The Saints are dealing with several injuries in their secondary at the moment, which makes it hard to find the right players to slow down opposing passing games.
One way to alleviate the pressure on the defensive backfield is to generate a strong enough pass rush that quarterbacks don’t have time to find holes to exploit, but the Saints weren’t able to get enough of one going to satisfy coach Sean Payton in their 31-19 Week One loss to the Cardinals.
Payton said the pressure “wasn’t good enough” and cited Arizona’s first touchdown, which came when Carson Palmer threw to John Brown after camping out in the pocket far too long.
“We had some hurries and some pressures, but, obviously, when a quarterback can have that kind of time, the very first touchdown, the quarterback, Carson Palmer, flushes to the right, and if you count and you watch, and you watch, and you watch, that wasn’t like five Mississippi, that was like nine,” Payton said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “So that’s hard to play back-end defense if we can’t get to that player quicker and not give him that type of time.”
It wasn’t hard to see pass rush being an area of concern when the Saints decided to release Junior Galette this summer and the team is going to need second-round pick Hau’oli Kikaha to make a quick transition to the NFL after recording 19 sacks in his final collegiate season.