The New Orleans Saints will try to bounce back from a five-game losing streak this Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, who are coming off a 17-15 loss on Monday night.
The Saints offense has looked like a shell of itself since week three, and there are no signs that things are going to get any better. Derek Carr is unlikely to play this week, Eric McCoy is still a couple weeks away from returning, Rashid Shaheed is out for the year, Taysom Hill will likely be questionable and Chris Olave is still in concussion protocol. Things are not looking up for the Saints offense, who has arguably their toughest challenge of the season coming up.
The Chargers defense enters this game as the No. 1 scoring defense in all of football. They’re giving up an average of 13.8 points per game, but are only 3-3 because of a lackluster offense. This unit is undoubtedly going to give Spencer Rattler (or Derek Carr) some issues this weekend.
The Chargers secondary might now have a ton of household names, but they’re playing their butts off right now. They rank 10th in passing yards allowed per game (184.2) and only have one CB who’s allowed over 100 yards this season. Kristian Fulton, Ja’Sir Taylor, Tarheeb Still, Asante Samuel Jr., Cam Hart, Elijah Molden and Derwin James form an elite secondary that are going to give the Saints receivers, whoever they end up being, hell on Sunday.
LA are also very efficient at stopping the run game. They allow 111.2 yards per game, which ranks 9th in the league. Their two edge rushers, Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, have been elite in run defense this year with both of them earning 92+ PFF grades in run defense. They also have Poona Ford on the inside that has swallowed up gaps in the run game. With the Saints injuries on the offensive line and their inability to get much of anything going on the ground since week two, I don’t see them having much success running the ball against the Chargers either.
The one area the Chargers defense struggles a bit is pass rushing. They have Mack and Bosa, who are two of the best in the business, but they haven’t been able to get opposing quarterbacks on the ground all that often. They rank 22nd in sacks per game (2.2) and Mack and Bosa have combined for just five sacks this year.
The Saints offensive line had only allowed five sacks on Carr through five games, but over their last two, Rattler has been sacked 11 times. Rattler is holding onto the ball for 2.86 seconds per drop back, which is the sixth longest among QBs with 100+ drop backs. For reference, Carr’s 2.57 seconds was the fourth shortest among QBs with 100+ drop backs.
The key to this game is trying to get anything going on the ground and getting the ball out of Rattler’s hands faster. If they can be successful on first down, whether that’s with a run or quick pass, you get out of obvious passing situations and you don’t allow Bosa or Mack to wreck your day.
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