Over the course of the first two weeks of the NFL regular season, the New Orleans Saints’ run defense has been hard to predict.
In the team’s matchup with the Detroit Lions, the defense allowed 165 rushing yards, including 156 to running back Jahmyr Gibbs. But in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, the Saints limited running back Derrick Henry and quarterback Lamar Jackson to just 108 rushing yards, aided by the Ravens’ curious decisions to get away from the run in the second half.
Now, the Saints’ defense faces another challenge in Las Vegas Raiders running back Asthon Jeanty, whose piled up 147 total yards including 102 on the ground.
But in Week 2, Jeanty only picked up 48 yards rushing against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Las Vegas will be looking for a bounce back game with its rushing attack against New Orleans. The Saints’ interior defensive line was underwhelming in limiting the run game up the middle, but the team’s edge defenders found success late against Henry last week.
That bodes well for New Orleans. Las Vegas ranks No.9 in the league in rushes outside of the tackle, per Next Gen Stats. On those runs, the Raiders average just 3.5 yards per carry (No. 26 in the league).
While New Orleans allows the sixth-highest rushing yards per carry between the tackles, the defense ranks No. 12 versus outside the tackles rushing attempts, for a slight improvement.
The Saints will need to continue improving upon that trend in Week 3 in order to control their home opener and win the time of possession battle.
