Our offensive and defensive player grades for the Saints disappointingly “flat” defeat at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals are now ready for viewing, along with individual snap counts and written summaries detailing the performance of every player.

With the Saints going into the game as heavy Vegas favorites, confidence was justifiably high both in the eyes of the BoiLa and many others. Unfortunately for the Who Dat Nation however, someone evidently forgot to remind the Bengals just how bad they’d been playing recently, while also neglecting to tell the Saints that they might have to do more than simply turn up to win this ball game. All things considered, it’s made for a fairly brutal set of player grades for the Saints in Week 11. Read on to find out who we’ve identified as the most obvious offenders in Black and Gold, and also to see if we managed to glean anything even remotely positive from Sunday’s game tape…

As always, for those of you who don’t know, 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 both rushing plays, passing plays and in total. If you are unfamiliar with our grading system, or would like to read a more thorough explanation of it, then please do click here.

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

Ok, onto the grades. (You can click on the grading chart for each individual position group to load a slightly enlarged version in a new window/tab).

OFFENSE

First things first, I think it’s fair to say that I totally missed with my Week 11 Offensive Preview as far as what I thought the Saints needed to do to win this game. For those that want the abridged version, basically I said subdue Geno Atkins, shore up the interior on passing downs, play turnover free football, and “the rest” should take care of itself. Now, as far as achieving those aims were concerned, the Saints passed with flying colors. Our highest graded Saint on the day was Jahri Evans, who took Geno Atkins out the game almost single-handedly. Drew Brees didn’t throw anything that could even be classified as remotely risky, so much so he ended the day completing over 80% of his passes. And to top it off, Mark Ingram carried the ball 23 times against this “struggling” Bengals run D. So, it was the Saints who won 27-10 right?

…Unfortunately not.

Despite achieving all of the above, the difference was “the rest” certainly did not “take care of itself”. That “struggling” Cincinnati run defense shut down the Saints rushing attack. Domata Peko man-handled Jonathan Goodwin in particular, with Goodwin once again receiving a sub-par grade. The struggles of Goodwin have been well-documented on the BoiLa since his first ankle injury, so much so we suggested that Tim Lelito might have done enough to make the spot his own in our Week 9 Player Grades following a string of solid performances. After this most recent showing from Goodwin, the case for Lelito to start is only growing stronger as far as we’re concerned.

The only real success the Saints and Mark Ingram on the ground came during the second drive of the 3rd quarter, in which they reverted to a more outside/off-tackle focussed approach. This “outside” running approach in itself, getting the tackles, tight-ends and wide receivers involved, had been used heavily and with much success by the Saints, particularly in the games against Tampa and Green Bay. For whatever reason, the Saints have moved away from this in the last two weeks, and on Sunday the running game seemed to struggle as a result. Erik Lorig was another disappointing component of the ground game, and he continues to struggle lead-blocking since taking over from the injured Austin Johnson.

The air attack was accurate, but equally as uninspiring. Averaging just 6.2 yards per attempt, Brees checked down to his running backs for nearly 50% of his completions, unwilling to release any footballs that had even the slightest hint of ending up near a defensive back. The fact Carlos Dunlap dominated Bryce Harris certainly didn’t help the deep passing game, as he produced regular pressure from the right hand side the moment Harris replaced the injured Zach Strief. Inevitably, this led to a quiet day for all the receivers, with Marques Colston the only aerial threat able to get consistently open downfield. Colston had a “fairly good” game, making some very impressive catches, but regrettably punctuated his day with what is fast becoming known as another bad “Colston drop”.

The subsequent news arising out of Airline Drive yesterday that Brandin Cooks has been placed on IR only further sucks air out of the Saints receiving corps. And as far as Monday Night Football against the Ravens is concerned, it’s looking like it could be a real grind for this Saints offense that seems unable to settle on a true identity right now.

DEFENSE

“Uncharacteristic” is a word that you will see a lot in our defensive player grades this week. And it was the order of the day for the Saints defense against the Bengals on Sunday. A number of the elements of the Saints defense that can usually be relied upon – namely Junior Galette, Curtis Lofton and Keenan Lewis – all performed about as badly as they had all year. The results were disastrous for the Saints defense.

The “sea of blue” in the grades started out up front. Despite Galette having what looked like a favourable match-up, he was not able to generate any QB hits or sacks on the day. The lack of any kind of effective pass rush killed the Saints. We had flagged in our preview that Bengals RT Marshall Newhouse was a potential weak point – and it proved so, with Newhouse struggling, but doing just about enough, to contain Galette. However, disappointingly Rob Ryan did not seem to have any specific plays designed to target and exploit Newhouse, in the same way that the Saints had dominated David Foucault in Carolina. Although Galette generated hurries, the Saints never overloaded Newhouse and – crucially – absolutely lacked any kind of pass rushing contribution to assist or compliment Junior. Against the run, aside from limited success for Hicks and Bunkley, the Saints DL got manhandled by the Bengals. It was far too easy for Cincy to open up big holes in the running game.

The linebacking corps were just as disappointing on Sunday. Lofton, Hawthorne and Haralson weren’t helped by the fact that the defensive line was ineffective and allowed Cincy’s offensive linemen to handle them in “one on one” matchups. This frequently left at least one lineman free to target the Saints’ linebackers. All too often, Hawthorne and Lofton found themselves chipped or stuck on blockers, leaving Hill to run freely into the second level. Missed tackles were also an issue – for Hawthorne more than anyone else. In coverage, the linebackers were simply too soft and got exploited by the Cincinnati gameplan. With Dalton having time in the pocket, it was easy for him to either find seams in the soft linebacker zone coverage, or to identify “man coverage” mismatches with the linebackers. The experiment of having Parys Haralson as a pass rusher (presumably inspired by his big sack on Kaepernick last week) simply did not work.

Sunday also showed us what the Saints’ corners are like without Keenan Lewis… All the BoiLa will say is – “get well soon, Keenan”. Having Corey White or Brian Dixon matched up on a team’s number one threat simply does not get the job done. Steve Smith – the man who always seems to burn the Saints – comes into the Superdome with the Ravens this Monday. The Saints will desperately want (and need) Keenan Lewis back for that matchup. The cornerbacks did at least offer the one bright spot on Sunday – Patrick Robinson turned in another very sound performance as the nickel back. He’s quietly becoming one of the most reliable members of this secondary, which is a long way from where he was earlier this season.

At the safety position, the performances were equally disappointing. Vaccaro was typically “over eager” and the usually reliable Rafael Bush struggled before sustaining his season ending injury. With Bush now out, the Saints are beginning to look extremely thin at safety. Camp Warrior Pierre Warren and recently acquired Jamarca Sanford seem the most likely prospective candidates to replace Bush on Monday night.

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With a disappointing Week 11 in the books, feel free to let us know whether you agree with these grades either in the comments below, or on our Twitter. Equally, if you’re interested in the rest of our Saints player grades then be sure to check our 2014 Saints Player Grades Archive.

At The BoiLa we’ll now be turning our attention towards another AFC North foe in the Baltimore Ravens. With that in mind, check back this weekend for our Week 12 Offensive and Defensive Previews to see what we’ve managed to glean from the tape of the Ravens season so far, as well as any weaknesses we can find that even the currently faltering New Orleans Saints should be looking to exploit come Monday.