Over the first five weeks of the season, the Saints defense has gotten off the hook because despite poor games nearly every week, they’ve been bailed out by their quarterback and his band of offensive threats.\u00a0 Each week here on Saints247, we’ve written that the day would come when that type of defense would create a loss rather than another heroic effort by Drew Brees.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Sunday was that day.\u00a0 A defense marred by big plays throughout the year is now front and center, unable to hide behind their All-World quarterback who, in a rare shortcoming, was unable to get the ball into the promised land on the Saints final offensive play.<\/p>\n
Drew Brees was mostly tremendous as always, becoming the first QB in NFL history to throw for 350+ yards in four consecutive games with a 383-yard effort in Tampa Bay.\u00a0 His one touchdown was good to extend his games-with-TD streak to 33, coming within three games of tying Brett Favre at 36 for second longest streak all time (Johnny Unitas, 47).<\/p>\n
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The TD pass to Marques Colston, along with his other six catches for a total of 118 yards, was a sign of Colston’s healthy return from his collarbone injury and a welcome addition for Brees.\u00a0 Jimmy Graham was spectacular again, notching his fourth straight 100-yard game with 7 more catches for 124 yards.\u00a0 Darren Sproles added 8 catches for 46 yards, completing Brees’s well-rounded game that involved 11 targets each for those three players.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, three interceptions hurt the Saints, and I’m not just talking about the last one.\u00a0 Robert Meachem needs to be able to hold onto that ball on the sideline, and Brees’s second INT in which he targeted Colston was just a poor throw (not going to mention what looked like a pretty thorough push-off by CB E.J. Biggers).\u00a0 On the Saints final offensive play, Meachem was wide-open in the back of the end zone, but Brees made an uncharacteristic bad decision under pressure and that was that.\u00a0 These mistakes cost the Saints possessions, and for the first time this year we’re looking at a loss largely because of it.<\/p>\n
When Drew Brees is one yard short of being your leading rusher, your run offense had a bad day.\u00a0 Brees ran three times for 21 yards, coming within a yard of Mark Ingram’s team-high 22 total yards.\u00a0 But it gets worse; Ingram’s 22 came on 9 carries, and 12 of those yards were on his 12-yard TD run late in the game (the TD run was the reason for the + in D+).<\/p>\n
Other than the TD, it was 10 yards on 8 carries for Ingram and 11 yards on 7 carries for Pierre Thomas.\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 It just didn’t look right running the ball late in the game.\u00a0 The Saints offensive line got manhandled throughout the day in both run blocking and pass protection, and it showed in the stat lines.\u00a0 Darren Sproles did carry once for 16 yards, but that only begs the question, why only one carry for Sproles?<\/p>\n
I’ve had it.\u00a0 You’ve had it.\u00a0 Hopefully, Gregg Williams has had it.\u00a0 Something about this pass defense has to change or the Saints will not be able to compete against elite teams in December and January.\u00a0 Here’s hoping that Brees being unable to save the defense’s collective rear end for once is enough to force the reality of this situation into the heads of the members of this unit.<\/p>\n
Arrelious Benn’s 65-yard TD actually, believe it or not, looked even worse than it sounds on paper, as he caught the ball with zero Saints players in the picture on the giant widescreen television I watched the game on.\u00a0 Just like the week before in Carolina, the big play injected life into the home team and crowd, but unlike in Carolina, the Saints couldn’t overcome it against a team more experienced in closing out games than the Panthers.<\/p>\n
Freeman’s 303 yards isn’t a huge number, but it was the inability to stop the Bucs on third and long and the inability to force a turnover that ended up costing the Saints in this game, and these are issues the pass defense needs to take a long, hard look at before they go to Atlanta or Detroit.<\/p>\n
The Saints probably thought they were catching a break by not having to face the injured LeGarrette Blount, but you wouldn’t have known it by watching this game.\u00a0 Backup Earnest Graham ran for 109 yards and averaged 6.4 per carry, and Graham’s backup only ran for 13 yards but those two carries were good for a 6.5 per carry average.<\/p>\n
The run game was less of a factor for both teams than the passing game, but this unit didn’t do a whole lot to inspire a ton of confidence going forward.<\/p>\n
Sproles continues to impress in the kickoff return game, but I’m not so sure about that punt return for negative-10 yards.\u00a0 John Kasay kept it rolling by going 2\/2 on field goals.<\/p>\n
There was nothing particularly remarkable on this game on special teams, but there is certainly room for improvement on both sides.\u00a0 It’s good to see Kasay so automatic, though (knock on wood).<\/p>\n
It’s pretty tough to gauge how involved Sean Payton was in the second half of this one, but it’s hard to imagine Payton’s aggressive style would have permitted so many runs up the middle that clearly weren’t going to work late in the game.\u00a0 The call to go for it on 4th down with 3:30 or so on the clock was one that some coaches may have played differently to try to get within a field goal and get the ball back, but the Saints are an aggressive team with the best pressure QB in the NFL, so I can’t question that decision.\u00a0 What I can question, though, is waiting for the two-minute warning to challenge the call on the game-sealing completion.\u00a0 The decision essentially caused the Saints to use a timeout while the clock was already stopped, effectively wasting both the timeout and the two-minute warning.<\/p>\n
Regardless, the state of the pass defense at this point requires me to mention it in the coaching section.\u00a0 The pass rush looked decent from a pressure standpoint, but the bottom line is that they recorded zero sacks and the secondary didn’t exactly help out the front seven.\u00a0 I think Gregg Williams is a great DC and I am not calling his coaching skills into question, but something’s got to change here.<\/p>\n
If the Saints manage to beat two winless teams in weeks 7 and 8, they’ll finish the second quarter of the season 3-1 and be sitting at 6-2 halfway through the season.\u00a0 This is the goal coaches set out at the beginning of the season.\u00a0 The important thing is that the Saints rebound well from this loss and take care of business between now and the halfway point.<\/p>\n
Assuming they get it done for the remainder of this quarter, the Saints will have the chance to avenge the loss in the first game of the third quarter of the season when they host Tampa Bay.\u00a0 I expect the Saints to come out fired up and ready to defend their home turf, and in the process restore order to the NFC South standings.\u00a0 That game will be a better barometer for predicting the final division standings as it will likely be two 2-loss teams duking it out in the second half of the season for ownership of the NFC South driver’s seat.<\/p>\n
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