The Saints’ defense is dead-last in the NFL this season, allowing 440.5 yards per game, but there are signs things are improving as the Giants prepare to face New Orleans on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
The last two weeks, for the first time all season, New Orleans held teams under 400 yards: the Falcons, last week, netted 283; the 49ers, the week before, had 375. The Saints lost both games, but the defense allowed 23 points to the Falcons and 17 to the Niners (who had two touchdowns on interception returns).
Those numbers aren’t what might be expected from the 32nd-ranked defense in the league.
“I see a very fast, a physical defense,” Giants guard Chris Snee said of the Saints. “I don’t put too much into statistics or things like that.”
Snee also should be well aware of how misleading statistics can be.
Two weeks ago, the Giants racked up 390 yards of offense against the Packers and scored 38 points. But on Monday, the Giants again had 390 yards of offense against the Redskins — and scored 16 points.
So now Snee and the Giants’ offense are set to play a Saints defense that appears to be better at the moment than its ranking for the season.
“They’re playing very well right now,” guard Kevin Boothe said, “and that’s what I’m really going off of.”
The Saints’ defense is orchestrated by coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who was the Giants’ defensive coordinator during the 2007-08 Super Bowl season. Spagnuolo departed New York to be head coach of the Rams for two years, but now works opposite Drew Brees in New Orleans.
The Giants are aware of what a Spagnuolo-led defense can do. They’re also familiar with its intricacies.
“They do a lot of the same blitzes that we do,” receiver Victor Cruz said. “Even last year in St. Louis when Spags was over there, it’s a lot of the similar things. We’re used to it, we’re prepared for it and we’ve just got to be prepared come game day.”
“It’s [former Eagles coordinator] Jim Johnson’s defense,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “Steve was there with him, learned right there. It’s an outstanding concept. He’s got a great command of it. As always, everybody kind of goes off in their own direction and tweaks it a little bit. Same difficulty to contend with defensively because it’s well designed and well thought out.”
And most importantly, it’s improving. The Saints rank last in the NFL in yards allowed at 5,286 (more than 400 yards worse than the next-lowest team) and are 28th in points allowed, surrendering 27.3 per game.
But the last three weeks, starting with a 38-17 win at Oakland, have seen better performances, so the idea Spagnuolo’s defense is sieve-like is not accurate. Giants coach Tom Coughlin said the unit is “more aggressive” now.
“Probably their best showing was against Atlanta last week,” Boothe said.
The Saints held Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White and the Falcons to just 23 points. That said, the Giants believe New Orleans can be vulnerable.
“Just watching them, you see a lot of big runs and a lot of opportunities,” rookie running back David Wilson said.
Cruz sees weak spots too.
“Even [though] they’ve gotten better, we’re still able to see certain things we can attack in their defense,” he said. “We’ve just got to be ready.”
The Giants also have to produce more points than they did against the Redskins.
“It’s not good enough,” Snee said. “There’s no reason why we can’t score more than 16 points, especially the success we had moving the ball.”