For years, the New Orleans Saints defense has been bad or just good enough as the team focused on their offense, which had been one of the best in the league for over a decade.
When superstar quarterback Drew Brees went down for an expected 6 weeks with a thumb injury, it was hard not to write them off. After all, how many teams survive after losing their starting quarterback, a legend no less, for any length of time.
No excuses
“Good to great. Let’s go from good to great,” has been defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s slogan this season, but after the first two weeks great seemed more of a dream than a reality.
Following Drew Brees’ injury, he reminded is defensive players, “Good to great. What better opportunity to do that than right now?”
His players responded against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Against a team that had run roughshod over their first three opponents for 31 points a game, they stood up and held the Cowboys in check and to only 10 points in a 12-10 win.
Their play combined perfectly with Teddy Bridgewater’s workman-like performance in leading the Saints offense to four field goals. While Bridgewater is very capable, the offense is designed to run through Brees, so we’re going to see a far different Saints team than we’ve grown accustomed to.
Without the offense ready to put up 30+ points in any game, the defense will become key and this could become the first step in a dominate run once Brees returns.
Until then, even head coach Sean Peyton admits there’s more work for him to do
“I get angry at myself because it starts with me, relative to things, maybe, that we are putting in that we think will be easily replicated. Yet we get in the game and recognize there are some challenges. it is a different group. It’s different than a year ago. We have to adjust a little better. I think that really starts with me,” he said.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Saints defense can maintain the bar they’ve set, and how much will things change in the coming weeks with Bridgewater at the helm.
