Defense.....

[Xanthri]

Wanted to start a thread just about the Defensive play tonight as I made some observations and wondered what everyone else here thought.

We all know the goods: 5 INTs, 1 Sack, good pressure....

but the REALLY interesting things that stood out for me.

McClain and Owens play was outstanding in relief for Samuel....I am not worried about them at all anymore....and we are doing this whole year without Grimes....hoping we can get him to sign a reasonable contract in the offseason....we would then have one of the best and deepest secondary in the league....

Position...I know Brees had 350+ yards....but look at the yards after catch....VERY SMALL, meaning our guys were in the right position, Bottomline....Brees EARNED his 351 it was not bad defense as much as Brees with lots of time to hit his targets.

another sidenote...plenty of knocked down passes and more importantly defenders in positions that had they turned their head a half of a second early we may have had 8-9 ints....no lie....look at the game....I know of at least two more that spoon could have had and 2-3 more by other players.....that is impressive against Brees even more impressive.

Our front line did okay on pressure...but the truth is we gave Brees too much time....thank goodness their O-line finally got tired....

On Abe's offside....not even...he flinches but does not enter the neutral zone at all....try watching it in slo mo......that was a REALLY bad call by a ref trying to make this a game at the end.

Tackling....lots of gang tackles....the best part is from first hit (whether or not the player went down) they were held in place or only progressed a few yards before getting tackled.....

run Defense....it looked bad because they took some huge chunks but that wasn't so much tackling as it has been in the past as it was the Saints RB hitting the hole and our defenders not being able to get a solid hand on them....short yardage was good but the Saints were rarely in short yardage where they gave us a chance to tackle the runner (they passed on every one)

we need to work on plugging up the holes and not always trying to go the path of least resistance.....I think that was why the holes were so large for Saints RB....still some work to do....but overall solid performance

Moore...was great
Decoud...Fantastic
Robinson....quiet but solid play...i think they tried to exploit Owens and mcClain all night and it didn't really work....
Owens and McClain....mad respect for them...have liked mcClain from start this year....Owens I am nervous no longer

Linebackers did well....didn't hear much from Nicholas tonight.....Spoon was all over the place....

D-line.....showed their hands techniques.....2 INts almost 3 from the D-line....and don't forget Abe tipped a pass early and had he not tipped it so hard he would have likely ran it back for a pick 6.....

I liked almost all of it....the defense is showing they are almost playoff ready...the Giants and a very balanced offense will be our next test for Defense....They will get work to beat the panthers.....but panthers RBs are beat up....and all we have to do is rattle Cam and that house should crumble!

Not many penalties and both offsides were BS (the first one was closer to offsides....i would not have called it...) we did get away with a couple of PI.....one of them it looked like our defender fish hooked the guy and got away with it....but they got away with at least 2 also....

Anyone else have other comments....about defense?