The New Orleans Saints defense set a new franchise record while holding a 9th straight opponent to 20 or fewer points, and intercepted the ball three times in a win over the Titans.
Still, as WWL Radio's Deuce McAllister explained to Bobby Hebert and Mike Detillier this week, there's room to grow for a defensive group that projects to be among the best in the NFL.
Listen to the full interview with Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"You set the tone, definitely, defensively," McAllister explains, "and a lot can be made about how great that defense played, but in my opinion, there’s probably two or three notches that they can play better, because even if you talk about how bad [Ryan] Tannehill played, if he makes two or three different throws in that game, it’s a fantastic game for him."
It's true. Tannehill tossed three interceptions in the game, all targeting DeAndre Hopkins against different Saints defenders, but his misses were even more damaging. Twice in the fourth quarter the Titans were able to get a player running alone in coverage. The first came on a trick play with a ball tossed back to Tannehill where he overthrew TE Chig Okonkwo running down the right sideline. Later RB Tyjae Spears got lost on a wheel route and Tannehill gave him a ball that would've required an incredible athletic catch.
Both plays were busts for potential touchdowns. Instead they were incomplete passes. Even with a positive result for the Saints, those breakdowns won't be overlooked this week.
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"You can’t allow guys to run free and there were probably four or five times that you’ve got guys running free, and that’s not that defense," McAllister said. "So I think defensively they can obviously play better."
In Week 2 it'll be a very different matchup for the Saints defense as they get a chance to test the No. 1 overall pick on national television with a MNF showdown against the Carolina Panthers. The gameplan should be a simple one: Eliminate the run and force the rookie to come up with the goods.
Young was unable to do that a week ago when he threw a pair of tough interceptions in a 24-10 loss to the Falcons.
"I don’t care if it’s [Chuba] Hubbard. I don’t care if it’s [Miles] Sanders or even Young, the Saints can’t allow them to run the football," McAllister said. "You have to force them to say ‘hey Bryce, you’ve got to beat me.’ ... The problem last week, they couldn’t get any separation. None of the receivers down the field could get any separation, so Atlanta sat on a lot of routes. And so without the threat of somebody going up top and them actually hitting it and connecting, the Saints are going to pretty much say hey look, we’re going to play this game in a 15-yard box maybe even closer than that … and force this field and constrict everything, and see if you can beat us.”
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MORE FROM DEUCE
On facing former Saints S Vonn Bell
“He has a lot left in the tank on him, and the only thing you can say about Vonn Bell is he probably didn’t create enough turnovers, probably moreso than Malcolm did the first time that he was here," McAllister said. "You obviously hated to lose him when you did and then he goes up to Cincy and he plays really, really well and now being over in Carolina. But that goes back to the same thing that we were just talking about with the offensive linemen, I don’t know that the book that the Saints had on Vonn has changed a lot. So there’s going to be, hey we can go back to the scouting report, we can go back to the report when we had him, what are some of the things that he likes? What were some of the coverages that we know he doesn’t like, and how can we [take advantage of that]?”
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On Saints chunk plays in Week 1
“I think that shows you what this offense can be, because you know you can stretch the field," McAllister said. "You’ve got two guys that can stretch the field and even once Alvin comes back, that’s another guy that can stretch the field or at least give you plus-20-type plays. And here’s the thing, with all the pressure that you had … can you eliminate, if I had 10 total pressure, can I halve that? And now my quarterback on five dropbacks, he has the time to be able to scan the field, look down the field and be able to exploit one of those 1-on-1 matchups. Even if he has to check it down, those are five pressures that you can probably add roughly 60 yards, maybe 100 yards off of just five throws. So that’s what it’s going to come down to.
"Hopefully from an offensive standpoint, like I said, yes, on dropback passes there are going to be situations and times where guys are going to be in 1-on-1 situations. But if I have a player struggling after three or four drives, I’ve got to figure out hey, we’re going to adjust a little bit, we’re going to tweak something, and you can’t be slow to do it, because as you know, you may only get 8, 9, 10, 11 possessions.”