Dennis Allen’s defense can’t rush the passer or stop the run — things you’d expect of a New Orleans Saints team built by a defensive-minded head coach. So what can the New Orleans Saints head coach lean on when asked to highlight his team’s strengths?
That’s exactly what reporters asked Allen on Monday after his team’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and he pointed to their “opportunistic” success in takeaways. He’s right to do so. The Saints have intercepted 14 passes in 11 games (with Tyrann Mathieu snagging two of them in Atlanta), second-most around the NFL. They’ve also recovered 6 fumbles, which are trickier and tend to vary wildly from one year to the next.
But those turnovers make up a very small percent of plays; the Saints have faced 358 pass attempts this season. Their opponents have run 681 plays in total. If those 20 takeaways are the bright spot, the other 97% of your defensive snaps might be concerning.
And they are. As we said at the top, the Saints struggle to stop the run. They’re allowing 4.5 yards per carry (tied for 6th-most) and 124 rushing yards per game (10th-highest). Teams know they can run on New Orleans. Just look at the Falcons’ game-winning drive in which they bludgeoned the Saints with 10 consecutive runs to drive 54 yards downfield and kick a field goal to put the game out of reach.
Things aren’t better on passing downs. The Saints may be getting their hands on a lot of passes (thier 72 pass deflections lead the league) but they aren’t impacting the passer often enough. They’ve sacked opposing quarterbacks just 18 times, tied for 2nd-fewest in the NFL, and their Pro Football Reference pressure rate is 8th-lowest (18.2%). They might be pressuring quarterbacks into bad decisions here or there, but too often they aren’t moving the passer off his spot. And when they do send pressure, it isn’t getting home with a drive-killing sack.
It isn’t all bad. The Saints have performed well on third downs this year; their 35.6% conversion rate allowed ranks 8th-best. And there’s a lot to be said for taking the ball away to give your offense more opportunities. But they’re failing to do things well on a play-by-play basis. They’re getting pushed back against the run. They aren’t pressuring and sacking quarterbacks. They aren’t doing the things that you should see from a head coach from a defensive background.
And that’s our central question: if Allen can’t hang his hat on his defense, what can he do? Why should the Saints stick with him as their head coach if the unit he’s built and managed for years is falling off this badly?
