Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
While the offense struggled, the New Orleans Saints’ defense showed up for their Week 8 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Despite a 23-3 loss, the Saints’ defense surrendered only one offensive touchdown, forced a turnover on downs on a goal line stand and notched a takeaway on a strip sack. With their performances, several defensive players ranked atop the week’s Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades.
Meanwhile, the hapless offense has some startling names populating the lowest grades handed out by the analytics site.
Top Five
- DE Chase Young – 86.8
- S Justin Reid – 82.1
- DT Jonathan Bullard – 73.0
- CB Kool-Aid McKinstry – 72.7
- LB Demario Davis – 72.2
All of the top five grades awarded to players that appeared for 15 or more snaps were on defense. Young leads the way after notching 1.5 sacks while forcing and recovering a fumble against Tampa quarterback Baker Mayfield. Young was also a standout on run defense.
Reid looked to have put up one of his most impactful performances of the season. He was aggressive, flying to the ball with pace and making several stops. He was also credited with a sack by PFF. The veteran safety was credited as being the closest defender on two receptions, allowing just four yards in the process.
Bullard and Davis were each strong in the run game. Bullard is credited with a pair of defensive stops while Davis is credited with five. Davis’ 90.9 run defense grade was the team’s highest of the week.
McKinstry had one of the more impressive days, alongside Young. He had two pass breakups, both in the end zone on fade ball attempts. He also allowed only a 39.6 passer rating as the neatest defender with only two catches credited on seven targets for nine yards. McKinstry is stringing together some impressive performances after wrangling his first two career interceptions weeks ago against the New York Giants and winning NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
Bottom Five
- QB Spencer Rattler – 35.1
- DT John Ridgeway III – 40.0
- LG Trevor Penning – 47.5
- RB Alvin Kamara – 49.0
- WR Chris Olave – 51.5
Outside of Ridgeway, the team’s starting quarterback, starting left guard, star running back and top wide receiver all land on the bottom-five list. Not an ideal situation. Rattler was notably sat during the second half, as head coach Kellen Moore searched for a spark for the offense, Olave saw a pass careen off of his hands and into the attacking arms of Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. and Kamara gained 21 yards on the ground on just six carries. The Saints’ offense was all out of sorts on Sunday and the grades reflect it.
