Things went from bad to worse for the Saints in week 3, as they suffered a humbling 45-32 home defeat at the hands of the Falcons. Having suffered “final play” heartbreakers in weeks 1 and 2, the loss was rather more emphatic on Monday night, as a perfectly game planned Falcons offense relentlessly attacked an undermanned Saints defense. The neverending injury list no doubt played a part in the outcome this week – the Saints were missing starters in almost every position group. That said, the subpar defensive showing left the offense with too much of a mountain to climb in front of a national TV audience.

As usual, we’ve spent the week analysing the all-22 game tape, tallying up snap counts, and working out individual grades for every Saint that took the field on MNF.

For those of you viewing our Player Grades for the first time, our Player Performance Grading System uses a 9-point color-coded “temperature based” scale to produce an easy to understand visual indicator of the performance of each player on rushing plays, passing plays and in the game overall. You can find a more thorough explanation of our grading system, along with diagrams of what exactly everything means, by clicking here.

And as always, for ease of reference, our 9-point color-coded grading scale is pictured below:

OFFENSE

Editor’s Note: Click on each individual table below to open a full-sized version in a new window/tab (it makes them easier to read).

The Saints offense tried its best to keep up on Monday night but eventually succumbed to defeat after almost clawing their way back into the game late on. A back-breaking 90-yard pick six from former LSU star Deion Jones was the dagger on this occasion, stretching Atlanta’s lead to 20 points with just 13:37 to play. The fact the Saints were still in the game at this point and driving to close to a 6-point deficit was testament to the overall effort of the offense though – who put together a well-rounded 32-point performance that included 376 passing yards, 115 rushing yards and a season-high 54% third down conversion rate.

Drew Brees managed the game well in keeping the Saints in contention, but at times appeared to lack the required urgency that could have truly got New Orleans back into the game. The offense appeared to go through the motions at times, with Brees/Payton happy to huddle up, run the clock and continue with a short-passing “West Coast” philosophy in the second half despite never being within 10 points of the Falcons. Still, signs are at least positive when you consider the Saints managed to put up 474 net yards and 32 points without ever appearing to really get out of the early gears.

A huge part of the Saints offensive success on Monday night was down to the efforts of the O-Line. There’s no doubting the unit as a whole has provided the most positive “surprise” of 2016 so far – steadfastly proving wrong any of their pre-season doubters. Through three games, none of the five starters (Armstead – Peat – Unger – Evans – Strief) have graded out negatively overall, while even on Monday night with Andrus Peat moving to left tackle and Senio Kelemete/Tim Lelito getting snaps at left guard, every O-Linemen still ended up with grades of “average” or above. Special mention this week has to go to Zach Strief however, who played 81 almost faultless snaps at right tackle and all but shut down Vic Beasley.

With an O-Line firing, the run game also had a “breakout” games of sorts – topping 100 yards and averaging over 5 YPC for the first time in 2016. Mark Ingram bounced back after a tough outing against New York, while Travaris Cadet also looked more assured in his shotgun/scatback role – catching everything thrown his way whilst also helping disrupt the Falcons pass rush when needed. With CJ Spiller gone and Marcus Murphy seemingly not in the offensive gameplan, Cadet looks set to continue to be a big part of the Saints offense in 2016, and it was encouraging to see a better performance from him after back-to-back negative grades to open the season.

Another welcome sight on Monday night was an improved showing from tight end Coby Fleener, who appeared to be on a more similar page to Drew Brees this week, leading the Saints with 109 yards and a touchdown. Fleener was also more involved in the Saints run game, which again was good to see after appearing more of an afterthought in that respect through weeks 1 and 2. At WR, the Saints were without Willie Snead, and this seemed to hamstring Brandin Cooks and his ability to get open – with Desmond Trufant generally keeping #10 out of the game. Brandon Coleman and Michael Thomas fared better against the rest of the Falcon secondary and certainly helped move the chains at times, but Atlanta were mostly able to keep both receivers in front of them, preventing the big play needed to help the Saints claw back an increasing deficit.

DEFENSE

Editor’s Note: Click on each individual table below to open a full-sized version in a new window/tab (it makes them easier to read).

457 yards. 7.0 yards per carry. 5 touchdowns. 0 turnovers. It’s hard to win when your defense is surrendering those kind of numbers. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Saints D did this week on route to a 45-32 defeat against the Falcons in the Superdome. The already injury-ridden Saints D certainly had excuses – following the game in New Jersey last week they lost their starting nose tackle, #1 CB and starting strong safety. These three casualties can be added to the starting DT, WLB, CB and nickel back that are already missing. Dennis Allen is having to continuously delve further and further down the depth chart to even field a starting 11 on defense. Nonetheless, it made for ugly viewing in primetime on Monday night.

