Following the agonising defeat on the final play against the Raiders in week 1, the Saints headed north east in week 2 to face the New York Giants. Unfortunately, despite taking a very different route there, the game ended with an equally painful outcome. This week time expired with a kicker stealing the “W” for the opposition, as the Giants edged the Saints 16-13 at MetLife.

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 in New Jersey on Sunday.

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).

Offensively, the Saints just couldn’t seem to get everything to click at once against the Giants on Sunday. On the face of it, 60-minutes of turnover free football (blocked FG aside) is generally what you strive for on any road trip, but unfortunately the Saints offense were unable to score the 17-points that would have been needed to topple the Giants on Sunday.

In the passing game, Drew Brees was again protected well for the vast majority of his 47 drop backs. Jahri Evans and Terron Armstead were the pick of the bunch, while back-up Senio Kelemete may have been the standout weak link on the offensive line. Kelemete’s individual failings in the second half didn’t seem to effect Brees himself too much though – with the QB and the Saints offense actually putting together a much more on-point performance after the break following a number of uncharacteristic miscues early on.

A combination of Brees finding his rhythm and the Saints chasing the game did see the Carmichael/Payton offense all but abandon the run game in the second half however, with the duo calling 22 pass plays to just 3 rushing attempts in the final 30 minutes. Whether this was the right approach or not is difficult to say – the Saints only managed 3 points, 6 first downs and 127 yards through 34 first half plays while using a more balanced approach.

With not much happening on the ground, no Saints running back or offensive lineman came out of Sunday’s game with more than an average running downs grade. Receiving wise though, there were some positive grades – with Brandin Cooks and Willie Snead again putting together some good work. Both receivers now find themselves ranked in the NFLs top 10 for receiving yardage through two weeks of the 2016 season. At the other end of the scale, Coby Fleener had a day to forget as a receiving TE, while as far as Brandon Coleman is concerned – you have to wonder if things are ever going to start to come together for #16 in Black & Gold.

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).

Having been torched for nearly 500 yards by the Raiders in week 1, and without star CB Delvin Breaux, the omens were not good for the Saints defense this week as they traveled to New Jersey to face the dangerous Giants. Predictably the secondary had its struggles, surrendering over 350 yards through the air, but in the trenches the Saints showed great spirit and dug in to keep the game close. A pair of sacks and 3 turnovers rounded out a surprisingly solid day for the Black & Gold on defense.

Despite the awful numbers against the Raiders, we noted last week that the defensive line looked the most impressive group in the Saints season opener. That trend certainly continued this week. Led by the exceptional Cam Jordan, the D-Line held the Giants to just 64 yards rushing on 32 carries – exactly 2 YPC. Strong defensive line play was the key element of this, as crucially the Saints avoided giving up the “big” play on the ground. Fairley, Davison and Onyemata all played their part on the interior, with no lineman graded negatively for the Saints against the run. As a pass rushing unit, the line also had some (albeit more limited) success. Cam Jordan was again the star performer, victimizing RT Marshall Newhouse on route to a sack, a redzone batted pass, and several QB hurries. The interior pass rush was inconsistent at best, although the Saints did manage to generate some success with a 3-man front at times – something they had failed to do against the Raiders. Nonetheless, it marked an improvement on the performance in week 1, and a promising platform to build on with the Falcons coming to town on Monday night.

Linebacker was another position of marginal improvement in New Jersey this week – although that was solely really down to the excellent Craig Robertson. #52 has been somewhat of a revelation to date. He leads the league in tackles (24) and TFLs (4) and has been an absolute stud against the run. It will be extremely interesting to see how playing time is allocated when Dannell Ellerbe returns. One man who may potentially be under threat at that point is James Laurinaitis who, despite being only 2 games into his Saints career, now finds himself in a potentially tricky position. It was another tough outing for Laurinaitis on Sunday, as he struggled to stamp his authority on the game despite having ample space to roam in behind thanks to the D-Line performance. With Robertson potentially able to play MLB, and Stephone Anthony having proven ability to do so, Laurinaitis will find his playing time under threat if he continues to underperform. Anthony was again nothing more than an afterthought this week in his “new” SLB role, with Dennis Allen yet again preferring Michael Mauti for the (minimal) number of snaps where he went with 3 LBs. To his credit, Mauti was excellent on the day, squeezing a sack, a forced fumble, a QB hurry and a key run stop into his 6 snap cameo.

One of the key reasons for Mauti’s low snap count was Dennis Allen’s preference for 3 safeties rather than 3 LBs in the base defense this week. This gave an extended snap count to rookie Vonn Bell, who grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Indeed, the use of 3 safeties seemed to buoy all three of Vaccaro, Byrd and Bell – who all performed well on the day. Bell was consistently disruptive in the box, showing excellent anticipation and an impressive ability to evade blockers and make plays. Jairus Byrd seemed to play with slightly more confidence alongside Bell – and we saw the rare sight of #31 crashing into the box on occasions to make plays whilst one of his co-safeties sat deeper. SS Kenny Vaccaro followed up his strong start against Oakland with another accomplished performance, taking the challenge of lining up as a hybrid safety/nickel CB in his stride. One of the key positives for all of the safeties on the day (and indeed most of the Saints defense) was the tackling – they did a superb job of preventing yards after contact.

At cornerback, an injury yet again dominated the day. This time it was (replacement) #1 CB PJ Williams who spent the majority of the game on the sideline, making it through just 9 snaps before suffering a concussion. This left the Saints with only Sterling Moore, Ken Crawley and Da’Vante Harris at CB. None of the trio could be faulted for effort against the talented NYG WR corps. Unfortunately, there were occasions where all 3 were outmatched. Harris struggled at times with the Sterling Shepard assignment, being beaten for several key “chunk” plays of the variety Sean Payton loathes. Moore largely avoided the “chunk” plays against Odell Beckham Jr, but often played with such cushion that easy yards (and sometimes first downs) were effectively gifted to Manning/OBJ. Crawley was the pick of the CBs at MetLife, bouncing back from a tough debut in the Dome to do a stellar job covering Victor Cruz for much of the day. The Saints are now rolling with Moore/Crawley/Harris and new acquisition BW Webb at CB with Matt Ryan and the Falcons heading to the Dome this week. It’s a dangerously thin group on paper, but there were at least a few reasons for cheer this week – particularly from Crawley and (occasionally) Moore.

Missed our Week 1 Saints grades and snap counts? You can check those below:

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

We’ll be back next week with our breakdown of the New Orleans’ massive Monday night showdown against Atlanta, but for those who don’t fancy refreshing 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.

And finally… if you want to keep up to date with all that’s going on at The BoiLa then be sure to hit us up on Twitter: @CrAwFiShBoiLa.