The Saints Defense

[Beast_from_East]

I watched the Saints Colts game. I am wondering if anyone else thinks maybe we were a bit hasty in dismissing Rob Ryan?

Garrett needed a scapegoat.................enter exhibit A, Rob Ryan.


Funny how the same folks that say Garrett cant be judged properly because of all the injuries dont have a problem with Ryan being shown the door when he had guys that were working at Home Depot on Wednesday, suiting up and playing on Sunday. Not calling anybody out, just making an observation.

 

[CCBoy]

And surprise, the grassy knoll was a landing zone for illegal aliens and as soon as the release of government information is allowed in 100 more years...we'll also learn about alien abductions as well. You bet...in another 100 years. They hired Sasquatch to protect the documents in an outlying area. Yea there's an unknown cave with lake and waterfall at the location.

I guess you guys are correct...when Buddy Ryan looses his excess weight, his kids will look the parts.

 

[Risen Star]

Didn't make sense then, still doesn't.

He was a scapegoat for the owner.

It was absolutely a mistake.

 

[WPBCowboysFan]

Rob Ryan was fired for what he accomplished in Dallas. What he is doing in New Orleans has nothing to do with whether or not it was a good decision to fire him here. He didnt get it done here - thats why he was fired.

Rob was the ring master for the confusion and chaos we saw from the players on defense during his tenure. Players didnt know where to line up. Often it seemed as if they were lost, and not even knowing when they should be on the field.

It wasnt a mistake because it was based on what he did while here.

 

[casmith07]

I was for Rob Ryan going. His unit was underachieving. If they ever played as good as the Aint's did their 1st year with inferior talent? He wouldn't have been fired. But when you're on the sidelines creating a circus and being a character and your unit is one of the worst in the league? You have to go......

Now I wasn't against switching the 3-4. That was silly.

Best said.

 

[kevm3]

We had a top 10 defense until everyone got injured. Garrett needed a scapegoat and that was it... Marinelli probably will be the scapegoat this year.

 

[Cumart21]

If in fact he occasionally missed and was late to meetings, coupled with how they performed, I don't necessarily have a huge problem with it. Although, it was by far, more of a personnel issue than a coaching issue. The guy had nothing to work with. I was always for his unpredictable style of defense as opposed to the Kiffin 4-3, which is the polar opposite. Regardless of the system though, it always comes down to personnel. An area where the Cowboys are severely limited.

 

[lostar2009]

I watched the Saints Colts game. I am wondering if anyone else thinks maybe we were a bit hasty in dismissing Rob Ryan?

RR was a scape goat for Romo failures.

 

[morasp]

I watched the Saints Colts game. I am wondering if anyone else thinks maybe we were a bit hasty in dismissing Rob Ryan?

The series I watched, the Saints D didn't look very good. Luck made them look silly. They couldn't stop the run made silly penalties, and didn't get a sack.

 

[NJ22]

I watched the Saints Colts game. I am wondering if anyone else thinks maybe we were a bit hasty in dismissing Rob Ryan?

Well here is the thing, if he was still here the D would still suck. No matter who you have at the coordinator spots the team still takes on their identity from the head coach so they would still be soft and undisciplined. Ryan, Kiffin, Callahan and Marinelli are all accomplished coordinators and i am sure they did not all come here and forget how to coach.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

RR was a scape goat for Romo failures.

And welcome to the ignore list. Best feature of all time.

 

[lostar2009]

And welcome to the ignore list. Best feature of all time.

Sure no problem I'll add you to it...and ughh. your the one replying to me buddy.

 

[WPBCowboysFan]

And welcome to the ignore list. Best feature of all time.

 

[Chopzley]

He got exposed against the Pats last year though.
YR

Not really. The Saints D held Brady to a less than 50% completion percentage, 1TD/1 Int, and around 200 passing yards up until the 2:00 warning. The only thing that was exposed was Payton's play calling and the Saints run game, which had TWO separate opportunities to close out the game with a first down conversion, but failed miserably. The game winning TD was a beautifully thrown ball, on a series with several questionable no calls on the Pats O-Line

 

[Chopzley]

 

[WPBCowboysFan]

Thats legal for teams like the Pats and Steelers, is it not?

 

[Chopzley]

You Sir, are absolutely correct!

 

[DallasEast]

For some unknown reason, I look at that picture and think of all the times Greg Maddux would throw pitches 18 inches or more outside the plate, the batter wouldn't move, and the umpire would call "STRIKE!"

 

[Hoofbite]

There's no doubt the wrong decision was made. It didn't make any sense when it happened, and after seeing how much the defense declined in just about every area except for turnovers it's entirely obvious he wasn't the problem.

If you account for the points when other teams scored while the Dallas' defense was on the sideline (KR, PR, INT, Fumble) and compare Rob's years to the combination of Wade & Kiffin, Rob's defense is 4 points better per week.

 

[Chopzley]

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2014/08/rob_ryan_tab.html

"Wherever you go in the NFL, the biggest thing a coach has to know is that the players are the most important thing. It's players over scheme," Ryan said. "What the coaches have to do, if they're going to stay coaching, and I've been coaching for a while now ... you better be able to adapt your system to your players. If you can't do that, I don't think you're going to be there long."

Ryan has learned lesson that the hard way. He was fired after only two years as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.

The team gave up an average of 312.5 yards per game in the first half of his last season. But they lost five starters and two important backups to injuries, while some of their other starters were playing hobbled.

By the last eight games, they were yielding 398 yards a contest.

"In Dallas, man, I had an entirely different defense. It was crazy. We had one of the best defenses in the league. Then it was devastated, it was just ravished with injuries," Ryan said. "We had guys playing off the street. It killed every statistical thing we had going for us. We were at the top of everything. It didn't finish that way during the last four weeks of the season."

The point was, Ryan explained, excuses mean nothing in the NFL. He didn't forget that lesson when he was hired by New Orleans.

"The thing I learned there is that nobody cares what you have out there. You better be able to adapt with what you have," he said. "And its a testament to our scouting staff that what we had last year, with the injuries, we have good players all over this roster. And that's something we didn't really have in Dallas. So when the injuries hit, we weren't devastated, we just kind of moved on."

For every injury the Saints had in 2013, Ryan figured out a way to combat it. Outside linebackers Victor Butler and Will Smith went down with knee injuries before the season began.

Defensive end Kenyon Coleman tore a pectoral muscle and never played a snap. Middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma (knee) played only one game, and cornerback Patrick Robinson (patella) went down in Week 2. Cornerback Jabari Greer suffered a horrific knee injury vs. the 49ers midway through the season.

So Ryan adapted. He and coach Sean Payton came up with the idea to play more three and four-safety sets.