New Orleans Saints 2008 Season: Did You Know?

Before we start focusing on next weeks opponent, the Panthers, I went through a bunch of stats and numbers and pulled out a few of the ones I thought were interesting and/or possibly surprising. Make the jump and you might find something out about your favorite team that you didn't know.

Efficiency is Key The Saints are second in the entire league in 3rd down efficiency. They convert 49.4% of the time behind only Dallas who converts 54.5%. Third down percentage is a key stat and converting almost half the time is pretty darn good.

Bend But Don't Break The Saints may give up some frustrating plays in the middle of the field but this defense tightens up once they get backed up into the red zone. They allow their opponents to score only 32% of the time. That earns them second best in the league behind Tampa Bay.

Not So Special Teams 61.54%. That is the teams field goal percentage. It's also the worst in the league.

Passing Fancy The Saints are the only team to average more than 300 passing yards a game. They average 324 ypg. The rest of the league falls somewhere between 136 and 279 yards. It's not even close.

Yard Differential Per Game The Saints average 81.5 yards per game more than their opponent. That's good enough for second most in the league. It's sad that we're only 3-3 with a stat like that.

Scoring Machine Guess who is the NFL's leading scorer so far this season. Reggie Bush leads the league in scoring with 48 points. Also noteworthy for Reggie is the fact that he is second in the league for total receptions with 41 catches. Brandon Marshall leads the league with 43 grabs.

Not Running Away With It No Saints player has rushed for over 100 yards in a game yet this season.That is why the Saints are ranked 25th in rushing yards per game and 29th in rushing yards per play.

Unsung Hero Reggie Bush may be leading the team in total combined yards with 869 and that's no surprise but do you know who is second on the team? Lance Moore? Nope. Devery? Sorry. It might interest you to know that Pierre Thomas is behind Reggie in total combined yards with 563 yards and well ahead of Devery Henderson in third place who has 392 yards. That's a pretty big contribution. Honestly, I probably could have written an entire post on this fact alone but I will spare you.

Colston Who? Here is one I bet you never thought I would ever say: Devery Henderson is the Saints leading wide receiver. He has 385 total yards receiving. Bush takes the silver medal with 361 yards.

I also open it up to you guys. If you have any questions about a certain stat that I might be able to answer, go ahead and ask me and I will try and give you an answer.