The waiting was finally over as the Saints opened their 2015 campaign in Arizona against the Cardinals. Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite to plan. The Saints often threatened to take the game by the scruff of the neck, but ultimately succumbed 31-19 to Palmer & Co. Having got over the defeat, we’ve taken the time out to watch the film back now and written up a full analysis on every Saint who saw the field on Sunday, including snap counts and individual color-code player grades. If that interests you, then do read on…

Firstly, for those of you viewing our Player Grades for the first time, our Player Performance Grading System uses a 9-point color-coded 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 much easier to read).

The frustrating thing about the offensive performance on Sunday was that the Saints actually executed pretty well. As you can see above, there aren’t too many negative grades out there. In that sense, part of the blame for a rather toothless performance from the New Orleans offense has to fall at the door of Sean Payton and the play-calling. Yes, Arizona hadn’t lost a non-divisional match at home since 2012. But when 80% of your pass attempts are traveling less than 10-yards down the field then you’re probably being somewhat over-cautious in dialing up screen after swing pass after screen. (Don’t get us started on “the punt“). Anyway, back to the players.

The O-Line looked strong for the most part, especially in pass protection. Tim Lelito was the pick of the bunch, a refreshing sight considering he went in to the game with most question marks hanging over him out of all the starters. The Saints struggles on the ground (they only averaged 2.7 YPC) was more down to the Cardinals playing the run very aggressively from the second level, especially Minter, Okafor and Mathieu. The O-Line weren’t overpowered up front, just the Cardinals filled any holes very effectively.

Brees was afforded time in the pocket for a lot of his drop-backs, but this time was seemingly still not enough for the wide receivers to get open downfield. We’ve already highlighted that Brees didn’t throw downfield much, and although there were a lot of designed swing/screen/short passes, there were also a lot of snaps where Brees went through his progressions and there was simply no-one open.

With that in mind, you have to levy some of the blame for the Saints’ “ultra-West Coast” showing on Sunday at the wide receivers. As a collective they deservedly graded out as the worst offensive position group. Colston couldn’t hold onto the ball. Cooks only averaged a catch every 19 snaps. Coleman flashed brilliance but failed to be a consistent factor despite featuring on over 75% of the Saints offensive plays. Willie Snead provided the play of the day on his 63-yarder, but was unable to build on that in his limited opportunities. Hopefully we’ll see more of Snead against Tampa, while the others will have more joy against what is a weaker secondary.

The Saints tight ends were also a non-factor receiving-wise, another disappointment considering Arizona gave up an NFL high 66.2 yards per game to tight ends in 2014. The Saints managed a lowly 19 on Sunday. Ben Watson did at least redeem himself with a strong performance as a blocker.

At running back, Ingram and Robinson put in performances Pierre Thomas would be proud of. The Saints actually ran 8 HB screens on Sunday, which from memory seemed like more than they even did when Payton had Reggie Bush and PT on the same roster. Until the 4th Quarter when Arizona started sniffing them out, they were actually extremely effective. Away from the “hands” game though, the running backs struggled to find holes.

DEFENSE

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

The sea of grey in our defensive grades speaks for itself – the Saints D were no better than “average” on Sunday. Our main key to winning in the desert was for the Saints front 3 (or 4) to be able to win in the trenches against the patchwork Arizona O-Line. To give some credit to the Cards’, their hastily-assembled emergency offensive line played more competently than we had expected. However, the Saints defensive line also underperformed. It was a combo that didn’t bode well for the Black and Gold.

Outside of the highly effective Cam Jordan, it was a disappointing effort from the Saints’ down linemen. The D-Line showed flashes early, which suggested they may be building up to a dominant crescendo. Unfortunately, it petered out into nothing. On the interior, John Jenkins and Kevin Williams were inconsistent. Akiem Hicks faded badly after a bright start. Even the rotational rookies failed to bring much spark, with Bobby Richardson standing out as the best of an average bunch on the day. The Saints DL allowed the Cards to rush for 120 yards on 25 carries and ended the game with 0 sacks on Carson Palmer. Simply not good enough, against one of the weakest O-Lines the Saints will face this year. The Saints desperately need Jenkins, Williams, Hicks and the rookies to play better – starting next week against Tampa.

Things weren’t a great deal better for the Saints at the linebacker position. Dangerous Hau’oli Kikaha was the main bright spot at OLB, with fellow rookie Stephone Anthony continuing his “slow and steady” improvement at MLB. The veterans David Hawthorne and Ramon Humber were less than stellar, however. Humber’s soft play especially, coupled with occasional “rookie” errors from Kikaha and Anthony, made it far too easy for the Arizona backs to make what should have been 2-3 yard gains into 7-8 yard gains. If Sunday was anything to go by, the Saints need Dannell Ellerbe to get healthy. Fast.

In the secondary things were slightly more encouraging. Rookie Damian Swann had a highly accomplished debut as the nickel back. Aside from the frustrating flags, Delvin Breaux also looked to be a capable man-to-man defender on the outside. Brandon Browner looked a yard off the pace at times, but we fully expect #39 to “step up” in the weeks to come. Even Kenny Vaccaro flashed some strong play in coverage, against the talented Cardinal WR group. The key negative was of course the injury to Rafael Bush, which leaves the Saints dangerously shorthanded at Free Safety. However, once Keenan Lewis and Jairus Byrd return, we are quietly confident in the strength of the Saints’ secondary going forward in 2015.

Of course, in the absence of a consistent pass rush, the strength of the secondary is almost a moot point. They cannot cover “forever” on the outside. Until the Saints can find someone – anyone – outside of Jordan/Kikaha to generate a pass rush, this defense will continue to find it hard to get off the field.

—————————-

Enjoyed reading our Saints Player Grades and Analysis? Then do help us spread the word about The BoiLa! Feel free to share the link with other Who Dats you know, or on any Saints forums you post on. We’re hoping to bring some extra discussion to our pages here – so also do drop a comment below if you want to call us out on anything – we’ll always reply!



Or alternatively give, us a shout out on Twitter. You can hit us up on: @CrAwFiShBoiLa

That wraps up our Week 1 coverage now. Hopefully it’ll be onto better things for the Saints in their return to the Dome for Tampa in Week 2. We’ll be posting our preview of the matchup and an in-depth scouting report on the Buccaneers later this week – so do check back for that.