New Orleans Saints: Why the Opportunistic Defense Will Have Success in Playoffs

Unless you've been living under a rock since September, you know Drew Brees set the single-season passing record for the entire NFL.

You know the New Orleans Saints are 12-3, including a 7-0 mark at the Mercedes Benz Superdome (that's right the building undertook a new name in the middle of the 2011 season), and the defense has been criticized and picked apart so much it looks like a scab. 

As for that last detail, that's what the common media wants you to believe. Just like they want you to believe President Obama has been a good president, they somehow want you to believe the New Orleans Saints' defense is the worst in the history of the NFL. 

I could care less how you feel about the president, but please don't buy the lie that the Saints defense is horrible. It simply isn't true. 

Are they a great defense? No! Do they have their issues? Yes! 

But the truth is this unit has stepped up in every game. 

Even in the team's three losses, the team has gotten stops exactly when it had to. As a result, the offense had an opportunity to win each of those games at the end (the Rams game they had multiple opportunities throughout the game, and if they had taken advantage earlier in the game, they would have an opportunity at the end). 

In fact, in the game against St. Louis, it was the defense who first got the team on the scoreboard in the second half, when Malcolm Jenkins strip-sacked backup A.J. Feeley and Jonathan Vilma came in to scoop and score an easy defensive touchdown. 

While the Saints defense has been rather pedestrian in forcing turnovers--just 14 through 15 games--on three of them they turned them into touchdowns--two of which safety Malcolm Jenkins played a role in. 

The unit also has 31 sacks in 15 games--better than two per game. Of course, most of these have come at home with a raucous home crowd making it difficult on the opposing offense. 

The good news is that the Saints are guaranteed at least one home game in the upcoming playoffs--beginning either next weekend in the wild-card round, or in two weeks, in the divisional round (TBD this weekend on whether San Francisco defeats the Rams). 

And the other positive thing one could say about this New Orleans' defense is that on the road, the unit has stepped up when it's mattered most. Against Atlanta, the unit came up huge in the red zone, preventing the Falcons from winning in regulation and then stopping the Falcons on this year's most memorable fourth down attempt. 

About a month later, the Saints defense faced another goal-to-go situation against the Titans and made two great plays to keep Tennessee out of the end zone and escape Nashville with a 22-17 victory. 

You could really say those two wins were games where the defense carried the offense and won the football game. And both were on the road against playoff-caliber football teams. 

Here's the primary problem with the whole "Saints defense is horrible argument"--the Saints are 15th in the league in the most important defensive category--points given up. They're just 0.3 points per game behind the Green Bay Packers--widely assumed to be the Saints' primary threat to a second NFC Championship and Super Bowl in three seasons. Over 15 games, that equals out to a grand total of five points. The Saints have given up five more points than the Packers all season...Big Whoop!

And though the other team with a reasonable chance of collecting an NFC title--the San Francisco 49ers--have the best scoring defense in the NFL, their offense is 15th--and that 15th ranking leaves a much greater disparity than the 15th to first in defense that goes the other way. 

Put it this way, the Niners' best offensive tactic is power running. And that's the area the Saints defense has learned to harness so well the past eight weeks. Since the St. Louis Rams' upset, the most yards the Saints run defense has given up is 96 to Michael Turner in that wild conclusion in the Georgia Dome back in early November. 

In fact the Saints have outrushed every opponent since that Atlanta contest. And they've done so in dominant fashion. The Saints have owned the the time of possession, and have played relatively mistake-free on the offensive side of the ball. 

The final argument may come in regard to the Saints' 30th-ranked pass defense. And no numbers alone, it is a reasonable argument. But then you must remember that the Saints have been wildly ahead in just about every game they've played this season. By nature, they've played more preventative type defenses, trying to cut down on big plays. 

So yardage was easy to come by, but again the scoring defense has been solid. And that proves even giving up a lot of yards through the air hasn't mattered a whole lot. 

But I still haven't proven my ultimate point, which is that the Saints defense is good enough to dominate in the playoffs. 

First, we must remember the playoffs are generally played a little tighter to the belt, thus teams won't just open up their playbooks in quite the same way as they did in the regular season. Teams are going to try to run the football a little more to keep the ball, especially against a great Saints' offense. 

As I already established, this favors the New Orleans defense to a great degree. 

Second, the Saints' defense is lights out at home. The unit only once has given up more than 24 points at home--a Week three 40-33 victory over the Houston Texans. And when the team gets out on the road, one likely opponent is the 49ers, a team not exactly known as a juggernaut. 

Finally, a potential Packers' season-opening rematch figures to take place in frigid temperatures, where wetness or snow could be an issue--the type of conditions which don't make throwing the football an easy task. 

And the truth is that among the NFC playoff teams, none is better at playing complementary football than Sean Payton's crew. 

Watch out AFC champion, you might just be getting a defense loaded with confidence after a dominant NFC playoffs. Oh yeah, that offense isn't bad either.