Welcome back everyone to another edition of #4Downs! In this edition, we’ll be breaking down the Saints matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.
1st Down: Saints fail to capitalize on opportunities
The Saints had several opportunities to take control of the game on Sunday against the Cardinals. But they were unable to do next to anything with it. The only time the Saints took advantage of an opportunity was after the Cardinals had a 12 men on the field call in the closing minutes of the first half that led to the only touchdown on the afternoon for the Saints. New Orleans had forced a turnover not long after getting within one of the Cardinals, but turned the ball over five plays later with an interception off of a pass intended for Marques Colston. After having a lot of the momentum in the closing minutes of the first half, that really pushed everything back in favor of Arizona. Missing out on big opportunities and points off turnovers will kill you everytime.
2nd Down: Defensive Issues still apparent
One of the biggest question marks on this team since last season was the Saints defense. With so many new parts to the team and the amount of players that are currently injured, especially on secondary, it’s apparent that the Saints need to figure out how to fix this and quick. There were moments where no one looked like they knew what play was being called or wasn’t set up for the next play. Just a nightmare. But on a brighter side, the Saints did have some great moments on defense, with rookie linebacker Hau’oli Kikaha forcing a fumble and Delvin Breaux recovering it. But concerning Breaux, he had a lot of penalties which despite his good performance in his regular season debut in the NFL, it skews his performance toward middle of the road for me.
3rd Down: Mark Ingram is a workhorse
Overall, Mark Ingram has been considered to be a middle of the road player since he was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the first round in 2011, but since he’s been considered to be the number one running back for the Saints, his productivity has increased. Outside of a poor performance in terms of rushes, Brees and Ingram are really liking the wheel route. In just one game, Ingram had eight receptions for nearly 100 yards. This is even more interesting considering he only had 145 yards recieving through all of 2014. Brees might be using that as more of an option, because apparently it’s working to throw it to Ingram on the wheel route.
4th Down: Big Decisions
One of the most talked about playcalling decisions came at the end of the game for the Saints. Faced with a 4th and 6 deep in the endzone, a lot of people were thinking that the Saints should have gone for it. Honestly, I wouldn’t go for it from that kind of distance especially deep in your own endzone. If you don’t go for it, you’re going to have to rely on your defense shutting down the Cardinals forcing a three and out and have time to spare to get one final drive in. But with this defense not playing well and the wide recievers missing a lot of passes, I’d rather go with the percentages and try and get one more chance. Essentially, this is a lose-lose situation. I don’t necessarily agree with the decision to not go for it by the Saints, but I can understand why it was done.
Thanks for reading another edition of #4Downs!
-Clint Domingue