A Quick Statistical Comparison: The 2009 and 2010 Saints Seasons Through Three Weeks

The running game will come back against teams with less run defense. Our defense will do better on 3rd down with Sharper back soon.

As I recall, Garret Hartley was serving a 4 game suspension at the beginning of last year, which means Carney was 83% and Hartley is now 57%. In my mind, Hartley may always be the second greatest Saints kicker ever for what he did in the NFC championship and Superbowl, but he may not be the best kicker for the team now.

Last year’s trio of Lions, Eagles, and Bills ranked 25th, 9th, and 30th respectively in rushing defense. Through the entire season (3-game stats aren’t available) they gave up an average 4.4 yards per rush.

This year’s opening trio of Vikings, 49ers, and Falcons rank 8th, 15th, and 12th respectively. They’re giving up an average of 4.1 yards per rush—mostly because the Falcons are giving up 5.1. The Vikings and 49ers are actually pretty good in defense per rush, both holding opponents to under 4 yards per carry, whereas the Falcons are dead last. They still held us better than the Vikings did, though.

The idea that the rushing game is missing Reggie misses the point, I think: Reggie is almost always on the bench when Pierre is in the game. His presence on the sideline doesn’t do a thing to loosen up the defense and create opportunities for PT…so why is PT running so poorly (he has a 3.2 average so far, by far the worst of his career)?

I think it’s time to resurrect the idea of a Super Bowl hangover. It seems that virtually everything this year is a little bit off—from blocking to tackling to catching the ball to play calling. Everyone seems to be going through the same motions and expecting the same results as last year, when in fact they need to pick up the pace in every area.

If, that is, they want another championship. Or are they satisfied?

I think if the 2010 Saints were playing their 1st 3 games against the Lions, Bills, and an Eagles team that had Kevin Kolb unexpectedly getting his 1st start of the year as a fill-in, then we’d be seeing a lot better stats from the Saints. I agree that they don’t seem to be playing up to the level they were last year, but you really can’t compare based on the schedule.

I’m curious to see what the actual offensive points are. Last years stats are skewed because of our ridiculous number of defensive touchdowns early…

given the 5 quarters we played last game.

Nice comparison though. I like our new return game. I think our special teams is way better than last year, but both the offense and the defense need to step up.

I left multiple comments on Ralph Marlborough’s post earlier this week that are much to long to repeat here but are mostly relevant to this post too.

The competition factor is very large. It affects every aspect of the game. Going up big early in the games against the Lions and Eagles allowed to the Saints to run a lot more. It also forced the opponents to get riskier and make more mistakes. Both of those things led to more Saints points, yards, TOP, aggressiveness on defense, etc. Also, the Bills passing defense was very good compared to their rushing defense, so game planning and adjustments led to 222 rushing yards (38 runs, 31 passes).

All that said, the offensive line needs to get their sh!t together quick, and the defense needs to remember how get off the field. I’m more upset with the 49ers late 4th quarter drive than Atlanta’s 2nd quarter drive.

First Downs, Offense
2010: 55
2009: 72
Diff: -17, -23%

First Downs, Defense
2010: 61
2009: 50
Diff: +11, +22%