Coach Killers, Week 2: Rob Ryan and his Saints defense are awful
Coach Killers is your weekly look around the league at those performances, decisions and "Wait, what did he just do?!" moments that put the guy in charge squarely on the ol' hot seat. Questions, comments, casserole ideas? Hit us up on Twitter at @ryanwilson_07.
Saints defense, Rob Ryan
It's two weeks into the season and we already have no idea what to make of the New Orleans Saints. They're 0-2 after road losses to the Falcons and the Browns, allowing 61 points in the process and raising questions about exactly what it is defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is doing with one of the most talented rosters in the league.
First in line with the "what the hell was that" look on his face: coach Sean Payton, who was understandably upset with Ryan after watching a Josh Gordon-less Browns team -- led by an undrafted free-agent quarterback who had been cut three times in his career -- march up and down the field while the Saints D seemed incapable of doing anything about it.
The nadir came on the last series with the Saints clinging to a 24-23 lead. The Browns had 2:46 on the clock with the ball on their own 4-yard line.
Twelve plays and 57 yards later, the Browns were looking at a 56-yard field goal. But on the very next play, a botched assignment in the Saints' secondary -- a recurring theme all afternoon -- left Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins so wide open he looked like he was taking a leisurely walk through an empty park.
Andrew Hawkins is what experts would call 'wide open.' (NFL Rewind)
We suppose it's only fitting that the Saints were flagged for defensive holding on the play, though, ironically, Hawkins walked untouched through the secondary on his way to the 28-yard reception. Six seconds later, Billy Cundiff converted the gimme game-winner and the Saints were staring 0-2 in the face.
By Monday, Ryan still had no answers for why nothing has gone right.
"Every two-minute situation we've had this year, we've blown," he said, referring to both halves of the Falcons and Browns games. "We want to be a great defense, and great defenses always finish. And that's something you just have to point the finger at us, and we have to get corrected."
On the Hawkins play highlighted above, there seemed to confusion just before the snap.
“You gotta be able to handle bunch (formation)," Payton said. "You gotta be able to handle receiver motion. I mean, shoot, when you play man-to-man like we do, you’re gonna get that.”
Ryan added: "These communication errors can't keep happening. Or we're just killing the team right now. We know we're solely responsible for the two losses that we have. Our offense has been doing great, our special teams have been doing great.
"Hey, we have some good effort in places, and we've got some guys playing well. But as a unit that we take pride in, we've definitely failed us two weeks in a row."
There was a time -- like three weeks ago -- when we made the case on the Eye on Football Podcast that the Saints had arguably the NFL's best secondary going into the season, even better than the Seahawks. But Keenan Lewis hasn't played up to his 2013 form, Patrick Robinson has already been benched and Jairus Byrd and Kenny Vaccaro have yet to be difference-makers.
Then again, maybe Ryan is the problem. He got his first defensive coordinator's job with the Raiders in 2004. Four teams and 10 seasons later, the results have been decidedly mediocre.
Rankings via Football Outsiders' defensive metrics:
Ryan with the Raiders, 2004-08
2004: 26th overall defense (30th pass, 28th run)
2005: 20th overall (27th, 14th)
2006: 8th overall (4th, 17th)
2007: 22nd overall (13th, 32nd)
2008: 19th overall (13th, 26th)
Ryan with the Browns, 2009-10
Browns, 2009: 30th overall (28th, 30th)
Browns, 2010: 18th overall (18th, 22nd)
Ryan with the Cowboys, 2011-12
2011: 16th overall (20th, 8th)
2012: 23rd overall (25th, 19th)
Ryan with the Saints, 2013-
Saints, 2013: 10th overall (6th, 20th)
Saints, 2014: 32nd overall (30th, 24th)
It's also instructive to look at how these defenses did in the season before Ryan arrived:
Raiders, 2003: 26th overall defense (27th pass, 21st run)
Browns, 2008: 20th overall (16th, 23rd)
Cowboys, 2010: 27th overall (28th, 11th)
Saints, 2012: 32nd (28th, 30th)
The takeaway: Other than last season, when Ryan turned around a terrible Saints defense under Steve Spagnuolo, there's nothing that suggests he's anything more than an average coordinator. If the Saints' defense is going to salvage this thing, it sounds like Kenny Powers needs to give himself another pep talk.
"Wow. I mean, you just nailed it. You just hit it on the head. You're saying I need to get back on top again. Yeah, man. I got to remember that I'm a winner, man. I need to remember that I AM better than everybody else. ... I'm a bullet-proof tiger, dude, and if everyone in this town has forgot who I am, then maybe it's time I remind 'em. Maybe it's time I remind everyone just who ... Kenny Powers is."
