2011 New Orleans Saints Team Preview | NFL Predictions
The memories of the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl season in 2009 will last forever. The question however is whether or not the boys of the Big Easy will regain that magic in 2011.
2011 New Orleans Saints Team Preview/Predictions
2010 Record: 11-5
ATS Record: 7-9
The feel-good story of ’09 – and maybe the feel-good story of the past decade or two – ended unexpectedly and more than a little embarrassingly for the New Orleans Saints.
The defending Super Bowl champions came into Seattle to play the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a 7-9 record, and they got smacked in the mouth.
Will they answer in 2011?
In the 2011 NFL draft, the Saints decided to answer some of their defensive questions when they used five of their six picks on defensive players, but the one pick that wasn’t on the defensive side of the pigskin was used on former Heisman Trophy winner, running back Mark Ingram from Alabama.
The Saints are hoping that Ingram can help them get their offense back to their 2009 self instead of the product they saw in 2010. Even though New Orleans lost Reggie Bush to the Miami Dolphins, the addition of Darren Sproles should help the offensive attack.
Once again last year, the Saints were one of the most difficult offenses to stop. The reasons for this include the creative play calling by head coach Sean Payton and high-caliber play of Pro Bowl regular Drew Brees. One really impressive statistic for New Orleans is that it converted nearly half of its third downs, which ranked first in the NFL. When you do that, you are more likely than not going to win a lot of football games.
Brees finished the season with 4,620 passing yards and 33 touchdowns. As an offensive unit, the Saints finished sixth in total yards.
One of the things that makes the Saints special is that they don’t strictly rely on their offense; they have a pretty good defensive unit. In 2010 New Orleans was one of the hardest teams to throw on; the team’s defense allowed the fourth-smallest amount of yards through the air and the least amount of touchdowns, 13. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Sadly for New Orleans, injuries took their toll in 2010. The Saints went from the sixth-ranked rushing attack in 2009 all the way to 28th last season.
They were much less opportunistic on defense, falling from forcing 39 turnovers and having a +11 turnover differential in 2009, to forcing only 28 turnovers and an attendant minus-6 differential last year.
The main reason for such a dramatic turnaround was highlighted by a career high 23 interceptions by Brees, which ranked him second worst in football. Also, the pass defense wasn’t able to pick off opposing quarterbacks. The Saints had only nine interceptions on the season.
The NFC South might be the hardest division to win in 2011. The Atlanta Falcons are coming off a 13 win season and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were also much improved in 2009 when they recorded 10 wins. Luckily the toughness of their division is offset a little by being given the gift of playing the Carolina Panthers twice.
Still, at the end of the day, the NFC South will come down to the Saints and the Falcons and it’s hard to see Brees and company falling short two years in a row.
2011 Saints Futures
Super Bowl Odds: +1615
Conference Odds: +725
NFC South Odds: +125
2011-2012 NFL Regular Season Wins: Over 10
2011 Saints Predictions
Place they’ll finish in NFC South: 1st
Place they’ll finish in NFC Conference: 2nd
Over/Under Wins Prediction: OVER
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