The Saints are used to putting up big numbers.
But they’re used to doing it with their offense, not a defense that’s leaking at historic levels.
Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune details the avalanche of evidence that the Saints defense might be one of the worst ever.
The gave up 530 yards to the Broncos in last night’s loss, pushing their season total to 3,323 for the season.
That’s 474.7 per game, more than 50 yards per game worse than the merely awful Bills’ 424.1 average (which is only slightly worse than the Saints season-low of 421 allowed to the Packers in Week Four).
No team in league history has allowed as many yards to start the season as the Saints have en route to a 2-5 start, and they’ve given up at least 400 yards every week, and at least 500 in three of the past five.
So not only are they bad, but they’re getting worse. As Duncan points out, this isn’t a problem of scheme, rather a lack of players that are capable of tackling people, or even getting close enough to them to try.