Worst to first?
by jeremy_smith on Feb 10, 2010 1:01 AM CST
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PrintTonight, at the Saints' parade, the "secondary" float stopped right in front of me for a good five minutes. I was able to see Jabari, Tracy, Roman, Darren, Leigh...the entire bunch. This got me to thinking about how good our secondary is when it's healthy. Could we have possibly gone from one of the worst secondaries in the league to perhaps the best? I know that we all know what our defense is capable of when healthy. We saw a defense in the top 10 for the first five or six games of the season. Although we had a drop off statistically towards the end of the season, we still had drastic changes in our defensive secondary from last year. A year ago, we had 12 INT's from our secondary, 5 of which came from *gulp* Jason David. This year, we had 20, 5 of which lead to TD's. I really think if we got some dominant pressure from our defensive line, we would be able to play the finesse style football on the offensive side while playing the punch-you-in-the-mouth style defense that we see from teams like Pittsburgh, the NY Jets, etc.
Thoughts?
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Hey we held the mighty Peyton Manning and Colts to 17 points
If that aint 1-5 defensive back i’ll be amazed
by mississippisaintsfan on Feb 10, 2010 7:09 AM CST reply actions
Based on raw talent alone, we’re probably middle of the pack. Its a hell of a lot better than the pure horse manure we had before, but we still have room to improve.
But once you add in the ability of GW to come up with good game plans and varied schemes so that the opponent doesn’t know what to expect one week to the next, we climb up the list a good bit.
Greer and Porter
are elite. They’re a big reason why our opponents’ passer ratings averaged only 78.5 in the postseason against Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, and Peyton Manning.
Sharper and Harper are a pretty good duo with different strengths: Harper will never be the strong safety Troy Polamalu is, but I would rate Sharper better than Ed Reed, who is a shoe-in Hall of Famer. And Harper is pretty dang good in run support and blitzing, and decent at least in coverage. Gay is also pretty decent as a nickelback, and Jenkins played better and better as the season went along. It’s a potent mix; and if you go by passer rating, as I do—it’s the best overall stat by which to judge a secondary—the Saints have already earned the #3 ranking (and before injuries to Greer, Porter, and Sharper, we were #1). That makes us an elite unit now… with a strong hope of getting even better.
"We’re running Ambush."
Sorry
Gotta disagree with you about giving Sharper the edge on Reed.
Maybe I’m biased, but I’ve been enamored by Reed’s style of play since his days at The U.
Also, Harper is not decent in coverage – he is a liability. Great against the run though. As long as we have Sharper playing at an elite level in the backfield, we can have Harper cheat up on the line with moderate success.
In regards to Greer and Porter, I agree: One of the top three corner tandems in the NFL. The only one I think really rivals them is Joseph and Hall in Cincy.
"I definitely believe in destiny, and I believe in karma and what goes around comes around. We have been on the other side of this deal probably too many times. Maybe it's our time that we start catching some of the breaks, and start being the team that wins them like this in the end." -- Drew Brees
I didn't mean that Harper couldn't be improved on in coverage
You want to get technical—everyone who is no better than “decent” is per se a liability. But then again, most strong safeties are liabilities in coverage—that’s what makes Polamalu great. We’d look long and hard before finding an improvement on Harper.
"We’re running Ambush."
Our linebackers put on a pretty good show in the SB.
Vilma almost had a pick at the goal line 30 yards down field. I thought they did a pretty good job in pass coverage all year.
I'll be your huckleberry- Doc Holliday to Ringo
Considering that the missed FG that immediately followed gave us far better field position, I have to wonder if the Colts wished later that Collie (? or whoever the intended receiver was) had NOT broken up that INT.
Or
that the smartest quarterback in galactic history hadn’t gotten greedy and tried for everything when a five-yard pickup would have made 3 points virtually automatic. (People forget Manning did the same thing in 2005 when going for a tying field goal against the Steelers—wasting throws into the end zone when all they needed was to get “idiot kicker” a little closer than 46 yards.)
But then…we would have beaten them anyway.
"We’re running Ambush."
The curse in our conference
Frist to worst has been a curse for a few years in the NFC South…we broke so many of those types of things last year and that will be another one for next season’s continued success and trend breaking Saints to accomplish!
Gris Gris Man, Voodoo Surgeon General and Master of Witch Doctory
Jenkens
was a rookie this year and showed improvement through the season. Think this guy will prove to be a good player for years to come.
OldFartFan
Better than most
I think the drop off from our starting corners to #3 is huge. Too big to call our secondary top 10. The third CB plays about half the snaps, and I don’t trust Gay or Jenkins in that spot. Look what happened when Porter and Greer missed time. Our margin of victory evaporated. Safeties can’t make plays on the ball b/c they have to help the corners out. I think our secondary is better than average, but we need another great CB to be elite. Maybe Jenkins can grow into that, but I still think he will be a better safety.
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