The Entire New Orleans Saints Defense

The New Orleans Saints defense has taken their lumps this season. They’ve taken their lumps for several seasons. To be perfectly honest, this defense has been bad for several years now. But tonight was a different story. On a night where it would have been easy for them to fold, they bucked up and showed a side they haven’t shown in a long, long time.

The game got off to a rough start for the Saints defense, losing last year’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in Marshon Lattimore. With the injuries this defense has already suffered, it would have been easy for them to pack it in and put this game on the shoulders of Drew Brees and the offense, as they’ve done so often before.

But instead of folding, the Saints defense turned it up. And did so in a big way. First round pick Marcus Davenport introduced himself to Washington quarterback Alex Smith, forcing a huge fumble. Davenport was in the backfield all night, making his presence known and finally giving the Saints defense a legitimate threat across from Cam Jordan.

It wasn’t all Davenport and Jordan. Far from it. This was a total team effort to keep Alex Smith under 300 yards passing, the Washington rushing attack under 40 yards, and the offense under 20 points. An incredible job by one of the worst defenses in the league. If the Saints can build on this and become even an average defense, they have the offensive firepower to challenge teams like the Los Angeles Rams.