they had going for them, is 6th in the league in yards. The rushing game is second. Hmmm. They are 1st offensively in yards and points, and have scored 14 offensive TDs from 9 different players- 4 RBs, 3 WRs, a FB and a TE. Also an INT return for a TD. 5 rushing TDs, 9 receiving.
So that's my look at them so far. And to all Saints fans who say the team doesn't get enough respect in the sports media, NO has actually been a sexy pick for months now. But Louisiana people are used to being ignored in sports; now they want theirs, and rightfully so. And you'll get it, Saints fans. Just be patient, and soon you may be able to say "I told you so." Or actually, in Louisiana it'll be "What I told you?"
Keywords: New Orleans Saints