Matt Cassel, QB, Vikings
On Sunday, Cassel, who won the Vikings starting job in the preseason, looked a lot like the guy who will be backing up Teddy Bridgewater in the very near future. Against the Patriots, his former team, Cassel threw four interceptions. We've included the first three below.
Devin McCourty got the party started:
Then it was Darrelle Revis' turn:
Next up, Logan Ryan:
Finally, Patriots rookie defensive tackle Dominique Easley got in on the fun.
The only thing more predictable than Cassel throwing the ball to the other team: Vikings fans booing loudly between chants of "TED-DY! TED-DY!"
According to ESPN Stats & Info: three of the eight passes Cassel threw at least 10 yards in the air were interceptions and the other five fell incomplete. (Even Christian Ponder thinks this is terrible.)
It gets worse: "Cassel is 1-for-11 on such passes this season. It's the first time in at least six years that a quarterback has started in Weeks 1 and 2 without more than one such completion. ... All four of Cassel's interceptions came when in the pocket and while facing four pass-rushers. His QBR when facing standard pressure this season is 17.5, by far an NFL low."
Unlike Jacksonville, which has Blake Bortles, and a suspect offensive line that could get him killed, there's no good reason to keep Bridgewater on the bench. The rookie first-rounder looked good in preseason and while Cassel probably should have been the starter heading into the season, any such decision always came with the "this could change at any moment" disclaimer. No moment seems more obvious than now and not just for the on-field reasons.
The Vikings announced Monday that Adrian Peterson would return to practice and likely play this week. This is after he was deactivated Sunday following his arrest for "reckless or negligent injury to a child." Specifically, he beat his four-year-old son with a switch, leaving welts and bruises.
If the organization wants to control the message and change the story, announcing that Bridgewater is taking over for Cassel would certainly accomplish that, at least in the short term. (Of course, the Vikings could just do the right thing with Peterson and keep him on the bench. But that, clearly, ain't happening.)
Oakland Raiders -- all of them
This is about the most Raiders thing ever:
In related but wholly unsurprising news: coach Dennis Allen almost certainly won't have a job by January, and he'll probably lose it long before that.
“That’s a recipe to getting your butt kicked,” Allen said of the Raiders' four-turnover performance in the 30-14 loss to the Texans. “I told the players in there just now, only people that can change it are the people in that locker room, coaches and players. We’ve got to make a conscious decision that we want to get this thing changed. … We’ve got a lot of getting better to do and we need to do it in a short period of time.”
Shorter than you may realize, Dennis.
Dee Milliner, CB, Jets
Look, this isn't all about Milliner, but watching him getting toasted by Jordy Nelson on an 80-yard touchdown was emblematic of the Jets' afternoon in Green Bay:
If you told us Milliner had strapped on a pair of cement moon boots before the snap, we'd have no choice but to believe you. Either way, this is the self-proclaimed best cornerback in the league playing the position like he just learned how to walk earlier in the day.
(We have no problem with Milliner's preseason proclamation. What's he supposed to say, "I'm terrible and hopefully offense won't throw in my direction?" But it's probably in his best interest to pretend he didn't hear the question if it's put to him again.)
So what happened on the Nelson touchdown?
"He ran an out and up," Milliner said. "When he ran out, I jumped on it. But he sort of got in my blind spot. When I turned around to break on the out, he was going upfield."
Things don't get easier. The Jets' secondary will face Alshon Jeffery, Brandon Marshall this weekend.
Jaguars, Steelers no-show offenses
Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers' offense has struggled over the last six quarters. (USATSI)
Fun fact: the Jaguars and Steelers combined to outscore opponents 44-3 in over the first two quarters. In the six quarters since, they've been outscored 125-16. The Jags, who start Chad Henne and don't have much in the way of playmakers, have a legitimate excuse. The Steelers, meanwhile, do not.
Trent Richardson, RB, Colts
For the first time since joining the Colts last September, Richardson showed signs that he is, in fact, capable of gaining more than 2.9 yards per carry. In fact, in Monday night's loss against the Eagles, Richardson averaged a whopping 3.8 yards per carry, which is still terrible but encouraging in the same way we celebrated Tim Tebow completing a forward pass.
Richardson gained 79 yards on Monday night, his best single-game effort in a Colts' uniform (his previous high: 64 yards on 19 carries in last year's Week 15 win over the Texans) but he also had two fumbles, the last recovered by the Eagles in the third quarter of their comeback win.
We covered most of this in our MNF Takeaways post, but this is worth repeating here: Eagles all-everything back Darren Sproles had four rushes for 26 yards (including a 19-yard touchdown) and did most of his damage with seven receptions for 152 yards. Which leads us to this:
Indy's loss doesn't rest solely with Richardson, but we'll repeat what we've been saying for 12 months now: The Colts would be a much better team now if they used that first-round pick on an offensive linemen.
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