Game Ball of the Week: The Entire Saints Defense

Teams running off the right tackle does worry me a alot bit. I may be wrong but I think thats Alex Browns side of the ball. I wonder what chuckwagons stats were through 8 games last year?

You talk about Greer? He did great. But what about Roman Harper? Seems to me he was there on just about every play. He gets my gameball hands down.

…it’s probably wise to factor in some of the QBs and passing attacks we’ve faced so far:

1. a rusty Brett Favre
2. an inconsistent Alex Smith who had a pretty good game against us
3. Matt Ryan (probably the best passer we’ve faced so far)
4. rookie Jimmy Clausen
5. undrafted rookie Max Hall
6. Josh Freeman
7. rookie Colt McCoy
8. Ben Rapistberger (this performance by GW and the D was huge, but I’ve never thought much of Ben as a passer)
9. Matt Moore, Jimmy Clausen, and Tony Pike (yeash!)

I still think we have a damn good pass defense going, especially when Greer and Porter are healthy. I only list these QBs because I think our current rating at no. 1 has a lot to do with them. Had we faced much better and experienced QBs these nine weeks, I still think we’d be in the top ten somewhere. No doubt the D has improved since last year.

Offensive rankings of the 16 teams the Saints played last season:

2nd
3rd
8th
11th
16th (twice)
17th
19th (twice)
20th
22nd
26th
28th (twice)
29th
30th

That’s an average rank of 18th, resulting in a defensive rank of 25th. The law of averages dictates a rank of 15th against such competition, meaning we underachieved by 10 slots.

Offensive rankings of the 9 teams the Saints have played last season:

5th
11th
21st
22nd
25th
28th
31st
32nd (twice)

That’s an average rank of 23rd, resulting in a defensive rank of 3rd. The law of averages dictates a rank of 10th against such competition, meaning we have overachieved by 7 slots.

It would be pointless to speculate on the rest of the season based on current offensive rankings, as they’ll inevitably fluxuate both amongst the teams we have and haven’t yet played. All we can say for certain is that based on the level of competition faced thusfar, improvement should be expected.

The fact that they’re exceeding what should be expected thusfar is encouraging, just not moreso than last year’s shortcomings should have been discouraging. Of course, we don’t have the ridiculous rash of takeaways this season to gloss over our true reflection, so it’s easier to see ourselves for what we are.

Don’t get me wrong, no team can control who they play. You can only do your best to stop the offenses you face and the Saints defense has done a relatively admirable job of that this year. Still a whole lot of room for improvement, though. Particularly at OLB, DE and SS. Pretty much across the board, in terms of adequate depth.

The quarterbacks the Saints have faced so far have a cumulative passer rating of 74.9. (The most representative passer out of that group would be Alex Smith, at 75.0.) The Saints’ defense has held those quarterbacks to a cumulative passer rating of 74.5. Given those facts, I’d say our #1 ranking is almost entirely a function of who we have played so far.

If we can expect opposing quarterbacks to play almost exactly to their averages, the field we face over the next seven weeks should post a cumulative 81.9. (The most representative passer out of that group would be Carson Palmer, at 83.6.)