Identifying precisely where it went wrong is tricky, but it seemed to be a combination of the Saints inability to defend (i) playaction fakes; (ii) counter and misdirection plays; (iii) outside zone running plays; and (iv) RBs and TEs as receivers. All four misdemeanors were committed by the same group over and over again – the linebackers. Increasingly as the game progressed, James Laurinaitis, Craig Robertson and the returning Stephone Anthony had great difficulty anticipating and reading playaction fakes on the day. It made for several easy completions where Falcon RB or TE targets had simply been ignored by a linebacking corps that was (in some cases) still pursuing the ballcarrier. The fact the Falcons were running the ball so well obviously did not help matters – even before the “garbage time” 48 yard scamper by Devonta Freeman, the Falcons had well over 150 yards at close to 6 yards per carry. All three Saints linebackers were repeat offenders against the run – but credit also has to go to the Falcons for preparing a perfect gameplan attacking the key weaknesses of the Saints defense.

The other defensive area the Falcons pinpointed and exploited with great success was attacking the flats and the perimeter. There was a mix of outside runs, swing passes, quick-outs and screens. All designed to take the Saints defensive front out of the game and attack the second level. And the gameplan worked perfectly. Without the agility and speed of Kenny Vaccaro at strong safety, the less mobile Roman Harper was slightly exposed on the edge – lacking the sideline to sideline speed to escape the box and make plays. Harper’s tendency to aggressively pursue his initial instinct on plays also bit him at times. Jairus Byrd struggled in the open field, offering very little support as the “last line of defense” and Vonn Bell was on a much reduced snap count against the heavier Atlanta personnel. Bell should see more playing time next week against a San Diego team that favors 3WR+ sets.

It was a mixed bag at cornerback for the Saints, as they tried to cope with the loss of (yet another) #1 CB. With PJ Williams sidelined, the starting duo was Sterling Moore and the fast-improving Ken Crawley. It was a baptism of fire for Crawley against the Raiders in week 1, but he clearly learned his lessons and has made solid progress to date. MNF gave him a “primetime” bow, and he more than held his own against Julio Jones. On this week’s evidence, he has real potential to establish himself as a starting CB over the next few weeks. With the “WR by platoon” Chargers on deck next, he has every chance to perform strongly again this week. Opposite Crawley, Moore was equally strong on the outside, with Ryan rarely looking his way as he maintained solid coverage on nearly all of his passing snaps. He looks a free-agency steal at this point. De’Vante Harris was nothing more than a spectator on the day, as he was relegated to the #4 CB role after a very tough outing against the Giants last week. BW Webb stepped in, on a limited snap count, but Allen often preferred a 3rd safety as the 5th defensive back in the nickel. Where Crawley and Moore were far less effective was in run support. They were both blocked relatively easily on the edge, and each had their share of bad angles and missed tackles. With the Falcons heavily attacking the edge, it wasn’t a great combo for the D. That said, when (or if) the Saints are ever healthy at CB, they will have an enviably deep group.

The defensive line continued to serve as a rare beacon of light, albeit underlining the need for Tyeler Davison to get healthy as soon as possible. Davison is almost an unsung hero up front, but watching his replacement John Jenkins consistently concede ground in the trenches really underlined how important he is to the D-Line unit and the defense. Aside from the struggling Jenkins, Cam Jordan and Nick Fairley both put in strong performances, combining for 2 sacks. But the Falcons gameplan of running to setup the pass made it difficult to build up consistent pressure as the Saints D-Line consistently had to respect the threat of the run. It was a mixed showing again from Paul Kruger opposite Jordan, and it seems the veteran isn’t quite bringing the explosiveness the Saints hoped he might from the edge. Still, as a group the D-Line remains the most consistent on the year so far (which, admittedly, is not saying much).

Missed our grades and snap counts for the first two weeks of 2016? You can check those below:

Week 1: Saints vs Raiders – Player Grades, Snap Counts and Analysis

Week 2: Saints @ Giants – Player Grades, Snap Counts and Analysis

Next up on the BoiLa will be our breakdown of the Saints second road game of 2016 in San Diego, but for those who don’t want to have to refresh the website to check when our grades are out – you can sign up to receive an instant e-mail notification every time we post a new article by clicking on the “Click to follow The BoiLa” box in the sidebar or at the bottom of this page.

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