Have the New Orleans Saints finally fixed their defense?
After a shaky start, the New Orleans Saints defense seems to be rounding into form.
It was a rough second half a year ago and a struggle in the first half of 2020 for the team that has won the NFC South the previous three seasons and the division leaders at the moment. But the bottom line is that Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints have won seven consecutive games since that 1-2 start. And even more significantly is the fact that the club’s defense may be coming into its own as of late.
In their last three showings, all victories, the Saints have dismissed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (38-3), San Francisco 49ers (27-13) and Atlanta Falcons (24-9) by a combined 89-25 count.
Dennis Allen’s defenders allowed just one offensive touchdown in that stretch, a scoring pass in the win over the Niners. Those three clubs settled for a combined six field goals while the Saints amassed 13 sacks and nine takeaways. In the team’s first seven games, Payton’s club forced only six turnovers.
Go back to New Orleans’ previous 16 outings — the club’s last nine overall contests last season, including the overtime playoff setback to Minnesota and the first seven outings in 2020 — the Saints surrendered a disturbing 37 touchdown passes.
In fact, despite a 5-2 record in their first seven outings this year, Allen’s defensive unit gave up a whopping 25 offensive touchdowns. And Payton’s club allowed a minimum of 23 points in each of those performances and has followed that up with allowing a combined 25 points the last three weeks.
The NFC South leaders head to Denver this week with quarterback Drew Brees still sidelined. But that New Orleans’ pass rush, these days led by Trey Hendrickson (9.5 sacks), has really flipped the switch and should make life difficult for a Broncos’ offense that will be scrambling to find someone to throw the football on Sunday (via ESPN’s Jeff Legwold).
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A week ago, New Orleans recorded eight sacks in the win over the Falcons. More importantly, the Saints’ defense is on the upswing at the moment and that certainly wasn’t the case down the stretch and in the wild card game vs. the Vikings a year ago.