Following a 9-month absence, regular season football returned to New Orleans on Sunday. 34 points, 507 yards and 27 first downs were accumulated by a rampant Saints offense – yet it still wasn’t enough as the Black & Gold agonisingly came up one point short in their season opener against the Oakland Raiders.

To identify exactly where the Saints went wrong on Sunday (and also highlight what went right), we’ve broken down the all-22 game tape, tallied up the snap counts and worked out individual player grades including written analysis for every Saint that took the field against Oakland.

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).

With much of the narrative leading up to the game centered around a New Orleans offensive line in disarray, there’s no doubting the most surprising aspect of the Saints performance on Sunday came in the form of a more-than-serviceable effort from the big men up front. We counted just one sack, three QB hits and five hurries given up by Armstead, Peat, Unger, Evans and Strief combined – which is no mean feat considering they had to pass protect for 45 drop backs. Terron Armstead and Max Unger were the pick of the bunch – but it was reassuring to see seven different offensive linemen take the field in some shape or form on Sunday – with none of them going on to grade out negatively.

The O-Line’s stout showing was certainly a contributing factor in Drew Brees’ 423 yard, 4 TD day – but a large amount of praise still has to be reserved for #9 himself – who looked at his vintage best on Sunday. Wide receivers Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks accounted for 315 of those yards and all but one of the TDs – more than playing their parts in what was a pinpoint dissection of the supposedly improved Raiders secondary.

On the ground, the Saints never truly committed to the run – but they still used the run game effectively – picking up yards when needed and keeping the Oakland defense honest, totalling . John Kuhn especially looks a great addition to the Saints various I-Form packages, with the fullback showing the impact a true lead blocker can have on the run game. Mark Ingram may have felt slightly hard done by to have only taken to the field for 42% of the Saints offensive snaps – but truth be told – such was the dominance of the Saints passing attack, there wasn’t any undue need to force #22 back into the game.

One player who won’t be forcing his way back into the New Orleans offense any time soon is CJ Spiller, who was a healthy scratch on Sunday and has subsequently been cut. A sorry end to an underwhelming time in the Big Easy for the former Top-10 draft pick. Travaris Cadet assumed “scat back” duties instead on Sunday, and interestingly his 26 snaps were more than Spiller ever received in any single game with the Saints. Unfortunately for Cadet, his efforts to capitalise on his extended action were somewhat hit and miss.

One final thing to note is Pete Carmichael appeared to take the lead with the majority of the play calling on Sunday, and it resulted in the Saints looking somewhat revitalised in their approach – running a high tempo and relentless offensive gameplan that Brees executed to near perfection. 34 points, 507 yards and 27 first downs – yet it still wasn’t enough to win the ball game. On that note, let’s take a look at the defense.

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).

Sunday gave us our first proper look at Dennis Allen’s 2016 Saints defense. Unfortunately, it was less than inspiring. The Saints got torched for 486 yards, 25 first downs and, most crucially, 35 points by Derek Carr’s Raiders. It was all disappointingly reminiscent of last year – with some of the common problems that haunted the 2015 Saints defense rearing their head again.

Interestingly, despite the awful numbers in the box score, the Saints defensive line was probably the strongest position group on the day. Outside of the 75 yard TD run by Jalen Richard, the Saints held the Raiders running backs to just 76 yards on 23 carries. This was very much thanks to strong defensive line play from the trio of Cam Jordan, Tyeler Davison, and Nick Fairley. In terms of pass rushing, the defensive line was far less effective, failing to record a sack and only getting a handful of QB hurries on Derek Carr’. However, this was as much due to the Raiders very deliberate “quick release” horizontal passing game as it was failings along the line. Oakland had a clear gameplan and executed it very effectively in the Dome. Only 6 of Carr’s 38 passing attempts travelled more than 10 yards. It was still notable, however, that when Carr had more than a quick 3-step drop, the Saints defensive line really struggled to generate any kind of pressure. New acquisition Paul Kruger in particular was disappointing, failing to make much impact as a pass rusher. It was all the more notable given the fact Oakland ended the game with a ramshackle ‘default’ group of their only 5 healthy O-Linemen. The lack of pass rush was a huge issue last year and on Sunday’s evidence, and in Hau’oli Kikaha’s absence, it looks like it might be even more of an acute issue this year. The DL group probably weren’t helped by Dennis Allen’s persistent use of a 3-man front in the Dome – even though the Saints seem to lack the personnel up front and at outside linebacker to effectively operate such a scheme.

The linebacker position is where things really started to unwind for the Saints on Sunday. Craig Robertson was thrust into a starting role at WLB due to Dannell Ellerbe’s injury, and to his credit he played exceptionally against the run. He looked absolutely lost in coverage though, which was an unfortunate theme for his most common partners James Laurinaitis and Michael Mauti too. Free-agent acquisition Laurinaitis looked a step off the pace all game, and failed to really have any impact. It was highly disappointing, given that the reason for his acquisition was that he would represent an instant upgrade at MLB. The real story at linebacker, though, was the minimal role played by 2015 first round pick Stephone Anthony. It was widely expected that Anthony would take the bulk of the work at SLB, but Allen preferred special teamer Michael Mauti on Sunday. Mauti’s limitations are well known and show no signs of changing, so it was an incredibly strong reflection of how Anthony must be really struggling to acclimatise to his new role. We probably didn’t need 60 minutes of football to tell us this – but a linebacker trio of Robertson/Laurinaitis/Mauti is very unlikely to win you many games in such a competitive league.

In the secondary, it was a mixed bag for the Saints. The big news was the injury to Delvin Breaux, who now faces at least 6 weeks on the sideline with a broken leg. Alongside Cam Jordan, Breaux is easily the most valuable player on the Saints defense, so to lose him for any stretch is extremely tough. The injury was all the more concerning given the performance of his replacement Ken Crawley. The UDFA had struggled in the preseason and looked out of his depth when thrust into a starting role after Breaux left the field. More encouraging was the solid performance from De’Vante Harris in the slot – he looked comfortable in the nickel back role and we are keenly tracking his continued improvement. PJ Williams had a mixed debut opposite Breaux (and Crawley). Despite a few breakdowns, there was enough encouraging play to be excited about his potential. When Williams was good on Sunday, he looked very good. However, the fact the Saints are now likely rolling with “Williams-Crawley-Harris-Moore” at CB in week 2, having started the preseason expecting “Breaux-Lewis-Swann-Williams”, is incredibly disappointing. What started as a position of great strength in the Spring now looks dangerously thin, albeit with great potential upside.

A final note of praise in the secondary should go to SS Kenny Vaccaro, who put in a strong showing on Sunday, particularly against the run. It was more “Jekyll and Hyde” from his safety colleague Jairus Byrd – but the fact #31’s name was even called leaves some hope that we may see him as more than a spectator in the week’s the come.

Want to check back at our Player Grades and Analysis articles for the past two seasons? You can view those all here: Saints Player Grades Archive

We’ll be back next week with our breakdown of the Saints Week 2 trip to NYC, but for those who can’t be bothered to have to load up 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 on The BoiLa by clicking on the “Click to follow The BoiLa” box in the sidebar or at the bottom of this page.

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